two way radios has been in use for many years and is a well proven technology. one of the highest profile users of two way radios radio are the emergency services, and have traditionally been speech based. It is now possible to use two way radios for sending data, for example remote monitoring or vehicle location using GPS.
two way radios can be handportable, vehicle mounted, or installed in buildings.
handportable radios are normally used on a site - perhaps a building, plant, or golf course. the construction industry is also a large user of handportable radios for communication on building sites. security, warehouses, golf courses, and industrial processing plants where sites can be large yet have low staffing levels also lend themselves to radio communications. increased awareness of health and safety legislation has also made communications a priority in many environments.
vehicle mounted radios transmit more power than handportable ones, and so can communicate over a larger area. radios fitted in vehicles are widely used by delivery companies, taxis, and in the construction industry.
experience shows that companies normally prefer users to be able to communicate easily and share information throughout a group, which is the case in the examples below. Almost all new radios come with selective calling as a built-in feature. This means that private one to one or smaller group conversation can be made if desired. Selective calling could be implemented in any of the systems described below. You can read more about selective calling, and it's abilities here.
scenario 1
in a distribution warehouse, the forklift driver, and five packers need to communicate. recent expansion has shown the agreed system of shouting to each other flawed as the warehouse is now bigger, plus the manager now has difficulty keeping track what is happening
this simple system allows the packers and forklift driver to communicate, and keeps the manager informed what is happening
all of the users can talk to one another, and everyone hears what is being said.
scenario 2
At a golf club, the greenkeeping staff, starter, and course ranger need to keep in contact to deal with problems that occur on the course. They have used radios successfully for a number of years but have found problems with radio coverage after adding another 18 holes at the club.
the existing radios were modified and a radio repeater was installed at the clubhouse. The repeater is a system which automatically relays all of the messages, thus providing radio coverage on both courses because of it's greater output power and higher location.
all of the users can talk to one another, and everyone hears what is being said.
scenario 3
a small delivery company needs to be able to talk to it's vans. This means they can pass information on deliveries, arrange collections, and drivers can seek assistance when trying to find illusive addresses
the company knew that they needed radios in their vans, but needed the radios to work for a radius of 40 miles. The solution was to use a repeater located on a nearby hill. Like the repeater in scenario 2 it acted as a relay station, but because of its height coupled with the increased power of the vehicle mounted radios, the coverage obtained was greater than they had hoped for.
All of the users can talk to one another, and everyone hears what is being said. This was very useful because drivers could share information about customer locations, weather conditions, and help one another if a consignment was unexpectedly large.
