Midland 22-Channel GMRS 2pk

I bought these (6 total radios) for my five man high school football officiating crew. I also bought the "surveillance" style earpieces with a push to talk button for each radio. We have used them five times so far and my entire crew loves them. We attach the radio to our belts on our backsides, connect the wire to the radio, and run the wire up through the shirt and over the shoulder to the front zipper. The push to talk (PTT) button, with its built in microphone, comes through the front zipper on the shirt and is attached to the collar. The earpiece fits nicely and comfortably over the ear with a small plug that inserts into the ear. Only a very short section of the wire is exposed outside of the shirt and does not get in the way.It is very easy to push the PTT button by just reaching up to my collar and squeezing the small unit with the PTT button on one side. I am the referee on the crew and often also have a separate stadium PA system microphone attached to my body. So far it has not been a problem - I have not confused the crew radio with the stadium microphone. That could be very potentially embarrassing if I did! I keep the crew radio on my left side and when I have a stadium microphone, I attach it to my right side. So it is very easy to keep them separated.The earpiece is small and is not intrusive to the ear. It stays in the ear and is not uncomfortable even after several hours.The battery life has not been a problem. I make sure the radios are fully charged before each game. We have used them on high power every time so far and have not seen a low battery indicator by the end of the game (there is no battery level indicator until the battery is low so there is no way to know how much battery power is left). Our longest game so far lasted 4:17 hours. The batteries did not indicate low by the end of the game. We had a two hour lightening delay and kept the radios on during the delay to monitor the weather and communicate with each other during the delay. The radios were very handy because three of the officials accompanied the teams back to the locker rooms at the school (about a 10 minute walk from the field) while two of us stayed at the field to monitor the lightening in the sky. We were able to radio each other during the delay so we could easily keep the teams informed as to how much longer the delay would last. In Ohio, there is an automatic 30 minute delay each time we either see lightening or hear thunder. The 30 minute clock was reset several times and the radios made it very easy to notify my fellow officials at the school each time we restarted the 30 minute clock. Both teams appreciated this up to the second information. Near the end of the delay, when I hadn't seen lightening for 20 minutes, we were able to have the teams start the walk back over to the field so that they would be able to walk onto the field as the final 30 minute delay expired. In that way, the radios helped us to keep the game on time as much as possible.I did have some difficulty hearing my fellow officials this past Friday night at a game. It was the largest crowd we have had so far this season and the noise was in the stadium was loud. We managed even with this problem but there were times when I had no idea what was being said.Occasionally we also have two officials talking at the same time. When that happens, you cannot hear either one - it just sounds garbled. I don't know how to fix that problem other than to ask one of them to repeat what they just said.These radios do not have privacy codes. That was one of my concerns before purchasing them. I was afraid that someone else in the area or in the stadium might start interfering with our communications. So far that has not happened. But it is a risk. I also have to warn the crew each week to be careful what they say because the radios are public - anyone with the proper equipment within broadcast range can hear what we say.There are better radio systems for football officials available on the market. Even wireless systems. But they are more expensive. I spent a total of $160 for 6 of these radios plus 6 of the surveillance style earpieces. Considering that high school football officials don't get paid much money, I thought that was a reasonable expense to incur in order to make our jobs much easier. So far, I think it was money well spent.The biggest problem I have had so far is keeping one certain member of my crew from dominating use of the radios! He won't shut up. But that isn't a problem with the radios. LOL.