I know some walkie-talkies I've used as a kid picked up chatter from truckers, though I'd rarely understand any of it due to the quality of the signal it picked up. The only new part here seems to be that the kid heard something not so kid-appropriate.

"You can still buy the magic trucker-talkies from Walmart, but your odds of picking up drive-by chatter are probably slim."

Damn!

My guess is that the factory in Red China that made the toy had lax quality control and some components for something else got stuck in it. At least it isn't testing positive for lead.

I don't think this is exclusive to this particular walkie-talkie. Twenty years ago (I'm thirty now), my next-door neighbor had a toy walkie-talkie that did the same thing.

It's a learning experience isn't it not? Did they speak in spanish as well?

I don't think this is exclusive to this particular walkie-talkie. Twenty years ago (I'm thirty now), my next-door neighbor had a toy walkie-talkie that could do the same thing.

Now Tot Wants Pot And Strippers

Who doesn't?

Someone please think of the children!!!

This is not Fisher Price's fault. This is the fault of truckers "working skip" illegally. Those walkie talkies operate at 49-50 MHz (and they obviously are tuned right otherwise she would have returned them), so a trucker would have to be tuning down to 24.5-25 MHz, which is almost unheard of but not out of the realm of possibility. Blame the FCC (whose enforcement is probably poorly funded), the industries selling illegal add-ons, and the truckers themselves.

"I'd just hate for little kids to be hearing things like that, and I thought maybe they didn't know."

That's why you're supposed to supervise them.

Ye canna change the laws of physics cap'n!

This is going to happen sometimes. Radios sometimes pick up signals from hundreds of miles away. TVs sometimes start transmitting SOS signals (completely true story). That ubiquotus FCC copy you see on every electronic device is there because this stuff happen and manufacturers have to try and prevent it. But they can't stop every radio signal in the universe...

As a trucker I have to say that I am really fucking tired of hearing these kids talking about their my little ponies and care bears over the CB. This is getting out of hand. I was trying to route my diesel rig through the Sierra overpass and all I could hear was "I made a big poopy. Where's my Barney doll?"

Damn you Fisher Price!

@twophrasebark:

physics?

@twophrasebark:

He he... best I've read today!

This story is a farce. Truckers don't smoke pot. They're all about the blow.

At least it's not like a Chatty-Kathy doll that swears, or a barbie that says, among other thing "Math is hard"

But it'll probably make the 11:00 news tonight

Too funny. Can't shelter your kids-c'mon they'll find out about that stuff eventually

And how on earth is this fisher-price's fault? Sit down and talk to your kids about marijuana. And supervise them. And know that the little walkie-talkies will pick up radio signals from outside the microcosm of your house

There are only a few bands that cheap, unlicensed radios can use. There's the citizens' band, the FRS band, and the 49-50 MHz band. The fact is anyone can transmit in these bands, for any reason; there's nothing Fisher Price can do about it. The FCC has also been extremely lax about enforcing limits on these devices; it's not uncommon to find truckers running far more than the 5-watt legal power limit on their CBs, for example.

I used to have fun with starngers on walkie talkies when I worked in a toy store. Our intercom system was broken, so we were using walkie talkies to communicate between the storefront and the back room, and we would oaccaionally get locals on their walkie talkies.

Ironically, the people we picked up were generally far more obnoxious than we were, and we were really trying.

Oh, and it's not surprising that a walkie talkie with a 250' range picked up a signal from 270 miles away. The walkie talkie's transmitter probably puts out about 1/10th of a watt. It's not uncommon for truckers using "kickers" (linear amplifiers) to transmit with 1000 times that much power.

@timmus:

I don't think it's so much that the FFCC is underfunded, it's just that they are too busy trying to keep people from saying naughty words and showing boobies on tv to go after other things.

FisherPrice can't do anything about more than Motorola can.

Kids these days have all the fun!

Did one of the truckers happen to go by the name 'Large Marge'? Maybe these things pick up EVP :)

We had some GE Walkie Talkies that interfered with the local airport. We were told not to use them any more.

So we took them to my grandmother's house and used them there.

@TomCruisesTesticles: True. Which is why i'm sick and tired of these moms trying to make sure their kids will never hear the word "ass" .

This reminds me of the drinking straw story "That one looks like a rocket. Which obviously looks like a phallus!"

Ignore me. I'm annoyed.

@Orv: exactly right; truckers are operating the CB's illegally with amp's that far exceed the licensed spectrum...but who's gonna do anything about it? The FCC? That'll be the day! The CB spectrum went downhill when the FCC stopped requiring licenses to operate on it.

"...Candy Cane..."

"Mommy, some man named Rusty Nail said for you to meet him at a motel later. I told him you were cooking dinner, but he didn't believe me, so he's on his way over."

When I was a kid, Walkie Talkies commonly were tuned to CB Channel 14 (27.125 MHz), so hearing a CB radio transmission is not out of the question. A number of scenerios exist that could have caused the transmission be be received 200+ miles away 1) Ground Elevation of the Walkie Talkie and/or the truckers, 2) Illegal line amplifiers used by the truckers, 3) Radio bounce off of the atmosphere (HAM radio operators can easily talk with each other on other sides of the world using this phenomenon, so 200 miles is not that significant 4)Perhaps the trucker was not on the PA turnpike, and was instead on the highway 1/2 mile away from the house and they were speaking in the past tense (I WAS on the PA turnpike when I got high at a strip club...).

The 20' limit is only for transmission, not receive. Walkie talkies, just like any other radio receiver can receive a signal from any distance away as long as the signal is strong enough.

If you are concerned about what you will hear on an unlicensed radio frequency, buy a set of FRS radios, tune them to an unused channel, and turn on the privacy code. This minimizes the chance of someone barging in on your conversation. If you are paranoid, buy a set of licensed radios and obtain a license from the FCC, then you and you alone are the only ones that can talk on the frequency.

The walkies talkies that I had as a kid picked up some mighty strange conversations. I didn't tell my mom but that is how I learned certain sexual phrases as I overheard a trucker who was arranging his date with a working girl.

Yep, I could see how this would be a problem for a pre-K kiddie.

@Rachacha:

If you are paranoid, buy a set of licensed radios and obtain a license from the FCC, then you and you alone are the only ones that can talk on the frequency.

But keep in mind that anyone can still listen to that frequency, and someone probably is.

@Rachacha: Bingo, my friend. As an old ham guy, we could talk around the world on the 10 meter band (which is a slightly higher frequency than CB, the 11 meter band,) but considering that the solar cycle is at the low end (only in the 60s) these guys were probably running big radios (read: small peenees.) When the sunspots are high, I could easily talk for thousands of miles only running 5 watts (max legal CB output is 4 watts.)

I work as a mechanic for a trucking company, and I don't know why truckers would ever mention drugs and/or strippers. It's all about the Lot Lizards! Hello, herpes knockin' on the door. Make sure you don't knock over their "storage" bottles.
I actually dread it when I see them walking my way. There are only a few that I enjoy having a conversation with.

Heh, I remember picking up trucker's chatter on a walkie talkie when I was a kid. Hiding in my room, I would speak obscenities into the walkie talkie just to see if I got a response. Then one time, somebody told me to shut the f*** up. Freaked me out, it did!

the only reason I liked walkie talkies when I was a kid was becasue of this lol. That and listening in on the neighbors phonecalls with my cordless phone. So awesome.

Where was this toy when I was a kid. =(

I don't want to play Blame the Customer here... but are we really at the point where we blame companies for products that work better than advertised?

You know what, good for mom for not jumping on the I-done-been-damaged-so-I-gotsta-sue bandwagon.

@InThrees: Yea, no kidding. The walkie talkies I had when I was a kid barely worked five feet from each other, never mind picking up signals miles away.

As a HAM, I can say there is not a lot they can do unless they move to the FRS system which has a very limited range in the UHF band. The toy in question prolly uses CB channel 14 which is in the 11 meter band. This high frequency band is used (when the solar cycle is good) to talk around the world. At this time the solar cycle is at its bottom and that band is worthless for long distance. The truckers were prolly local or running some illegal power.

@B: Depending on when in the solar cycle you used them, then can talk line of sight or thousands of miles (at the solar cycle peak).

Seems like CB use is way in decline these days, so FCC policing of it is probably a low priority. I'm lucky if I can pick up chatter on a single channel with my scanner and odds are it's in Spanish.

I LOVED my walkie talkie when I was a kid. I often picked up chatter on my wt while I was secretly listening to it under the covers late at night. It was the late 70s and cb radios were popular and I overheard loads of ridiculous crap that would've enraged my mom. I never told her or my snitch brother what I was doing because I didn't want my fav toy getting splintered under the meat tenderizer mallett.

Three year olds have no clue what "pot" is except they make a great noise when you clange a couple together while sitting on the kitchen floor. The worst that'll happen is he'll repeat what he heard at an inopportune moment (like at church).

I can understand she wants to keep the big bad world at bay.

At least they didn't have to sacrifice toasters to pick up the truckers.

@Dakota Courtois: And by that, I mean the Phone Losers of America "Sacrificial Toasters" gag, where you could obtain a crystal for a CB radio to transmit on drive-through frequencies.

@TomCruisesTesticles: We had a baby monitor for my grandson that picked up my neighbors cell phone calls, but I sure didn't blame the makers of the monitor, however I believe it was Fisher Price. Sometimes his cell phone calls broadcast over my tv as well. I file that under the "shit happens" category, really nobodys fault

@Cyclokitty: church seems to be the favorite place for them to say things like that.
My daughter overheard me explaining the facts of life to my son, he was about 8 or 9, and she was 5 or 6. My son wanted details, and I felt as soon as they asked the question they should get the answer. The following Sunday I left the church building to pick the kids up from Sunday School, and my daughters teacher was standing outside the door with a look that could kill... Yes, my daughter decided to tell her Sunday school class exactly how babies are made...

@Nick1693: I worry more about the minds of people like that. If you're constantly seeing things as smutty, then maybe YOU have the problem.

It's a real shame this had to happen to a 3 year old boy. A slightly older boy would have known how awesome this was, enjoyed every minute of it, and kept everything a secret from him mom, hoping that it would happen again.. and not ruining it for the rest of the kids out there.

One time my 2.4ghz phone picked up a baby monitor, and someone else's conversation briefly. Not only did it freak me out, it made me hate those phones.