When you’re new to the world of licence-free walkie-talkies, it’s easy to get yourself tangled in a web of technical jargon when reading the radio features section on the product page! This article will highlight some of the most common walkie-talkie features, what they are and how you can use them to your advantage!

Key Features:

• Group calling
• IP rating
• MIL-STD 810C/D/E/F/G
• Dual Mode (Analogue and Digital)
• Scan (Analogue or Digital Channel Only)
• VOX
• Voice Announcement Function
• Privacy Codes

Group calling

These are your go-to for group conversations.

Group calling on a two-way radio is like having a walkie-talkie chat room! Instead of talking to just one person, you can talk to multiple people at the same time on the same frequency. To use Group calling, everyone needs to be on the same channel and only one person can talk at a time. 

The benefits of group calling are that it supports efficient communication among teams or groups. For example, you can make group calls when camping to instantly share updates, instructions, or requests with everyone, without needing to call each person individually. This saves time and keeps everyone on the same page.

 While group calling is beneficial, remember responsible usage is crucial. Keep messages concise, avoid interrupting others, and respect privacy.

IP rating

The IP in IP rating stands for Ingress Protection and is a way of categorising the effectiveness of electrical enclosures at blocking foreign bodies such as dust, moisture and liquid.

Ratings consist of the letters I (ingress) and P (protection), which are then followed by two digits.
The higher the number after IP, the better the protection against foreign bodies.
The first digit represents protection against solids e.g. dust.

The second digit represents protection against liquids e.g. rain.

This is important to look at if you plan to use your walkie-talkie in extreme environments.

MIL-STD 810C/D/E/F/G

Seven letters, three numbers, two hyphens, and 26 4-foot drops onto plywood over concrete.

MIL-STD-810G is a U.S. military standard that through iterations and decades has certified military equipment as field-ready with a system of tests that simulate a variety of environmental conditions, including shock, vibration, and more.

This relates primarily to the walkie-talkie’s durability and robust design.

Dual Mode (Analogue and Digital)

This feature enables users of digital two-way radios to communicate with both analogue and digital radios, switching back and forth between modes as needed.

The dual-mode capability allows users of analogue radios to add digital radios that can communicate with the existing analogue radios to provide a simple and low-cost migration path to an all-digital radio system

Scan

This enables the radio to automatically check each channel in turn, one after the other to see if there is any activity going on. The scan function on two-way radios allows users to automatically search and monitor different radio channels for activity. Beneficial for: Channel monitoring, emergency monitoring, situational awareness.

VOX

VOX which stands for “Voice-Activated Transmission,” is a feature found on many two-way radios that allows the device to transmit when it detects the user speaking automatically. Instead of requiring the user to press a push-to-talk (PTT) button to initiate transmission.VOX enables hands-free communication, allowing users to communicate without the need to press a button.

Voice Announcement Function

Voice Announcement is a feature on some two-way radios that provides an audible confirmation of certain radio functions or settings. When enabled, the feature announces the current channel, mode, or other settings in a synthesised voice, eliminating the need for the user to visually check the radio’s display

Privacy Codes

Privacy codes, known by several names, let the user receive only calls accompanied by the same code. If everyone in your group is on the same privacy code this will reduce unwanted ‘chatter’. Think of it as lanes on a highway, people can share the same highway (frequency), and privacy codes are the lanes that prevent them from running into each other (hearing each other). 

Privacy codes go by many different names, so this can be confusing. Names such as QT, DQT, PL, PL-tone, PL-code, or CTCSS/DCS, all mean the same thing. They are just terms that different manufacturers have used to describe the same function.

Conclusion

To conclude, licence-free walkie-talkies have lots of functions and features on them to help improve the users’ experience. Here at 2WayRadioShop, we supply a wide range of licence-free devices from all the top radio manufacturers such as Motorola, Hytera and Entel.

Check out our top 10 licence-free radios ranked for 2023.

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