Can a two-way radio be set to recieve a channel only and never transmit?

[RedPenguin]

At my college, which is a community college, I noticed that their radios at one campus apparently pickup one of the county's police channels, but they don't talk on the channel nor have unit numbers for the channel. We only have basically rent-a-cop like security, not campus police. They talk on their own channel.

I'm curious, since many times at the one campus they don't talk to each other that much, so at times they radio switched to the scanner, could they have their radio so they can never transmit on the county police channel but still be able to talk on their own channel or is a transceiver always capable of transmitting?

 

[CommJunkie]

It's all in how the radio is programmed. I have experience with Motorola programming, but I'm sure they're all the same in that you can set a certain channel to be "Receive Only". That will allow you to listen to a certain channel but not transmit on it.

For example, let's say you're college security channels are 1, 2, 3, and 4. Let's say they have the police in channel 5. You can set the radio to transmit on 1-4, but not 5. It will beep when you try to transmit.

 

[BaLa]

Yeah.
I don't know most of the other radios work.
I guess it's prolly about the same.

On my Kenwood TK280 there are 2 separate frequency colums.
One for Receive and one for Transmit.
If Tx is blank you wont be able to TX.

 

[iMONITOR]

Yes radios like Motorola, Relm, etc can be programmed for RX only, no TX. It's very common.

I had a Motorola HT1000 4W hand-held I used for GMRS/FRS, RX & TX, then I also had local sheriff frequencies programmed for RX only. It worked great and was 100% legal.

 

[mfn002]

My XTS is programmed to RX-Only. I also have a GP300 that I programmed myself (using software that a friend of mine who programs radios was going to throw out.) For the GP300, you simply select the "scan only" option on the programming list.

 

[Dispatrick]

on my dept we run on UHF but we have a few VHF radios also so we can contact other towns that are on VHF if we have mutual aid in town or going M.A. & have the NOAA channels in the radio in case of bad weathe & ive tried to transmit it just beeps and doesnt allow

 

[Spec]

Yes, in fact many of these radios make much better receivers than the consumer grade scanners on the market.

 

[N1SQB]

I Agree!

I run Kenwood TK280,380,780,880, Portables and mobiles,both vhf/uhf. While I will never abandon my scannning equipment, I can tell you 2 things. First, the radios can definitely be set to receive only and not transmitt. I have all my county police,fire,ems stuff on there on RECEIVE only. My Ham, GMRS, stuff is set on duplex or transmitt/receive. Second, the receive and front end on these radios is far better that the best scanner out there. No Doubt about that. While I love my scanners, I treasure the audio on my commercial rigs.


Manny

 

[RedPenguin]

Alright

Since everyone is saying that transceivers are better at receiving than actual scanners, is it possible to get transceivers that are good that are as cheap as scanners?

Also, are there transceivers that are basically opposite of BCD996T and BCD396T, that function on APCO-25 networks?

 

[K8TEK]

Yes radios like Motorola, Relm, etc can be programmed for RX only, no TX. It's very common.

I had a Motorola HT1000 4W hand-held I used for GMRS/FRS, RX & TX, then I also had local sheriff frequencies programmed for RX only. It worked great and was 100% legal.

You do realize that is illegal, don't you?

An HT1000 is not type-accepted for user on GMRS or FRS.

BTW, the feature is always called TX inhibit.

 

[iMONITOR]

You do realize that is illegal, don't you?

An HT1000 is not type-accepted for user on GMRS or FRS.

BTW, the feature is always called TX inhibit.

Can you document where an HT1000 is not type accepted for GMRS?

If you have a GMRS license, it is legal to transmit using up to 5 watts on FRS channels 1~7.

 

[K8TEK]

Can you document where an HT1000 is not type accepted for GMRS?

If you have a GMRS license, it is legal to transmit using up to 5 watts on FRS channels 1~7.

It is legal to transmit using 500mW ERP on channels 8-14. Your radio does not do half a watt, the low power setting is 1 watt. Transmitting on these channels is illegal with your equipment.

 

[iMONITOR]

It is legal to transmit using 500mW ERP on channels 8-14. Your radio does not do half a watt, the low power setting is 1 watt. Transmitting on these channels is illegal with your equipment.

Yes we know that we can't use more than 500mw on FRS channels 8-14.

But you have not shown that it is illegal to use the Motorola HT1000 for the entire GMRS band, and channels 1~7 on the FRS band.

Below is your original statement. Again, where does it say that, or was that your assumption?

Originally Posted by K8TEK
You do realize that is illegal, don't you?

An HT1000 is not type-accepted for user on GMRS or FRS.

 

[n8emr]

Can you document where an HT1000 is not type accepted for GMRS?

If you have a GMRS license, it is legal to transmit using up to 5 watts on FRS channels 1~7.

If you want to be technical any radio not specificily GMRS part95 certified is not legal on GMRS. This is also true of MURS but it has some dates you also have to meet.

Now the FCC has said that part 90 radio could be used on GMRS without fear of punishment, they are techincally not legal.

 

[Tfitzmaurice89]

They actually could have it programmed into their radio and just have the radio on scan function. They might have it so they can call the local autorities incase they cant handle a situation.