How a radio works (fixed)

[Cane]

Hi! So I'm not exactly sure on how everyone roleplays as a police officer nowadays (especially with the slow activity post-RS5), but there's one thing I've noticed almost everyone do (including myself). A great number of you officers seem to not know how some features of a radio issued to LEOs work, namely the famous, "life-saving" panic button. Ever since I started playing as a LEO on this server, I have noticed that many, if not most, players that roleplay as a cop use the panic button as a form of calling for help during a kidnapping situation, or any other related scenes where the player's radio is taken away. There are very few officers that can legitimately claim that they did not do this; I've done it plenty of times myself.

For those that did not read my previous topic, I currently work closely with my university's police department, which is an official, sworn police department. Here, we use Motorola HT750 radios (picture for reference), thus I will be referring to the handheld radio that I am most familiar with.

As you can see on the picture, there is a volume dial (which also functions as an on/off dial) on the left, a channel selector (1 through 16) on the middle, the antenna on the right, and an orange button in between the channel selector and the antenna. On the left side, there are four buttons; the top button I am not sure what it does, the second, long button is your PTT (push-to-talk) button, and the last two are scan on/off buttons (SCAN allows you to listen to radio chatter on all available channels programmed to your radio). On the right side of the radio, there is a port you can use to plug in your PTT (push-to-talk) remote speaker with microphone.

Now, many believe that each and every radio is equipped with some sort of a GPS-style system, which, if pressed, sends out some magical signal to headquarters, displaying your exact location. This is not the case with most radios. What the "magical" orange button does, when pressed, is give you an open-microphone (for 10~30 seconds, depending on how it's programmed) after a few loud, annoying signals to both you and the dispatcher. What is an open-microphone? Well, in order to operate your radio regularly, you need to hold down a button while transmitting your message (thus the PTT button). When the orange button is pressed, the radio gives you an ability to transmit your message without needing to press that button. It does not send any GPS coordinates to dispatch/HQ, but it does send an alert with your radio number. Keep in mind that when pressed, your microphone speaker projects a few alarming beeps to notify yourself that you have pressed the button.

I am, of course, not forcing anyone to roleplay with this knowledge. I am just giving some advice for those who are interested in roleplaying slightly more realistically as LEOs.

On a related note, does this department still use traditional radio codes (10-codes, 100-codes, etc)? I ask because many law enforcement agencies in the United States are actually getting rid of such codes from use. Many departments are moving towards using plain language to communicate. This is because radio codes have different meanings throughout different departments, both law enforcement and other. Plain language allows for information to be easily transferred, making it easier to communicate both with internal and external staff. I am not aware of the codes that the fire department and medical services use in this server, but with many players unfamiliar with radio codes playing as public safety employees, I highly advise against the usage of radio codes.

Again, I am not setting new standards for any departments. I am posting this thread in hopes to inform the community with knowledge I've acquired from my workplace. I thank you for reading this, and I hope to see some cool roleplay situations from all of you!



- Brian

[Ryan Harrison]

Sounds interesting..

[Marcus Ferreira]

In large city areas police officers of some countries can use sony  radio that connects to slightly different system than motorolla. Motorolla works similiar to walkie-talkie thing, so the bigger and better quality radio you have, for longer distance your signal will go, same goes for reception, but on both sides it can be interupted by tall buildings and so on. Motorolla requires no radio towers to operate so it's great for large countyside areas with flat terrain.
Ericsson for exchange works same as the cellphone of yours, it needs only small transmiter that will reach atleast one radio signal tower, that will transmit communication on this channel to each and every reception device in range of radio towers network. Ericson panic button forces each tower that signall will reach to send beeeep sound and to recieve it back from device with exact time of it, that allows central pc to count the distance from each tower, that in conclusion laeds to device localisation precised up to 10 meters range. Panic button works untill re-set by central pc and gives user priority even over dispatch radio when ptt is pressed. Beep sound goes on and on till device is off or reset each 30 seconds or other time specyfied by central pc.
Adittionaly i can tell that sony erricson allows you to make sort of phone call to other device specyfied by id number without anyone beside central pc hearing it- central pc can also record such calls.
Motorolla has no way to check exact number of device that is transmitting a signal, unless it's some new system i'm not aware of.