PMR446 v Walkie Talkies

[Devonian]

I'm one of the many who are baffled, yet fascinated by all of the threads on radio communications. So far I have my trusted CB which I know and understand and use on a regular basis, but that is vehicle mounted and may not always be to hand when needed.

I therefore keep reading the various threads about the UV5/Ham/Pixie radios etc etc but never quite progress things any further.

But I was intrigued by the following comment made by LS which I have extracted and copied below, to avoid hijacking the Pixie Radio thread:

"...generally speaking, for a handheld walkie-talkie radios do not expect more than 3 to 5 miles range, and in the case of license free PMR446 radios expect the range to be from hundreds of meters to a maximum of 3 miles. The reason is that this sort of radio generally operate on frequencies that almost only travel as far as you can see ( literally, if you can see it your signal can reach it) and when the transmitted radio waves reach the horizon the carry straight out of our atmosphere into space..."

Given the above, why would any of us bother with the PMR446/UV5's ???

Surely decent Walkie Talkies such as the recently discussed BF-888's are therefore all we need as they are portable; "easy" to use (don't need programming), cheaper, reliable and have as good if not better range than other (non-ham) portable hand held radios.

Plus you can have a normal spoken conversation and do not need to know morse code or start stringing lengths of copper wire antennae up the side of your drain pipes etc...

Or am I missing something???