walkie channels

Rusted Iron · Post by **Rusted Iron** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 11:09 am

Can anyone tell me what the official-use walkie talkie channels are. I want to avoid using one of those.

Thanks

Dato · Post by **Dato** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 1:23 pm

I'm not sure what the official channels are (if any), BUT, I should warn ya, that if you are planning on using the walkies to find friends, they are, well, useless!

We tried a couple of years, and there are SO many people on all channels, that it's pretty much impossible to find each other through the noise. As a matter of fact, we tried to use them again last year, on sunday evening BEFORE the start of the event, figuring it would be fairly quiet, but there seemed to be hundreds of people on all channels.

what are you planning on using them fore? there may be better ways of accomplising that goal.

phil · Post by **phil** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 4:17 pm

Official radio frequencies are not available for public use, so if by walkie-talkie you mean FRS/GMRS/ham radios, you don't need to worry so long as you stay in your band.

EMS will be monitoring MURS frequency 154.600, ctcss 97.4Hz this year, so they ask that people not use that frequency at all. My understanding is that this frequency is MURS Channel 5; I don't have a MURS radio, so I don't know that for sure.

As Dato said, by Thursday or Friday, there are so many people on FRS and GMRS that those radios are virtually useless. Louise and I have started bringing our ham radios, which still are useable without thousands of people crowding the frequencies.

Since I don't have a MURS radio, I can't tell you that MURS is a better choice, but you might give that some thought instead of FRS/GMRS.

MrMullen · Post by **MrMullen** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 5:50 pm

Here is how I did it one year.

Turn on radio, pick a freq without using the security code and broadcast "Frequency check" and for every person that responses back assume that 20 other people are using that frequency.

If you get more than 2 or 3 people coming back, the channel is overloaded. I tried using them a couple of time but towards the end of the week, forget it.

Rusted Iron · Post by **Rusted Iron** » Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:40 pm

I didn't think that official-types used walkie talkies or their frequency, but last year, while trying to communicate with someone who was trying to find our camp, first night, in the dark, we were told to get off of the airport channel! I want to avoid that again.

Burp! · Post by **Burp!** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 2:33 pm

Oh and make sure to say things on your walkie-talkie like "I'm over at 5:30 and .......garble garble" alot. Your friends will think it's still funny even after the 500th time.

jofezasa · Post by **jofezasa** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 3:56 pm

What about FRS/GMRS radios using interference eliminator codes? In theory, there are 2200 combinations on a 22 channel set like a Motorola T7400. I figure most people are lazy and use the default for each channel.

phil · Post by **phil** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 6:02 pm

> I figure most people are lazy and use the default for each channel.

You and only 5,000 other people.

Jiva · Post by **Jiva** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 1:24 pm

The codes only work if the channel is so lightly used that there aren't ever two people trying to transmit at once.

The way the codes work is that the transmitting station plays a tone along with each transmission, and receivers only un-mute if the tone is the one they are set to receive (i.e. if the codes are the same at both ends). If more than one transmitter runs at once, the best that can happen is that only one transmission will be received by the people that it is intended for. In the worst case, the interference will prevent either transmission from being heard.

grogling · Post by **grogling** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 7:59 pm

[quote="Rusted Iron"]I didn't think that official-types used walkie talkies or their frequency, but last year, while trying to communicate with someone who was trying to find our camp, first night, in the dark, we were told to get off of the airport channel! I want to avoid that again.[/quote]

We (the event staff) all use professional grade 2-way radios for our duties. It's true, the frequencies of those aren't made readily available to the public.

However, when using your FRS walkie-talkie, whoever told you the channel you were on was "the airport channel" is full of it. Any of the 14 FRS channels and codes can be used by ANYONE on the playa. Nobody has the right to tell you that a certain channel and code combination is "theirs". While some camps may coordinate projects on these radios, and it might be considered impolite to interfere, there are 10,000 people using the radios. Nobody can claim imminent domain over any of them.

If you have more questions about the MURS radios for contacting emergency dispatch for help, or questions about obtaining the radios themselves, I'd be happy to help.

-g-