News and Product Updates

Lunch & Learn: Digital Radio

Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Steve Cragg, presented at July’s Lunch & Learn on the differences between analog and digital radio. Perhaps more interesting than explaining the difference between the carrier waves (analog radio using sinusoidal wave forms; digital using binary packets) was discussing the practical impact these differences have.

It was interesting for some to learn about the prevalence of AM radio usage in ground-to-air and ship-to-shore applications, in part owing to the fact that FM radio signals experience the “capture effect” when a stronger signal overpowers and eliminates a weaker signal on the same frequency in a receiver.

The benefits and drawbacks regarding audio quality for both analog and digital radio signals were also of note. While analog audio degrades as distance increases, digital audio remains consistent until it reaches a limit and cuts out entirely. Digital audio is also clearer—but lacks the tones present in analog audio, making it difficult to recognize voices. Knowing that fire departments prefer analog AM radio while police departments have long since adopted digital indicates there is no clear winner between analog and digital.

While digital radio usage continues to increase—being favored by many European public safety systems—with approximately 30 percent of two-way radio in the U.S. still being analog, TC Communications remains optimistic about the longevity of analog radio and confident in our ability to provide superior products supporting analog radio systems. LTE radios (also known as cellular walkie-talkies, which act like two-way radios but are connected to cellular and Wi-Fi networks) may be growing in popularity, but analog two-way radio will still have its place.