Walkie Talkies Restrictions

Walkie talkies bought here function on different frequencies than similar radios sold in Europe. The frequencies used here are set aside for other purposes in Europe, so they're not allowed there.

Yes.

If you mean the "Family Radio Service" types, most of the more recent American ones are too powerful (and there may be other restrictions/problems including frequency differences).

The ones you want are for the "PMR" or "PMR-466" service and can be had very cheap in Europe (from what I read the cheapest place to get them is England). I think some of the older US radios are both FMRS AND PMR rated (I may be wrong)- but you'd have to check. The instruction manual would say.

We'll be using several of them in Sicily.

Oh, yes- they all can be set to talk to each other, if you're not familiar with them. You'll want radios with CTCSS/DCS (Privacy codes).

I also posted on this recently and found out they're illegal as the police use the same frequency. The best price I could find online in Paris to buy there was about 80 Euros for a pair - much more expensive than my good ones from here.

I checked- and there ARE significant frequency differences between the two systems.

The US FRS radios work on 462Mhz, which is used for different services in Europe. The Europe version works on a lower frequency (just above 440Mhz) which conflicts in the US.

So you'll need to find some of the PRN radios.