What is the two way radio or walkie-talkie? Two boxes with antennas with which you can play secret agents or policemen.
Well of course it's not the main purpose of the two way radio. This device helps two people stay permanently in touch with each other while the distance between them doesn't exceed a couple or a little more miles. It can be used by parents to guard their little children. The two way radio is rather simple in exploitation so that a child will manage with it after short instructing. So when a baby is out of sight a mother or a father needs only to push a button to learn what a kid's keeping busy with at the moment.
So the general purpose of the walkie-talkies is to keep people in touch. You can decide in what situations it could be useful to you.
What's the difference with the cell phones? You have to pay only once ' when buying two way radio. For the service of connection you have to pay nothing because there're none, the services of the companies providing the mobile connection aren't involved in the process of walkie-talkie communication. Walk and talk till the batteries get low. And don't forget not to depart too far.
The other advantage of the two way radio is that they walk in any area while mobile phones have to stay in the coverage of your mobile network. And the further you leave civilization behind the worse the mobile signal get until it disappears at all. The two way radio are establishing the signal only between them two so that only the miles between two devices matter.
The two way radio is what one needs for any game activities in the woods, it will help to keep tabs on the game, to stay in touch with the camp and other participants, to provide your security in case of some dangerous situation or unforeseen circumstances.
Different two way radios offer from two to fourteen channels of access and a few sub-channels. The more are channels the more expensive is the device yet it lets you to stay in touch with the more people. For the activities with a big number of participants the two way radios with the maximum amount of channels are more appropriate. Mind that the area your are located in may be congested so that some of the channel might be already occupied.
By the way some models of the walkie-talkies are provided with privacy codes so that if someone will accidentally pick up your channel they will hear your voice scrambled so they won't be able to understand a word.
Most two way radio models start ringing when they get an incoming signal. When you stop talking they beep to let the one you're communicating with know that it's clear to talk. The radios usually have an option of recalling the last channel (the likely feature is available on every phone). Also they use scanning for finding channels which are already occupied and save the list of frequently used channels.
After purchasing some supplying accessories you'll be able to talk hands free which is very useful for sport activities. One more pleasant and useful feature is a weather radio in your two way radio so that you can pick one of the channels of the weather service and learn about the latest forecasts for your area. By the way the distance range can vary usually from one to two miles because of the weather conditions and the terrain peculiarities.
Most of the two way radios are palm sized, the heavier and the bigger the model is the more functions it features. Most models are provided with LCD-screen displaying the information about the present radio state. Better chose a model with a display backlight though mind that it increases the energy expenses.
The newer two way radios are supplied with such bonus features like clock, timer, stopwatch, thermometer, compass and etc.