Press2talk, Two Way Radios are essential for operating an efficient taxi company.

Many thought with the advent of the mobile phone, two way radios would disappear. Yes, it is easy to just go down the road and buy a couple of mobile phones when you start up a taxi firm but what does 2 way give you compared to the mobile. One of the most important things is, press the button and talk. You are on the phone and a customer wants a pickup straight away, you can hold the call and get that instant answer from the driver.

Press ... talk ... get your answer, its as simple as that. Another advantage is that once you have paid for your radio, you can talk and talk and talk and it doesn't cost another penny. One more advantage is that normally a radio system is set up so the operator talks to all the drivers in one go. An advantage if calling a job or does anybody know where so & so is.

Possible Enhancements to Two Way Radios Systems.

Vehicle to Vehicle contact termed as,' Talkthrough ' or ‘Car to Car’

This can be achieved in one of three ways.

1 If you hire equipment, it is common to put you on a ‘simplex’ channel. This can be done for the first year of hiring without any extra charge for the ‘car to car’ contact. A simplex channel gives you car to car contact, even without a Basestation so if a few vehicles want to have contact with each other within a town, this is a simple solution. Range is limited by the position of each vehicle, height above sea level and if there is any high buildings or obstructions close by. Vehicles in a poor location, range 2 miles, one vehicle up a hill some 300 or 400 feet above sea level, range 20 miles!

2 A desk mounted, talkthrough Basestation which when talkthrough is switched on, rebroadcasts all incoming messages to the other vehicles automatically.

3 A remote talkthrough Basestation located high up in a good position to give improved coverage.

The office uses either a desk mounted fixed mobile to talk out through the remote Basestation or is linked to the remote site by a landline. Although the landline option is the best and was the only option some years ago, the cost is so high that most steer clear of them.

Operator selectively calling individual drivers without others hearing, termed as 'Selective calling on a closed channel'
All radios are silent unless they receive a special signal from the office to switch their speaker on.

Answering the Telephone over the two way radio ( out of hours) termed 'Telephone interconnection '
This is useful when the office is not manned. By adding a telephone interconnect or telephone patch (telepatch) to your repeater system you can allow authorized users to place and receive ( or receive only ) telephone calls to the telephone system. When not in telepatch mode the system acts as a conventional car to car repeater.

To access telepatch mode, an authorized user will transmit an access code to the repeater, a valid code will trigger the repeater to transmit a dial tone over the radio channel. The user can then dial into the telephone system using the repeater as an interface. We engineer most systems for taxi operators for receive of calls only. Upon connection of a successful call, the radio user assumes full control of the conversation - this is because the radio can only talk or listen, not both together (semi-duplex) although the telephone caller can talk and listen as normal. To end a call, the radio can transmit the access code or wait for the system to time-out and return to repeater mode.

If the repeater is called over the telephone system, it will transmit a ringing tone over the radio channel to indicate to the radio users that a telephone call is present. To answer the call, an authorized user simply needs to transmit the access code to be connected to the telephone caller but most taxi systems we provide are answered on the two way radio by just pressing the PTT ( press to talk ) button.

Vehicle sending simple data back to the office (Delta 1 cleared, Delt1 booking etc by pushing a button on vehicle set ) termed as 'Simple Data'. You can also have an emergency button.

Data Head in vehicle connected to radio for job dispatch, termed,' Radio Dispatch System '
An office computer system running software to dispatch jobs is connected into the radio system.
Jobs are displayed on the in vehicle 'data head' which also gives the driver the option to communicate by voice.

Increased range can be achieved with a ' Remote or Repeater Basestation '. In its own right a repeater can be a useful tool to increase the operating range of your radio system. With its relatively high transmitting power & external antenna, a well-sited repeater will provide an excellent platform to boost signals beyond the range of non-repeater networks. Whether it is sited at the centre of your operating network or at a location prone to weak coverage, the repeater will instantaneously re-transmit received audio without any noticeable delay. This high power re-transmission improves your operating range as the original signal effectively gets a "piggy back" ride.

Installation Components and Information for Two Way Radios

Radio Licence for Press2talk Two Way Taxi type Services.
An Ofcom licence is needed unless you hire equipment from a licenced supplier
The maximum period of hire is 12 months.

We can send you a licence application in the post and help you fill it in because of the technical requirements.
(email us if you want us to) or you can apply on line here at Ofcoms web site . Email us if you need help with this.
You can contact us here...

Read about, purchase or hire equipment here at the shopping centre