Isnt a walkie talkie basically a simple ham radio with short talking radius?

Not exactly.

I assume that you are talking about the small Motorola type radios (FRS) that you can buy at Walmart or sporting goods stores. Those operate at fixed frequency channels outside of the Ham radio frequency bands. There is no license required to use the FRS radios, unlike Ham which requires a license.

Most handheld ham radios allow the operator to listen on the frequencies of the FRS radios, but transmitting on those frequencies is illegal except in a true emergency. As far as the circuitry and radio theory, it is all about the same..

RE:

Isnt a walkie talkie basically a simple ham radio with short talking radius?

In a really simplistic way = yes.....

If your talking about those FRS radios then they do have a very few similarity's as a basic ham radio...

Yes the FRS radios use UHF radio frequency's like some UHF ham radios but that's where the similarities end.......

A "walkie talkie" is *any* handheld radio. All two way radio configurations include handheld radios. Law enforcement, amateur radio, cb, busines, FRS, GMRS, MURS.. etc have versions of equipment in a handheld configuration.

There are many two way radio services, all with their rules, regulations, and licensing requirements.

Let's make this simple...

FRS and GMRS are very unregulated and offer limited radio propogation and technology.

Ham radio has been around for 100 years and is STILL very state of the art and can communicate across town or around the world. Read more below...

No. Amateur radio and modern walkie talkies use very different frequencies. Very old ones use CB channels.