I have midland LXT 490 radios. My friend is only two miles away bird flight away, and it is relatively flat...We can't hear eachother even though we are on the same channel and frequency. What is the strongest frequency and best type for us to be on? Dcs Ctccs? Thankyou

https://midlandusa.com/two-way-radios/support/owner-manuals/

The problem is related the polarization of the two antennas you and your friend are using. You are using a dipole antenna which is polarized horizontally and you friends using an upsidedown whip which is vertically polarized. My advice is as close as you are, is hang your dipole from something high enough that the top say is hung in a tree or off a tower and other end of the dipole is attached to an anchor in the ground. You have basically made a full wavelength vertical, which you friend should build himself.

First of all, how far are you from your friend? Second, he does not hear you but does he hear anyone else on his radio? If not, he might have a receive problem with his station but it's not his antenna. If he hears other traffic, your signal does not get out. If you don't have anyone else in the area, swap antennae with your friend and this will tell you if it's antenna related or radio related. Let me know what you find out or give me more info! Good luck!

if they weren't to expensive I'd buy new ones.

These are FRS/GMRS (Family Radio Service/ General Mobile Radio Service) radios. The legal power limit for FRS is 500 milliwatts - or 1/2 watt. GMRS on the other hand is limited to a much higher 50 watt level. The wattage you transmit determines if you need to have a GMRS license. Most GMRS radios are in the .5- 5 watt range however.

The likelihood of your XT20 being a 1/2 watt out on both FRS & GMRS is very good. For Midland (or anyone else for that matter) to produce a radio with a 1 watt output that can run on just 3 "AAA" batteries would be quite the feat! If Midland did do this, the radio's battery life would extremely short. To balance the needs of light weight and battery life, output power needs to be reduced.

Claims of 20 miles is crazy. If you had these radios on mountain tops 20 miles apart - with a clear line of sight between them - MAYBE - you could hear one on the other. This would need to be done under only the most ideal conditions. The actual distance you can expect to get out of a pair of any brand FRS radios in "real world" conditions (line of sight blocked by trees and buildings) is about a mile.

An FRS/GMRS radio limited to 1/2 watt output when used on a GMRS frequency that is close enough to access a GMRS repeater system could easily cover 20+ miles. The key here is having a license and access to the repeater. Repeater owners take a dim view of unlicensed users access their repeater.

Channels 1 thru 7 are FRS and GMRS. That is, if transmitting .5 watts, you can use it as FRS. If transmitting more than .5 watts, you will need a valid GMRS license.

Channels 8 - 14 are expressly for FRS. Only .5 watts transmit power is permitted.

Channels 15 - 22 are expressly for GMRS at any transmit power up to 50 watts. Even if transmitting .5 watts, you MUST have a valid GMRS license on these frequencies.

I know - more infor than you wanted and no vclear cut number for wattage - but there's no info on these radios on Midland's site or anywhere else that I could find. Good luck!

check the SWR. the antenna may not be tuned. Also, you may be hearing skip. If so, they are thousands of miles away, and you don't have enough power to talk to them.

Find some one close to test it.

1. Remove the belt clip from the back of the radio. (Push spring clip at the top away from the radio, then slide the belt clip up and off).
2. Remove the battery cover by pressing down on the top center and sliding the cover down and off the radio.

Need the manual for your radios? You can download and print it, at no cost, here:

http://www.buytwowayradios.com/Products/Midland/manuals/LXT-110-manual.pdf

The number of miles stated on the package pertain to the approximate distance you can contact somebody IF you were in an open field.

Keep in mind these radio signals travel by air, and if we have trees, houses, and tall buildings around us, the signals will meet interference and bounce around before reaching their destination.

In an urban area, the most you'll get is about 1 mile. I have the exact same radios as you, the LXT 326 model with black and blue on it, and I can use it to talk to family with a radius of about three blocks in every direction from my house. After that, the messages have a lot of static and are no longer understandable.

i need a manual for a lxt 322 2 way radio and it just had AAA batteries in it is that okay?

Here is a link to the owners manual for the LXT-330 420 Series radio:

http://www.hitechwireless.com/pdf/Midland/LXT-330-420 Owners Manual.pdf

I hope this helps.

HiTechWireless.com