Analogue radio communication

Analogue two-way radios have been used for business applications as far back as 1933. Today, two-way radio technology is so widespread, it has become nearly as common as a household appliance. This time-saving communications tool has now become a favorite choice for commercial, industrial and even personal use.

The history of the two-way radio is long, but the question still stands as to whether the analogue radio is strong enough to offset the advantages of the feature-rich digital devices that are growing in popularity.

Because the analogue two-way radio has been around for as long as it has, the ceiling of innovation has been reached. But with the emergence of the digital platform, a new era of radio technology has now arrived.

Analogue signals have a sinusoidal, or continuous, value. Today’s analogue systems use frequency modulation (FM). The frequency modulation produces a continuous wave with the voice signal. Analogue signals are commonly used in many systems today, but the uses for analogue signals are declining with the introduction of the more reliable digital signal.

The advantages of analogue two-way systems include:

• Analogue systems use the natural voice, which is a feature preferred by many users.
• Because analogue has been around longer, the number of products and accessories offered is much larger and provides for more options than does digital.

The disadvantages of analogue two-way systems include:

• The used bandwith with analogue technology is wider then with digital systems (resulting in a higher BIPT license fee in Belgium)
• Lack of much extra possibilities or software-driven business applications for analogue radios