Walkie-Talkies?

[Cowboy]

My daughter is visiting Florida with us when we go over in May and she is thinking of buying a set of walkie-talkies from Argus because she would like to use them in the UK as well to keep in contact with her son at times. Does anyone know if they will work efficiently in Florida?
Her friend, who stayed in our villa in February, hired a set in Florida but said there was quite a lot of 'interesting interference' on them. John seems pleased with the ones purchased at Walmart which he mentions in the mobile phone topic. Has anyone any other experiences or advice?

Mike[?]

[blott]

Hi Cowboy Mike

The problem with walkie talkies purchased in another country is that they use different frequencies. Whilst this might be good for not getting interference, the UK frequencies are not licensed for personal use in the US and the US frequencies are the same as the emergency services use in the UK.

So, whilst UK ones 'work' in Florida and US ones 'work' in UK, they can cause all sorts of mayhem with other services who use these frequencies.

[pbensur]

Tried the walkie-talkies once when visiting the parks and it's true about the interference - it was a waste. If you can manage a couple of cellular phones, that's your best bet for keeping in touch with eachother.

[tinkerbell]

We've always used motorola walkie talkies we bought again in Walmart. They were not the cheapest on offer, but they give such good coverage and we never failed to get hold of each other. Absolutely indispensable to our family trips!

Oops[:I]! Didn't know about the US ones being the frequecies here in teh UK for emergency services! Wouldn't be too pleased with us lot around xmas time then when we have them scattered around the houses in the street while we all prepare different parts of the dinner!!!

[orlandobabe]

I think ours are the motorola ones also-we bought one set and used it per couple and have since bought another set from the Costco on the Orange Blossom Trail so we get one each.

I think they are brilliant. The set from costco had it's own battery charger and was just $50.

We usually just get one car and my hubby will take our daughter and son in law to a park when we are having an in-day doing jobs. As they work within a 3 mile radius when it's time to pick them up he'll just call them and arrange where to pick them up as he gets within calling distance of the park.

They are great round Wal mart, Super target and the malls! Save lots of' where are they at?' time. Great on the occasions you have two cars and one carload gets lost as usual.

[steph_goodrum]

They're also useful if you are stopping on a development with communal facilities that older children may want to go off and use.

[floridahol]

Hi Mike, we used Argos walkie talkies in the parks when we were over last month and they were brilliant. Worth every penny - no interference, and no problems picking up other signals. I would recomend them.

[steph_goodrum]

The problem is Floridahol as as been said they WILL work in both countries but they work on differently allocated frequencies and just because you aren't getting any interference doesn't mean you aren't CAUSING any. If you do a search on here the frequencies have been posted, if you use the US one in the UK you are actually using channels allocated to emergency services but I don't know what the channels the UK ones use have been allocated to in the US. It could be something like Air traffic control as an example.

[floridadreamvilla.co.uk]

I'd agree Steph. You could land yourself in a lot of trouble using UK ones in the US and vice versa.

It's more likely to be emergency services as Air Traffic Control use the same frequencies the world over - 108 to 135 MHz if I recall correctly (I'm a pilot in my spare time ).

[mikewj]

We bought Motorola walkie talkies in Walmart too. They are invaluable when you lose a member of your party in a park or mall, and they are a lot cheaper in the US than they are over here.

The frequencies interfere with UK emergency services tho', so you dont really want to use them back home unless you really need to.