Two way radios offer the freedom to talk to other people who are vast distances apart, as they transmit voice signals into the other radio by way of a specified frequency. It is as if you have a telephone that anyone can listen in on if they are on the same signal. Two way radios allow you to keep in touch if you are not within earshot of one another but cell phones are not available or practical to use. The FRS/GMRS two way radios are by far the most familiar and well-known to everyday users and are the same ones you normally find in big-box stores. The frequency ranges or channels on which these devices can operate are FRS and GMRS. Channels 1-7 are shared by both the FRS and GMRS while channels 8-14 are FRS only and 15-22 are GMRS only. When you want to use these two way radios, you have to use the same channel in order to speak to each other. Every radio that is set to channel 7 can talk to each other, but not to someone whose radio is set to channel 6. As it is not an entirely private medium, you have to watch what you are talking about, as you might be eavesdropped on by someone else on the same channel you do not know is there. When your group is choosing the channel it will use, the primary concerns should be range and privacy. Purchase of an FCC license is required if you are using a GMRS channel when you use a GMRS channel. You can usually get between a one and a one and a half mile range from an FRS only channel since government regulations allow a maximum of .5 watts of broadcast power. When it comes to privacy, you just have to keep switching channels until you find one that no one else is using. There are times when you might not be able to find a truly private channel, as there are people using every channel, For this there are “privacy codes,” which most decent mid range radios offer. With these codes, you just divide one channel into a hundred or more subchannels, pick the privacy code you want to use, and you will be able to talk free of eavesdropping.
Now Try – Two Way Radios
