Great news! You’ve stumbled onto the perfect page for school two-way radios. Everything you read below will teach you how these radios can help you and your fellow teachers improve your student’s lives. Communication is what keeps a school running smoothly. To ensure efficient communication, you need a quality school walkie-talkie that will always keep everyone from the administration to the faculty, bus drivers, and janitorial staff in touch.
What do you need in a radio for Large School Campuses?
We’re not only going to break down four of the premiere school radios on the market, but we’ll also cover what you should look for in a school walkie-talkie and break down which radio might be right for you.
There are a lot of quality school radios out there, and the ones on this list may not be what you’re looking for.
This is perfectly fine, and it doesn’t mean that there’s no school walkie-talkie out there for you.
The experienced radio professionals at Tech Wholesale are ready to help. Contact us today by phone, email, or live chat. Tell us about your school, and let us match you with the perfect device specifically suited to your needs.
Before you can begin your search for a quality school walkie-talkie, you first have to know what to look for.
Indoor and Outdoor Functionality
For a school radio to be effective, it must work both inside and outside. Suppose you’re doing an evacuation drill where students have to leave the building. In that case, you want to make sure that your staff members will be able to communicate with the administrators and one another to determine when the drill has ended.
Plus, clear communication both inside and outside the building could be the difference between life and death if there is an actual emergency.
With a UHF device or digital band radio, you get reliable, instant communication. VHF radios aren’t great indoors, where most of the school day takes place, so you’ll want to avoid them.
Small, Light, and Clear
The radio you choose for your school should be small and light so that staff can carry them easily. For a radio to help improve school safety and security, it must be easily accessible at all times.
The two-way radio you choose must offer clear communication free of static or interference of any kind. You don’t want vital safety instructions to come through inaudibly.
Durable
School environments can be chaotic at times, and it’s likely that a student might cause a teacher to drop their radio. When this happens, you want to make sure that the device you’ve chosen is sturdy and stands up to military-grade specifications.
The Best School Walkie-Talkies
Motorola Curve: The Most Advanced School Radio on the Market
The Motorola Curve is a huge advancement in the world of radio communication. While it was developed initially for retail businesses, restaurants, and the hospitality industry, it’s a perfect fit for schools of all sizes.
This product runs on a 900 MHz ISM digital band, making it free of FCC license fees. It has ten channels that you can use to segment your staff. You can have a channel specifically for administrators, another for maintenance workers, another for faculty, security, and even one for cafeteria workers.
At a weight of only 5.11 ounces, this is a lightweight and easy-to-carry device that can stay with the members of your school staff throughout the entire day. The included lithium-ion battery lasts for 11.5 hours, which is more than enough time for your average American school day.
It has a range of up to 20 floors inside and can communicate for up to 300,000 square feet, or two miles outdoors.
The Curve can act as a stand-alone radio-to-radio communication tool, or you can tie it into your Wi-Fi system to unlock additional functions.
The Wi-Fi connectivity of the Motorola Curve allows you to use advanced features like voice assistance. You can give the device verbal commands like “call assistant principal” or “contact the janitorial staff.” Voice commands can even be used to log in and out of the radio.
The Motorola Curve is also tough and built to last. It’s built to military specifications and features a polycarbonate housing. It meets the military-standard MIL Specs 810. The Curve is IP5X-sealed to protect against dust and humidity as well.
Radios for School Systems with Multiple Locations More than a Mile Apart
Motorola TLK-100
The Motorola TLK-100 would be an ideal radio for a school that wants to ensure communication wherever and whenever needed. A perfect example of this would be a high school on one side of town needing to communicate with a middle school on the other side of town.
This product runs on a 4G LTE cellular network, making it a digital radio that’s immune to FCC licensing fees.
But the truly special thing about this radio is its range. The Motorola TLK-100 has a nationwide range, reaching anywhere in the continental United States. You can use this radio anywhere you can get a cell phone signal. But it’s not limited to that alone. It can also connect to your Wi-Fi network, enabling clear, seamless communication even without a cell phone signal.
The TLK-100 has eight channels, which can be expanded to 96 talk groups. That means you’ll be able to get all the staff segmentation you need. It’s also built to last, meeting military specifications for low-pressure environments, extreme temperatures, solar radiation, rain, dust, vibration, and shock. It should be noted that this radio, along with its sister device, the TLK-150, require an additional subscription to work with Wi-Fi or cell tower networks.
Motorola TLK-150
While the Motorola TLK-150 might not be ideal to use within a school, it’s an exceptional choice for a fleet of school buses.
This is another digital radio that runs on a 4G LTE cellular network, meaning that, like the TLK-100, it too can communicate anywhere within the United States. These devices can also communicate with the TLK-100 handheld radio, enabling teacher to teacher, school to school, bus to bus, teacher to bus, and school to bus communication.
This radio mounts to a vehicle's dashboard and comes with an attached microphone with a PTT button. For added convenience, it’s also Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capable. Plus, with a mobile app, you can even communicate with this radio from cell phones, making it even more accessible.
Because the TLK-150 is a digital device, you won’t have to pay anything in FCC licensing fees. Your school’s annual budget can go to more important things like books, salaries, and facility maintenance.
For Single Campus School Systems
Motorola RMU2040
The Motorola RMU2040 is a UHF Radio with four channels that you can use to segment your staff.
It allows for outdoor communication for up to two miles, so even the largest school campus will be well within its range. Inside, you have a range of 20 floors or 250,000 square feet to play with, making it ideal for schools of all sizes.
This is another highly durable device made up of military-grade hardware.
Privacy will never be a concern either. Thanks to this device’s 219 privacy codes that eliminate interference and crosstalk, sensitive student information will remain confidential.
This radio operates on 99 UHF frequencies exclusive to businesses, so you won’t have to worry about hobbyists picking up on internal discussions.
Which School Walkie-Talkie Do You Need?
The Best Radio for School Busses
If you have a fleet of school buses that you need to outfit with a reliable radio, the Motorola TLK-150 is the best fit.
This device is specifically designed for vehicles, and can seamlessly communicate with the TLK-100 handheld devices. When you’re transporting students, you can’t put yourself in the dark. When a parent loads their child onto a school bus, they’re entrusting the school district to safely get them to and from school.
One of the best ways to ensure this is with a radio that will never fall out of range. The TLK-150 has nationwide coverage powered by a 4G LTE cellular network. So, in the event of traffic or some kind of emergency, you can be kept in the know and breathe easy.
The Best Radio for Field Trips
Whenever students and teachers leave school premises, communication becomes even more important. If your students are out on a field trip, you need to know that you can reach your faculty at any time, and they can reach the administration when needed.
Because of that, the best radio solution for school field trips is undoubtedly the Motorola TLK-100. This radio has nationwide coverage, so if you’re a school in New Jersey and you’re sending your eighth-grade class on an overnight field trip to Washington DC, you’ll be able to have seamless communication with chaperones at the push of a button.
Using a special mobile app, these radios can communicate with cell phones. This requires an additional subscription.
The TLK-100 is composed of military-grade hardware, so it will remain unscathed even if one gets dropped in the hustle and bustle of a field trip.
If you don’t want to pay for an additional a subscription, or don’t need to communicate with schools that are miles away, the Motorola CLS, RMU, and DLR radios are perfect choices.
The Best Radio for Elementary Schools
Elementary schools can get a lot of use out of the Motorola RMU2040. This device has four channels, which can easily segment a smaller staff.
When dealing with younger kids, it’s important to have durable and sturdy devices at hand. Things get dropped and smashed all the time, so you want to make sure that if a student knocks a radio off a teacher’s desk, it’s not going to break.
Thankfully, the RMU2040 is highly durable, meeting military specifications. A device designed to withstand warzones can handle anything your average third-grader throws at it.
You’re also getting an impressive range of up to 20 floors inside and up to two miles outdoors.
The Best Radio for High Schools
High schools with larger school grounds and more modular staff can get a lot out of the Motorola Curve.
This digital device features an impressive ten channels and many innovative features like talk-groups. That makes it easy to set up channels devoted to the various departments that make a successful high school function.
Connecting this device to the school’s Wi-Fi network will allow it to unlock additional features, including voice assistance.
The range is perfect for high schools of all sizes, reaching up to 20 floors inside and two miles outside. This military-grade radio will be able to withstand punishment and is built to last.
Want to Learn More?
The devices we’ve previewed today are some of the best of the best when it comes to school radios. If you want more information on these devices or any radio in the Tech Wholesale catalog, contact us now by phone, email, or live chat.