Does anyone know where to buy walkie-talkies in France?
 

I found an older post in which some of you bought walkie-talkies for larger groups traveling together and could stay in touch with multiple vehicles...however, I did not see where you could buy them in France. I tried looking on-line with some of the companies mentioned, with no luck.<BR><BR>Has anyone purchased them in Paris recently and could tell me where to buy them and how much they are? I will be in France next week, and I think this would be a cheaper option than renting or buying cell phones.<BR><BR>Many thanks in advance.<BR><BR>Wendy

you can buy them at le radio shack.

Hi Wendy,<BR><BR>We always pack our own (4) Motorola walkie-talkies. They have a 2 mile or so radius. Bought them in Target.

I thought that walkie-talkies bought in the US cannot be used in Europe because they use the police frequency. Any one know whether this is true?

Thank you Susan, I didn't address that in my post...<BR><BR>Michelle, you bought them at Target and the used them in France?<BR><BR>I'm taking a television crew with 3 vans and vehicles.<BR><BR>Wendy

&lt;&lt;you can buy them at le radio shack.<BR>We always pack our own (4) Motorola walkie-talkies. Bought them in Target.&gt;&gt;<BR><BR> The problem is they are illegal to use in France. They can interfere with emergency communications. For more Paris information e-mail me: [email protected]

We have some Motorola walkie-talkies we had planned to use in France next week (Best Buy, I think). Fred, can you elaborate about the illegality? I hadn't heard that.

JJ, <BR>How much were they? I just need a ballpark estimate.<BR>Do they run on batteries?

The "illegality" is because European countries all have regulatory bodies like our FCC that allocate specific frequencies to different uses (e. g., police and fire, broadcast radio stations, TV stations), and the frequencies allocated to these walkie-talkie-type radios in the US and Canada (known as the Family Radio Service or FRS band, at 462 MHz) is different from the European version (called Private Mobile Radio, or PMR446, at, you-guessed-it, 446 MHz). Just as you can't legally start broadcasting on a random frequency here, you can't really use the US radios legally in Europe. (From a practical point of view, I don't really know how likely it is that you would get caught, or what the penalty is for violating these rules.) You can buy PMR446 radios in Europe, but they're more expensive (about the price that the Motorola radios were when then first came out, from what I can see from a quick search - $100-$150 each), probably because they are a newer product.

wendy, <BR>They were about $35-$45 at Best Buy, I believe. Yes, they are battery-operated. They seem to work very well.