Walkie Talkies

[glatt]

Anybody here know about walkie talkies? I think it was Maggie who was the expert there, but does anyone else have some radio knowledge?

I was cleaning out a workroom here at work, and came across a garbage bin full of stuff. A million wall warts, which are of little use to me, but also a box labeled "old walkie talkies" full of 10 or so nice looking walkie talkies. I rummaged through it and found 4 walkie talkies and charger bases. Took them home, and started playing around with them. I expected the signal to drop off a little bit as my son and I got on different floors and sides of the house, but they were really strong. He went way out in the back yard, and it was like he was standing next to me.

So it suddenly dawned on me that maybe these were the real deal, and maybe we should stop playing with them until I found out if I needed a license. When I looked at the battery compartment, I saw they had FCC ID numbers. I didn't want a black van with a radio dish on top to pull up in front of our house. So I put them away for now.

These guys are Motorola Spirit HP UHF walkie talkies. I found a sales brochure here: http://www.123radios.com/manuals/hpbrochure.pdf

It looks like it's saying I need an FCC license to broadcast with them. Is that something that's hard to get?

I also stumbled across some web pages that talk about narrow band vs. wide band rules that went into effect at the beginning of this year.

Were these walkie talkies in the trash because they are flat out illegal now?