You would be a lunatic to get the clansman radios in my view - very very heavy and out of date for what you want them. Licensing aside (and noting plenty of very good advice on that front above), there are a wide variety of VHF and UHF handheld radios available on the likes of ebay. The licence free PMR446 band in the UK has certain rules attached to it - non removeable antenna and a max transmission power of 0.5watts for example. Most of the Chinese UHF handhelds (and indeed, some vehivcal mounted mobile units) will put out 4-5w and some even up to a claimed 10w (and vehical units - the sky's the limit). Ten times the power does not equate to ten times the range, far from it, but more power does help. Also the generally more efficient stock antenna on the chinese handhelds make a big difference. Programming can be via the integrated key pad - on those radios that have them (laborious), or via the free software called 'Chirp' and a cheap USB programming cable. Whilst much easier, this can be a little bit of a frustrating process with driver issues etc, but plenty of guidance available online. Radios such as the already mentioned and tried and tested baofeng UV5R and also for example the UV9R, UV82, Bf888s are extremely popular (possibly becuase as the UHF versions cover the PMR446 range + have 6.25htz channel spacings, they can be programmed to work on the PMR446 channels and therefore be fully interoperable with the cheap license free handhelds). Whilst not above board, people who do this possibly console themselves that operating on the 446 channels will be unlikely to interfere with e.g. the emergency service bands, and perhaps are incentivised that they can obtain an excellent radio at little over £12 posted. Not that i would condone that at all!
