What type of system would fit my requirements?

The first factor in determining the kind of system required to solve a communication problem is to determine the area of coverage or range required. PMR446 licence-exempt equipment typically has a range of around 1 km. If you were a farmer with a need to communicate with a tractor driver working in a field 10 km away , clearly, PMR446 type equipment would not be the answer. Likewise a Garden Centre covering an area of perhaps 2-3 acres with a need to communicate to staff on the site would not be best advised to use mobile phones.

Private Business Radio systems take many forms and PBR equipment can be programmed and configured to work in many different ways. Operation of a PBR system in the UK is regulated by the Radiocommunications Agency and an annual licence fee is payable.The limitations of a PBR system are the range and area of coverage they can provide and their weaknesses in communication with the 'outside world'. There are however an enormous number of applications where PBR radio is the most cost effective and most efficient solution.

In its simplest form a PBR system could comprise just two handportable radios, either VHF or UHF, providing voice communications over a range of up to 3 km. For greater range it would be necessary to install a base station. A base station is a mains powered two-way radio connected to a fixed antenna. A simple base station would provide communication base-to-mobile/handportable and mobile/handportable-to base. The range afforded by such a system is very much dependant upon the base station antenna height and the local topography but you could expect coverage over an area of perhaps 20km radius of the base station. If voice communication between radio units is required then a base station with a 'talk-through' facility is required. A 'talk-through' base station acts as a repeater, automatically re-transmitting received signals enabling two mobiles to communicate directly. Both radio units must be within range of the base station for this facility to work.

If even greater range is required or the base station office location is not suitable for a base station antenna in terms of relative topography then it is possible to situate the base station equipment on a 'remote' or 'hill-top' site. Hill-top sites are shared antenna sites operated expressly for this purpose. The cost is dependant upon the facilities available at the site and the area of coverage afforded. A remotely sited base station needs to be controlled by the licensee. There are two common methods of controlling a remote base station either by a 'landline' or by 'reverse frequency working'. Other methods are possible but are more specialised and not commonly used for privately operated PBR systems.

PBR systems utilising a base station on a remote site tend to be relatively expensive to set up and operate. Running costs comprise the annual licence fee as well as the aerial site rental fees. Forn systems with less than perhaps 20 mobiles/handportables a more cost effective solution would be to use a CBS or Common Base Station system.

A CBS is a shared access system normally operated from a prime hill-top antenna site to provide the maximum possible area of coverage. Subscribers to the system share the resources of the base station gaining all the adavantages of having their own hill-top site base station without the costs involved. CBS users pay a fixed monthly charge per radio unit to use the system. Mobile to mobile communication is a standard feature of such a system. A CBS is a shared access systems meaning at times the channel will be in by other subscribers and not available for immediate use. Individual subscriber groups cannot however hear each other. Subscribers can use 'standard' PBR radio equipment on a CBS system. For further information on CBS systems operated by us please click here.

A more advanced system than a CBS is a multichannel trunked radio system utilising MPT1327 equipment. The principle is the same as with a CBS in as much as the sysem is based at a prime aerial site. The difference is the intelligent nature of the base station equipment and the mobile radio units. Because of the multi-channel nature of the trunked system the problems of channel contention associated with shared access systems are largely overcome except in periods of high radio activity. The intelligent mobile/handportable radios have more advanced features as standard than PBR equipment. Calls can be made on an individual one-to-one basis, to a predetermined group of mobiles or to all mobiles in the subscribers fleet. For more information on our own MPT1327 based system providing coverage throughout Norfolk and North Suffolk please click here.