2 Way Radios

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Licensed two-way radios require a license, license-free radios don’t.

You should consider buying license-free radios if you work over a smaller area and you don’t need a large coverage (depending on territory license-free should provide coverage of about 1mile).

The disadvantages of license-free radios are that other users can transmit on the same frequency therefore you might receive unwanted traffic and hear conversations of other people. It also works both ways – the people operating on the same frequency can hear your conversations.

A Radio licence provides you with a unique frequency on which you can operate your radios legally and securely. This licence is obtained from Ofcom in the UK and COMREG in The Republic of Ireland. The basic and most common licence starts from £75 for 5 years. However, there exist a few more different types of licenses. For instance, there is a special nationwide licence to ensure that a large systems or premises throughout the UK operate on legal frequencies. 

Secondly, licensed radios are 8 x more powerful and in the open territory can have a coverage of up to 2.5 miles. If you require larger coverage or you work in difficult terrain there are options for how to increase the coverage by using repeaters.

UHF Radio Advantages

• Better for indoor use because their wavelengths are shorter and are better at penetrating through steel and concrete.
• UHF radios broadcast at between 300 MHz and 3 GHz. 
• VHF radio signals tend to degrade more than UHF signals indoors. 
• UHF radios also have shorter antennas than VHF radios, making them a better fit for discreet radio devices or in situations where longer antennas are impractical, such as crowded hallways in schools.

VHF Radio Advantages

• VHF radios broadcast at between 30 MHz and 300 MHz.
• VHF radios are better suited for outdoor use where line of sight or open terrain is involved. If you need communication at a festival or construction site, these are the right radios for you.
• VHF radios are used exclusively in maritime and aviation communications.

When it comes to choosing a UHF or a VHF radio, you need to think carefully about what your specific needs are and then pick the solution that best suits your situation.

• Motorola 
• Hytera 
• Kenwood 
• Kodan 
• Icom

Roger that = Message received and understood

Roger so far = Confirming part way through a long message that you’ve understood the message so far  

Affirmative = Yes  

Negative = No  

Come in = Asking another party to acknowledge they can hear you  

Go ahead = I am ready for your message  

Say again = Repeat all of your last message  

Say all before/after = Repeat all before/after a certain phrase or word if you didn’t catch part of the message  

Over = Message finished, inviting others to respond if needed  

Out = Conversation is finished, no answer is required or expected 

Radio check = What’s my signal strength? Can you hear me?  

Read you loud and clear = Your transmission signal is good, I can hear you fine 

Wilco = Abbreviation of “I will comply”, means the speaker will complete the task that’s been asked of them  

Break, break = Interruption to a transmission to communicate urgently  

Emergency, emergency = Distress call, only to be used when there is an imminent danger to life and immediate assistance is required  

Stand by = Wait for a short period and I will get back to you  

Wait out = Waiting period is longer than I expected, I will get back to you as soon as possible 

I spell = The next word will be spelled out using the phonetic alphabet 

Using phonetic alphabets helps convey information accurately over walkie-talkie radio. When you are spelling out a name, location, code, registration number, postcode etc, over a noisy or faint radio or phone link, it is easy for letters and numbers to be misheard.

Using the phonetic alphabet to spell out names, locations and so on makes accurately understanding messages a lot easier, because many letters can be easily confused when heard over a crackly radio link (B, C, D, P, T and M, N and F, S, etc).

• Alfa
• Bravo
• Charlie
• Delta
• Echo
• Foxtrot
• Golf
• Hotel
• India
• Juliette
• Kilo
• Lima
• Mike
• November
• Oscar
• Papa
• Quebec
• Romeo
• Sierra
• Tango
• Uniform
• Victor
• Whiskey
• X-ray
• Yankee
• Zulu 

Numbers are pronounced as normal, except often 9 is pronounced "Niner" so it doesn't get confused with 5.

It is called the "NATO" alphabet because it was standardised by the NATO member countries back in the 1950s to allow accurate exchange of radio messages between air, naval and army forces of all the NATO member nations.

They had to make sure that each chosen word sounded different to the others, and was easily pronounceable by speakers of all the European languages, not just in English.

It is now very widely used by all types of "professional communicators" including air traffic control, the police and other emergency services, shipping, etc and in all types of business.