Making a Simplex Voice Channel Plan

[Illini Warrior]

https://survivalblog.com/2022/11/11/...n-shift/print/


The average person who gets a Baofeng radio will have no idea how to tune in when they turn it on and see an input like 445.000 staring back at them. Pushing the buttons to blindly tune the frequencies up or down doesn?t work like a CB radio, car stereo, or marine radio. You can?t just pick a frequency at random and start using it. First, there will probably be no one to talk to. Second, you could be transmitting on a frequency or in a mode that is prohibited.

My pre-ham radio experience was with VHF law enforcement radios; my agency had 16 channels programmed in on the main ?A? bank. For public safety/business use, the FCC assigns frequencies. Not in the ham world. Ham radio does not have defined voice channels like Marine radio, CB, or GMRS/FRS. The concept of saying ?Go to channel __? doesn?t exist.

What exists on the ham bands are portions of the frequency spectrum that is generally understood to be used for simplex (radio-to-radio) voice communication. Imagine it as a freeway without any marked lanes. To better navigate that lane-less freeway, radio users have decided to separate portions of each band and dedicate them to specific uses.

[Illini Warrior]

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