I am tasked to research, my company looking to get 15 2 way handheld radios we operate a small port need radios to communicate 2 miles. With out getting an FCC license.
You have only two legal choices for ‘no license’, FRS, or MURS.
MURS will give 1/2 to 2 miles range from handie-talkie to handie-talkie, which is the same thing you will get from any service not involving repeaters or high up antennas on base stations. FRS, beting half watt, tends to be somewhat less, especially inside buildings, etc.
GMRS will work, but is NOT ‘license free’, so far. It requires every single user to get a currently $85/five years license to use.
If you actually need ‘inside building to inside building’ hand held units, you’re limited to a commercial radio service that leases licensed radios and repeaters, or one of the ‘phone’ providers like NEXTEL that provide (for a fee) ‘push to talk’ services.
Note that if you mean by ‘port’ a marine type ‘port’, it is NOT legal to use marine radios on shore, other that specifically licensed shore stations.
What about the digital Motorola DTR or other 900mhz spread spectrum radios?
The DTR’s are nice, but still won’t get 2 mile routine range, and I feel like he’s suggesting they don’t have much of a budget, somehow.
DTR’s are expensive, compared to the other choices.
Thanks for your advice. We are currently using a Nextel type system but the service is expensive and not very reliable. I don’t know why but 2 radio users standing side by side one with service the other without? I need to mention our employees are very careless so we need durable units. Yes we are at a seaport.
If you go for FRS or MURS you will be on shared, low power, frequencies. The main reason you file an application with the FCC is to get your own frequency. You will go through a coordinator and his job is to assign you a “private” frequency with a certain MIRA (mile radius) protection. That way if someone gets on your frequency illegally you can make them get off. No license, no power. The business license is good for 10 years. The initial cost of the license way offsets the benefits it provides. This way you can get good quality, not necessarily expensive, high powered commercial radios that will do what you want to do without interference. If you expand your area of operations you can add a repeater later on. My Dad taught me a long time ago to do something right to start with and be done with it.