Walkie Talkies are portable, hand-held communication devices. The history can be tracked back to WW2. Many different variations were made for the different armed forces, and the commercial walkie talkie was developed after the war ended.

Walkie Talkie Features
Walkie talkies uniquely only allow one radio to transmit at the same time over their half-duplex channel, however there is no limit as to how many people can listen. Instead of a telephone style earpiece, walkie talkies implement a loudspeaker which enables conversations to be heard without holding the unit to your ear. Walkie talkies are used to communicate between other handheld units and fixed radio stations. Walkie talkies are usually the shape of a large portable telephone, and have a fixed antenna at the top.

Walkie Talkie Origins
The fist radio audio transmiter and receiver that was coined the ‘walkie talkie’ was created by Motorola. Those involved developed the Motorola SCR-300 using frequency modulation. The flagship walkie talkie, due to its size had to be worn on the back. Is wan’t long afterward, in the middle of WW2 that Motorola developed the ‘Handie Talkie’ which is a design we would now associate as a ‘Walkie Talkie’. It had massively reduced performance, but was the first completely self contained handheld device.

Walkie Talkies Now
Walkie talkies are widely used nowadays in both consumer and commercial environments, for example outdoor recreations, business use, military and public safety. As a result, the variety and quality of the units is substancial, from high grade commercial units to kids walkie talkies. Improvements in technology have meant that the size of the units has reduced considerably. It’s quite common to find that commercial walkie talkies are in protective housings, and are limited to a few frequencies. Consumer walkie talkies on the other hand tend to be smaller, more lightweight and capable of scanning across far more channels within the band. Kids walkie talkies are generally low power units, and as a result are exempt from licence requirements. Though they often look the same as fully featured walkie talkies, they are normally releatively low-tech in comparison.

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Filed under: Telephone Systems

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