I dont see how they can enforce licensing, When any Tom ,Dick, or Harry can walk into WalMart and buy them and use them.

I think Paul has it...Last time I had a FCC license was in 1972. They, FCC, were tokd that it was unconstitutional for a federal entity to make a profit (which at the time I thought was dumb as a FCC license cost $5.00 for 5 years)...A government agency showing a profit with a $5.00 license? What a deal!!!

I do not use the Motorolas or any of the others as I have Icom and Alinco Handi-Talkies, not Walkie-Talkies. HT radios are held in the hand while WT's are worn on the back. I have a Tech. class Amatuer Radio ticket which after you pass the testing sesions is FREE and good for TEN YEARS unless you move or get revoked or give up the "call" with a small fee for the testers usually less than $10 IF I remember correctly but no exacts on that one guys. My radios will go anywhere from about 137MHz to 174MHz and from aproximately 400Mhz to 512Mhz with full recieve and transmit capabilities and I have ALL the available to my radios CTCSS codes/tones and one HT (Icom IC-7H or T) will even find the tones. Oh and they also have a full DTMF keypad just like a phone for use with repeaters to do Auto-patch(local phone calls only and not to by-pass long distance charges) and other functions as well. GMRS does require a license which is good for FIVE years last I knew and a max out put power of approx. 5 watts again if I remember correctly. FRS is free with a limit of somewhere around .25 watt of out-put power with a zero gain antenna, basically a local FM Citizens Band radio. With GMRS you can do some things with the antenna and hook in a gain antenna which I am not sure how high you can go on the gain. Basically for every 3Db of gain you "double" the relative signal strength of the transmited signal. So a radio that is getting one watt to the end of the antenna in a 6Db gain will radiate like a three watt radio signal. There are alot of other things that go into this but I am fairly simple when it comes to the higher end stuff as I am terrible with higher end math. And the chances of getting caught are slim to none. So long as you are smart about things and follow some "common" sense. But if you do get into a HAM band then you will be figured out and "asked" to stop, then the rado copsare notified and they will shut you down. The Feds like a simple back-up comm net and Give us that bandwidth in case the stuff hits the fan they need "us" and our radios. Many times ion the recent past the only info coming out was from HAM op's on some of the small islands and when the Carolina's were hit with all the hurricanes the hams were allowed in to "radio" out DA reports for local SAR teams and police agencies. CB licnese went out somewhere in the early to mid 80's because they could not regulate it anymore so they gave it up and said fine do want you want with it. But us hams ARE self regulating, trust me about it. OF course my radios rand around $400 new each so I think that they should do a fewmore things than a$60 radio. Lookinto getting a HAM ticket you will like it.

OK? ..........SHow me!