Scenarios where Two-Way Radios can Save the Day

Walkie-talkies to the rescue! Take a few minutes and read about some specific instances where two-way radios can make a huge difference in terms of information, instruction, coordination and safety. Whether it's to relay sudden changes in a building specification to a work team or to coordinate the search for a missing person, two-way radios can be life savers - at times, literally.

Imagine this. Your company has been hired to construct a new home, and was given a complete set of blueprints by your client. One worker is on-site, overseeing pouring of concrete. Another is at a lumber yard, purchasing building materials. A third employee is at the hardware store, stocking up on additional tools, galvanized nails and other supplies that they were low on. A call comes in from the client. They've decided that they want to add a bathroom on the second floor, and this alters the layout of the other rooms. Without a two-way radio system, you would have to call your workers individually. After locating their phone numbers, you'll hope that they have their cell phones with them, that they're fully charged to receive calls and that there's good cell phone service wherever they are. However, with everyone connected to the home base by handheld two-way radios (or a mobile unit in their vehicle), you can immediately broadcast to everyone that the job specifications have changed. This saves your company money in not buying materials you don't need, it saves employee hours in not having to redo work and it saves the irritation of your important client when you do the job right the first time!

In another part of town, a call has come in to the police station that there is a missing child. The boy was playing with his friends in a wooded area near his home, they became separated and were not able to find him. Several relatives, in addition to emergency responders, are searching in different nearby locations where the child might be. The boy's relatives have a family walkie-talkie system, and they are using that to coordinate with each other so they can cover more ground. The police and emergency responders have their own two-way walkie-talkies to organize their own efforts. This cuts down on confusion as to who's looking where. One of the relatives finds a scarf that belongs to the boy, near a stream. She radios the other relatives, and one calls the police, who forward the information to the others in their group. Soon everyone is concentrated in the area where the scarf was found. The boy is soon located on a nearby dirt road. He had become lost, but is uninjured and is very happy to have been found!

A small group of friends have gone skiing in Utah. It is a remote area, but with excellent trails and fresh snow. A few of the friends go off in one direction, and the others head off in another. One party in the first group accidentally hits a stump underneath the snow and takes a tumble. They aren't seriously injured, but the ankle is a little twisted and too painful to continue skiing. Their skiing partner tries to make a cell phone call to the others, letting them know that they'll be late for their rendezvous, because they'll have to walk back around the other way. However, due to the remote location, the cell phone signal is extremely poor, and they can't get a good connection. Fortunately, they're all carrying two-way radios! They push a button and have everyone on the line at once to relay the news. It's a good thing they called. A member of the other group has been listening to the NOAA weather reports on the walkie-talkie, and as it happens, an unexpected storm is quickly moving in. They won't have time to walk back before it hits, so the first group decides to go back to the base camp for an all-terrain snowmobile to come rescue the man who has been injured. It's a great plan, and everyone is back at the lodge with hot chocolate in time to watch the blizzard, safely from indoors.

These are just a few examples of how two-way radios can save the day!