Hands-on with the Motorola Tlkr T7 radios

Charlie November Echo Tango, this is Crave, do it to us, over. We got ourselves a couple of chopped-top CBs from Motorola -- aka the Tlkr T7 series -- so you'll have to put up with the radio slang. Sorry. Over.

The T7 is a serious piece of kit. It's about as powerful a walkie-talkie as you can buy without requiring a special licence or unwittingly interfering with the emergency services, and in optimal conditions, two or more handsets can communicate up to 10km apart.

We recently came back from testing these bad boys out in the Italian Alps, where they performed flawlessly. Those of us who braved the top of the 4km-high Matterhorn were able to effortlessly taunt those who'd stayed at the base of the mountain because they'd injured themselves on the previous day's snowboarding. We were even able to talk to those in the group with lesser walkie-talkies and felt pretty secure in the knowledge that we could alert the authorities if we fell over and broke something.

Performance wasn't as effective in built-up areas, understandably. Interference from other radio signals and buildings dropped the range to around 1km in our tests, but we were able to order drinks with colleagues in a pub approximately that far away. Your mileage will vary, of course, but we think you'll like the T7s. They perform well, have a serious-looking but attractive grey finish, and have a long battery life of approximately 16 hours.

If you want to keep in touch with mates while you're on holiday, or you just want to look like you're in the secret service, the T7s more than justify their £65 price tag. Over and out.