Mike M.

Mike M. is the hands-on owner behind Iron Mako Media, the independent publisher of Radio & Range. He builds every guide from manufacturer specifications, FCC rules and published range data, and says plainly when something is a manufacturer claim rather than a measured result.

What Mike writes about

Radio & Range covers one problem: staying in touch where phones don't reach. That means family walkie-talkies and FRS radios that need no license, GMRS radios that do, the FCC rules behind the difference, and what a radio will realistically reach across a lease, a ranch, a convoy or a campground. Buyers in this market face numbers they can't check, like a box that says “up to 35 miles” or a listing that never mentions a license. Mike's pages sort those claims the honest way open to a publisher: read the published specs and the FCC's rules, show the source, and say plainly what isn't known.

How Mike picks radios

Every pick on Radio & Range is labeled Researched. That means it was chosen and scored from the maker's published specs, manual and range tables, checked against the FCC's license and power rules, and compared on the public rubric at How We Rank. It does not mean the radio was bought, carried or range-checked by us, and no page on this site says otherwise. Radios we claim to have lab-tested: 0.

If Mike does use a specific radio and documents it, the page will say exactly what was done (which radios, where, over what distance, what went wrong) with original, dated photos, and only then will the pick's label change. Until that record exists, Researched is the honest label.

What you won't find here

• Credentials, job titles, a call sign or years of experience that haven't been shown to you.
• Lab results, range measurements or ownership claims for radios he hasn't documented.
• FCC rules or license fees stated from memory. Each one links to fcc.gov or the rule text, with the date it was checked.
• Rankings paid for by a brand. Commissions never set a score or pick a winner.
• Testimonials, star ratings or review counts.

Contact

Questions and corrections go to mike@blackironathletics.com, or use the contact form. More about the site and its publisher, Iron Mako Media, is on the About page, and the standards every page follows are in the editorial policy.