>>1699272>Does /out/ carry a radio?No. got one in my car, but hardly use it.
>Are they useful beyond being gadgets?Depends on what you use it for and where you are.
They're good for communication in groups (organized hunts, woodwork etc). Also when travelling in convoy, though that only works if your engine doesn't jam the frequency - on my samurai for example, turning on the windshieldwipers means I can't use the radio.
You can also use them for long-range communications with a base, provided you're either in flat land or have repeaters in range.
For emergency calls, they're unreliable - if you have organized emergency response in your country, they might be an option, but reaching some random guy is pure chance. satphones are better for this.
Finally, for conversation with random people around, they're virtually useless - most people don't carry radios, and even if they do, they're most likely not going to be on the calling freq or even the same system. The times when you could reach all truckers on ch9, all offroaders on ch16 and all fixed stations on ch1 (german standards, other countries might be different) are over.
