I understand that walkie talkies bought in the U.S. are probably illegal in many other countries.
But what if you buy them at the destination, in this case Greece?
Are they OK to use?
My wife is like a kid on a sugar high when near a shopping district.
Thought it would be nice to have rather than fire up another cell phone.
Plus maybe they would work elsewhere too - like Turkey (next trip).
Thank you for you advise and information.
In my opinion, there's no way this is more convenient than a phone and texting or calling your wife. What happens if she forgets to turn it on etc? Plus there are other things you can do with the phone. Fire up the other phone.
Why not just sever ties plan for a few hours and plan on a rendezvous spot. Definitely bring the second phone for emergencies or offline maps or such, bur if the walkie talkies are like the noisy CBs of the past, no one will appreciate them.
Ten, fifteen or more years ago, before wide spread use of cell phones, when we traveled with our sons, we made heavy use the two-way radios. It was my understanding that the radio frequencies used by the WTakies would not authorized for that use in Europe. However, we did use them. Never heard any other transmissions and we tried to limit our usage to very brief transmissions. One problem we had was range and the signals were easily blocked by buildings and other structures. We have found that the text functions of cell phones to be more useful for keeping track. Use text is often free. I think you will find the text feature more use than the Wtakies.
It was my understanding that the radio frequencies used by the WTakies
would not authorized for that use in Europe. However, we did use them.
Never heard any other transmissions and we tried to limit our usage to
very brief transmissions.
Unless you have made sure that they are legal, please don't do that. Unauthorized use of radio transmitters is illegal in most countries and respecting the local laws is in general a good idea. Radio frequencies are a limited resource and while some frequencies are open for everyone, others are restricted. E.g. some US consumer walkie talkies can interfer with UK emergency service radios. Worst case scenario: Your actions could have disturbed an ambulance's ability to communicate with the dispatcher.
