Home > Consumer Reviews > Cobra PR 1100 GMRS 2-Way Radio

I've had 2 Cobra FRS-250 radios for several years, and I loved them. Being impressed with their quality, functionality and performance on ski slopes, I decided to stick with the brand and purchased a pair of PR-1100 when I needed 2 more radios. After some time of use, here are my impressions:

Pros:

- Very good effective range. The signal was strong enough to punch through 22 stories of a concrete building! I can also communicate between 2 buildings about 2 miles away from each other, through multiple walls on each end.

- Full coverage of FRS band for full compatibility with FRS radios.

- Traditional Cobra signal strength meter.

- Pretty good sound quality.

- Switchable transmitter output between 500 mW and full 2 W on GMRS channels

- Long battery life.

- Useful features like 10 NOAA weather channels.

Cons:

-The functions are hard to get to. For example, it takes 7 presses of the Mode button to get to the scan function that I use fairly often, 10 presses to disable the roger beep, 12 presses to get to the stopwatch.

- Useless gadgets like compass, clock, and stopwatch that serve no practical purpose but overcomplicate the menu, making it harder to get to useful features like scaner and channel memory.

- For some stupid reason, Cobra decided not to use their traditional cradle charging system in this model. Even though the radio can use the same FA-BP NiMH battery pack as most other Cobra radios, it cannot be charged in a standard Cobra charger such as FA-CR because it lacks metal contacts on the back of the battery compartment. The included wall charger must be used instead.

- The charger is not a rapid charger, and it takes up to 18 hours to fully charge the battery. Other Cobra radios that use the FA-CR cradle can be rapid charged in 2 hours!

- To make matters worse, the radio turns off when the charger is plugged in, which renders it unuseable while the battery is being charged - for 18 hours!!! It is impossible to have it on a continuous stand-by, unless you are willing to take your new radio apart and disable the autoturnoff feature by soldering together 2 contacts in the charger jack, like I did.

- When you take the radio apart, you discover that there is no way in hell it can be waterproof. Splashproof? Maybe. Waterproof? Nah. There's a rubber gasket around the battery compartment, but this is only there to impress the user. There are no gaskets between the two plastic halves of the case, and the seams will inevitably leak. Submerge it in water for 5 seconds and see what happens, I dare you!

- Transmission volume is not very loud. You need to hold the unit close to your face and speak up. The mic gain is insufficient and non-adjustable.

- No removeable antenna.

- No privacy (voice scramble) feature that old Cobra FRS radios used to have. Looks like Cobra is not offering it in any of the new models. A shame.

The verdict:

A poorly engineered, cheaply made, hard to use but fairly functional FRS/GMRS radio.

I wanted a sleek sports radio ..which is was atleast water proof
Cobra 1100 is an excellent choice...

the good -

Good GMRS range
good looks .. sleek ..
selection of power between 0.5 to 2 watts..which is important as in to conserve battery juice when u require it the most...
standard aaa nimh batteries used... which you could buy elsewhere .. batteries can be charged within the unit itself..
its got a digital compass .. another good feature u could use in the outdoors.. not much of use though ..especially since i would carry a GPS where i really need navigation... not bad for "just in case" situation..
the price is also pretty justified .. i would say if not a steal .. its a good buy..

other radios i looked at had some basic problems... either they were limited to 1 watt power .. or did not have recharging facility in the unit itself.. considering all the other options i looked at this seemed to be the best buy ... money to performance ratio .. :)

Loaded with all the bells and whistles. Very rugged. Lots of range and water resistant. I've used lots of radios and I have to say these are my favorite.

Hi!

I have obtained pair of PR1100 for about $65 via eBay few weeks ago. Because I've read that Cobra antennas are not very good I have done little modification - I have installed a socket for removable antenna (simply using glue). Instead of small 7cm lengh Cobra antenna I installed 5/8 selfdone telescopic antenna. In full size it has about 37cm and in short size it is about 14cm. Before giving detailed data about range few remarks about features:
- PR1100 seems to be PR950 with compass installed (the same circuit board - only compass module installed)
- compass - rather toy (only 8 positions - N, NW, W, ...) - for the difference in price between PR950 and PR1100 Cobra could install full 360deg compass I think
- vibra aler, bells, memory, scann - very usefull
- VOX - super - I will use it as baby-phone
- sound quality - very good - if You plug in simply walkman earphones and Your wife is wispering to You when You are walking along beach is amaizing experience :)
- charg socket - very usefull but it takes long time to charge bateries
- assuming that Cobra gave 2W output power on 4 1.5V bateries (6V) installing 4 rechargable bateries (1.2V) gives 4.8 V (80%). So the power is about 64% (1.3W)
- power indicator is very fine but using rachargable batteries You can see that indicator shows 4 dashes and few minutes later 1 and radio displays "battery low" - but it is common rachargable batteries parameter
So now about tests:
- I did it on the Polish seaside - my wife with my 8 months old son were standing on the little hill in town Wladyslawowo and me with my father were driving along cape Hel - all test were done with me standing by the water - so there were no obstacles - only water. Wether - a little bit foggy
- 1st point was about 3.8km - short antennas and low power gave 1 dash, long antennas and low power 2, and long antennas and high power 3 dashes on level indicator
- 2nd point was in town Chalupy 6.5km - long antenna and high power 2 dashes (in car 0 dashes - only antenna icon was blinking)
- 3rd point was near town Kuznice - 10km - long antenna, high power - 1/2 dashes
- 4th point was neat town Jastarnia - 15km - long antenna, hing power - 0/1 dash
- the last point was behind Jastarnia - 18km - no response from my wife - but the was obstacle (small headland) and my wife complained that radio showed battery low.
- probably max range (using range extender button - removing squelch) is about 20km

On the beach - 3km - long antennas, high power - radio showed 1/2 dashes - I had no force to walk farther with my son sitting on m shoulders :)

In the city - difficult to say - because each building changes the range extremly - for example, when my wife is sitting in our flat on 3rd floor, the windows are situated on East/West walls and I'm in the park which is on the south we can achieve only 1.2km. Now I'm thinking about installing outdoor antenna.

In few words - I recommend this radio!

regards

Marek
PS. Thanks to my wife Beata who has to survive with my hobby :)

I've had a pair of these radios for several months and haven't had any problems at all with them. The noaa weather radio feature was very important and comes in very well.