I see business radios with almost 256 channels w/ 16 zones, I don't know why any business needs that many channels, let alone 10 or 16! Why do all these radios have so many channels, you can't say they're for trunked systems, like what business needs near that many talkgroups?
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Why do business radios have a lot of channels & zones?
- Thread starter Pr999
- Start date
nd5y
Member
They aren't just for business use. Some users require a lot of channels.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
Depends on what kind of businesses they are.
Trunked systems for a large factory or campus can have 100+ talkgroups. Not all of them get used at the same time, but it's a handy way to set things up for different scenarios.
There's also the "marketing" side. When buying radios, not all the people buying them understand the product. They'll just compare specifications and buy the one that looks better on paper. May never need 256 channels, but they'll have bragging rights… Or they assume that they'll grow, and no one wants to be the one that bought the basic radio to save a few bucks.
Some small public safety agencies may use these lower tier radios, and having enough channels to cover all the interop, mutual aid, adjacent agencies, etc. can be useful.
And, memory is cheap.
But, you are right, most businesses might have a few channels, and that's all they need. I've had users that only needed one channel. They either bought 2 channel radios, or 16 channel radios and I just programmed all channels the same.
One example is large festivals that use radios with multiple zones and talkgroups, as do large sporting events, both need well more than 10 or 16 as you say. The radios are made for everyone as @nd5y said, not just businesses, and it doesn't make sense to have multiple versions of one radio. My CS750 and CS120D both have multiple zones and channels, as does the national DMR network for amateur radio users.
kayn1n32008
ØÆSØ Say it, say 'ENCRYPTION'
In the oil patch of western Canada, 256 channels isn't enough. Between company channel els and resource road channels, it totals around 400 unique channels.
paulears
Member
I supply some radios for a local holiday centre, I think they have around 60 in total, and I’ve supplied specific radios for use in their entertainment section. For the entire place they have workers, and managers, with the joke being that the managers don’t do work, but talk about it. They have staff who work in just one department, but others who work across others too. So housekeeping, bars, food, maintenance, security, reception, hosts, so that’s seven or eight groups of people. Then each of these may have supervisors and managers, so a manager might need to call one specific person, or all of the people in that group or just the supervisor. The radios I supply are the entertainment people. So we have sound, lights, stage management, the band. This means a rarely used emergency only radio for the musical director. they also have the security group, but not the others. All the bosses can talk to each other, as a group or individually.
with users separated geographically and hierarchically, the idea of hundreds of conversations all bursting through every radio wont work. Many radios need speakers not headphones, but calls need to be specific. You need to draw on paper lots of circles and then work out possible paths. Some people have limited facilities. Housekeepers need to talk to stores, maintenance, supervisors and reception. They never want to talk to lighting people in a theatre.
they have one repeater with two frequencies, and just five other simplex channels. It works really well. Even better, names or departments appear in the displays, so if a technical person sees security appear on the radio display, they know who is calling. If they saw HR appear, they might be too busy to answer.
with users separated geographically and hierarchically, the idea of hundreds of conversations all bursting through every radio wont work. Many radios need speakers not headphones, but calls need to be specific. You need to draw on paper lots of circles and then work out possible paths. Some people have limited facilities. Housekeepers need to talk to stores, maintenance, supervisors and reception. They never want to talk to lighting people in a theatre.
they have one repeater with two frequencies, and just five other simplex channels. It works really well. Even better, names or departments appear in the displays, so if a technical person sees security appear on the radio display, they know who is calling. If they saw HR appear, they might be too busy to answer.
ecps92
Member
They can Support up to 256 channels and up to 16 zones.
Doesn't mean they are programmed to the full extent available, when delivered to the customer
You hit the nail squarely on the head.
Well, thank you all for your explanations. I didn't know public safety used standard business radios, but I knew they would need around that many channels or talkgroups.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
Some small agencies just cannot afford the higher tier radios. It's not hard at all to spec out a high tier public safety radio that exceeds $10,000.00 each. A small volunteer fire department may not have a budget that big. Not uncommon to hear of small police/fire agencies running mid-tier radios. Truth is, most work just fine for what they need.
Public safety (police/fire/EMS) uses a lot of channels for national, regional, and local interoperability. On large campuses, like ports, universities, amusement parks, there are users who need access to all of it. As others said, memory is cheap, so as long as there's no performance penalty, they might as well store whatever will fit. The EFJ/Kenwood Viking VP8000 tops out at 4096 channels!
I've put over 400 in a radio for people. This is probably a Canadian thing. there a lots of radio controlled roads here. Each road will name their radio channel something and if you want to drive your semi down that road you need to call out your position and direction ever KM. the roads are narrow and have blind turns so this is how traffic is managed. the road has signs counting the KMs from the turn on to the road.
If someone wants to work everywhere. The need the frequency for every road in western Canada. Only one province has attempted to fix this. BC has an official list of like 20 channels and they reuse them. so you don't need to goto the radio shop and have more added every time you drive somewhere new. (in theory I guess)
Railroad radios will also usually have quite a lot. In Canada you would almost double it for a railroad contractor that works for both railroads. USA I'm sure it's more.
The radios that are used for this now are all trunking capable radios. Often for trunking systems you program every frequency pair you could ever be assigned. So if you add sites or channels later you don't have to reprogram hundreds of radios.
If you're in want a radio that every shop can program because honestly you'll never be done programming that radio lol! Don't by an HYT and then roll through smaller towns and go add this channel to this radio they haven't seen before. Kenwood NX-700, TK-7102. or ICOM F5023 or their big one F5060? Something that the software is ezpz free on the internet because every shop will be able to do those IMO.
If someone wants to work everywhere. The need the frequency for every road in western Canada. Only one province has attempted to fix this. BC has an official list of like 20 channels and they reuse them. so you don't need to goto the radio shop and have more added every time you drive somewhere new. (in theory I guess)
Railroad radios will also usually have quite a lot. In Canada you would almost double it for a railroad contractor that works for both railroads. USA I'm sure it's more.
The radios that are used for this now are all trunking capable radios. Often for trunking systems you program every frequency pair you could ever be assigned. So if you add sites or channels later you don't have to reprogram hundreds of radios.
If you're in want a radio that every shop can program because honestly you'll never be done programming that radio lol! Don't by an HYT and then roll through smaller towns and go add this channel to this radio they haven't seen before. Kenwood NX-700, TK-7102. or ICOM F5023 or their big one F5060? Something that the software is ezpz free on the internet because every shop will be able to do those IMO.
kayn1n32008
ØÆSØ Say it, say 'ENCRYPTION'
It's 35 road channels, and 15(as of Dec 2021) loading channels. Yea the western Alberta/NE BC road channel list is massive.
