How Does A Walkie-talkie Work?

A walkie-talkie is a two-way radio transceiver. It is hand-held and portable and was originally developed for use in the military. It has a half-duplex channel. In other words, only one radio transmits at a time. The downside of using a walkie-talkie is that a lot of people can listen (unlike a mobile phone, on which it is possible to have a private conversation.)

The transmission commences when the push-to-talk switch is pressed. A typical walkie-talkie looks like the handset of a telephone. The antenna of a walkie-talkie sticks out of the top. A walkie-talkie has a built-in speaker which can be heard by the user himself or herself and other people in the immediate vicinity of the user. Hand-held transceivers are used either to communicate between two walkie-talkies or vehicle-mounted stations or base stations.