Ginny and I are Ham radio operators. As I have mentioned recently, we have several hand held VHF/UHF radios. We got to talking about taking them along on our upcoming road trip which starts Monday. Neither of us wanted to lug them around on hikes and the like. So we opted for a different solution. Walkie talkie radios are pretty cheap and they are compact. After searching around for a while I decided on this pair of Motorola T200 to give it a try. They were inexpensive and rapidly available. There was one issue that I took a while to resolve. If you operate under the FRS (family radio service) you don't need a license. If you operate under the GMRS (general mobile radio service) you need an FCC license. What I found in researching this stuff is that understanding the difference is a challenge. I finally figured it out (it has to do with effective radiated power) and determined we didn't need a license. If you want to get a license, you don't have to take a test. All you do is send the government money. It seems that all I do is send the government money. So we are off without any formalities required. I did a little test this afternoon to see what kind of range they have. It is not very much in an urban environment, like a couple of blocks, tops. I am not sure where will use them, but we are ready for any eventuality, as long as we are not too far apart.