Encryption scrambles your voice so that scanners and radios outside your group can’t listen in. There are several levels of protection:

• Basic privacy / voice scrambling: stops casual eavesdropping by other radio users and simple scanners. It’s easy to defeat with the right equipment, so treat it as privacy rather than security.
• ADP/Enhanced Privacy (RC4-based) encryption: a stronger digital encryption that uses a shared key. It suits businesses that want to keep day-to-day operational conversations private.
• AES-256 encryption: the strongest option available on two-way radios, and the same standard used by government and public safety agencies. Choose this for sensitive, security or confidential communications.

Intrinsically Safe (IS) radios are designed so they can’t create a spark or enough heat to ignite flammable gases, vapours or dust. They’re used in hazardous areas such as mines, oil and gas sites, refineries, chemical plants, fuel depots and grain handling facilities.

A radio can only be called Intrinsically Safe if it’s certified to a recognised standard for the type of hazardous area it will be used in:

• IECEx / ANZEx: the international and Australian/New Zealand schemes, based on the IEC / AS/NZS 60079 standards. This is what Australian hazardous sites generally require.
• ATEX: the European scheme.
• TIA-4950: the North American standard for portable radios, which replaced the older FM 3610 approval.

The certification covers the radio, battery and accessories together. Fitting an uncertified battery, earpiece or microphone can void the rating. Repairs must also be done in a way that keeps the certification valid.

Before choosing a radio, check your site’s hazardous-area classification, which tells you the zone and gas or dust group. Tell us your site’s requirements and we’ll match radios and accessories with the right certification.

A short (or stubby) antenna cuts your range by approximately 30%. The short antenna sometimes makes the radio easier to carry, and works well in locations like small hotels, schools, small construction sites, where distance is not an issue.

Sometimes. Radios in the same model family often share batteries and chargers, but chargers aren’t interchangeable across different families or brands. Battery shape, contacts, chemistry and charging profile all vary. The wrong charger may not fit, may charge poorly, or can shorten battery life or damage the battery.

Many radios of one brand can communicate with other radio brands provided they are all programmed to the same frequencies and codes. BTW can advise on specific models. It is important to remember that you must be on the same frequency to communicate. UHF and VHF radios do not communicate with each other. They use difference frequency ranges or ‘bands’.

Always check with BTW to make sure the different radios will work together.

What types of two-way radio are there?
Most radios come in UHF or VHF versions, in analogue, digital, or both.

• Handheld (portable) radios: the radios most people use. They’re carried by the user and are available in everything from compact business models to rugged, Intrinsically Safe and public safety models.
• Mobile radios: permanently installed in vehicles, with a roof or body-mounted antenna. They have more power than handhelds (typically 25–50 watts), so you get more range.
• Desktop / base station radios: a mobile radio set up on a desk with a mains power supply and an antenna mounted high on the building. They’re ideal for dispatchers, offices, gatehouses and control rooms.
• Repeaters: receive and re-transmit signals from a high site, greatly extending range and getting around hills and buildings. Portable and trailer-mounted repeaters are available for events and temporary sites.
• Push-to-talk over cellular (PoC) radios: work like a two-way radio but connect over 4G/5G mobile networks and Wi-Fi, giving coverage anywhere with mobile service, with no repeaters or frequency licence needed.

What types of radio system are there?
How radios are connected matters as much as which radios you choose:

• Conventional: each channel is a fixed frequency. It’s simple, reliable and suits most small to medium businesses. Digital (DMR) conventional radios carry two conversations per frequency.
• Single-site trunking: several repeater channels at one site are pooled and allocated to talkgroups automatically as people talk. Many more users can share the system without waiting for a free channel. It’s ideal for busy sites such as hospitals, shopping centres, campuses and resorts.
• Multi-site networks: link repeaters at several sites over an IP network, so users can talk across a region, between branches or along a highway as if on one system.
• DMR Tier III: the open digital standard for large trunked networks. It suits utilities, transport, mining and large organisations that need high capacity, wide-area coverage and central management.
• P25: the digital standard designed for public safety, used by many emergency services and government agencies. It’s built for interoperability between agencies and for high-security encryption.
• Radio-over-IP and PoC integration: gateways connect radio systems to each other, to dispatch consoles, or to push-to-talk over cellular devices. Field crews on radio can then talk with staff on phones or PoC radios anywhere.

Not sure what you need? Tell us how many users you have, your coverage area and how critical communications are, and we’ll design the right system.

The distance a handheld radio can communicate depends several factors. The most important factors for you to consider are: band (VHF or UHF), wattage, antenna type, and environment.

• The more wattage a radio has, the longer distance it’s signal can travel. Manufacturers claims of long distances are based on what might be achieved under near perfect conditions. Some radios may work a km or so away, but most are designed to work primarily within a single location. For example, in a city environment the most powerful UHF radio (4 watts) will give you approximately a range of 2 city blocks. Obstacles such as buildings, hills, etc. will reduce the range of communications. Out in the open with no obstacles you can expect more distance. If you are standing on a hill your distance could be even further.

• Repeaters can extend the range of communication. A repeater basically does as the name suggests, it ‘boosts’ the signal and sends it out again. Repeaters have much more wattage than handheld radios, generally between 25 and 100 watts, so the repeated signal will travel much farther than the original signal from the radio.

Channels are used to send the actual communications. Each channel in an analog radio is tied to a particular frequency. You can assign a different channel to separate work groups within your organization. This way each work group can have their own channel to reduce disruptions to other departments. Digital radios provide the added benefit of allowing each worker to have an individual channel as well as a channel for their work group.

Wattage is one key factor that determines the strength of your radio signal. Therefore, the more wattage a radio has, generally the longer distance it’s signal can travel and the clearer the transmission will be. The larger the job-site, the more watts you should purchase.

• UHF is the best choice in and around buildings: offices, hotels, warehouses, construction sites and cities. Its shorter wavelength gets through doorways, windows and gaps in structures, and reflects around obstacles, so it holds up well indoors and in built-up areas.
• VHF works best outdoors over open ground with a clear line of sight, such as farms, rural properties and waterways. It travels further than UHF over open terrain and copes better with trees and rolling country, but it doesn’t get through buildings as well.
• Digital isn’t a separate band. Digital radios are available in both UHF and VHF, so choose the band to suit your environment, then go digital for clearer audio at the edge of range, longer battery life and extra features.