Is it legal to use BAOFENG BF-888S 16-CH 400~470MHz 5W Walkie Talkie in India?

Question

If not, what can be used as mode of communication for group trekking. It is very urgent and important Please suggest some better options for walkie talkies

Answer 1

As you say in your post, that this is urgent, there are plenty of options for you to find out information quickly:

• Contact the Amateur Radio Society India.

• Contact the Wireless Planning & Coordination Wing of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Department of Telecommunications.

Other than that, you can obviously download the National Frequency Allocation Plan. You probably want some accompanying documentation to fully understand this.

I am not an expert in the legalities in your country, so you will have to do some digging yourself.

Lastly you can see if there is a local ham radio club. There might be someone near you, who is able to answer your questions quickly.

There is a good chance of the following:

• There are license-free allocations, but the Baofeng radios are not type approved for such.
• You may use the Baofeng, but only with appropriate license, which may require you to go through an application process.
• You may use the Baofeng, but only on Amateur allocations, with an amateur license, which you do not state in your post that you have one.

Based on how you asked the question, I guess you probably want to stick to the "license-free type-approved" use, which means "general walkie-talkie" equipment.