A radiotelephone (or radiophone) is a communications system for transmission of

speech over radio. Radiotelephone systems are not necessarily interconnected wit
h the public "land line" telephone network. "Radiotelephony" means transmission
of sound (audio) by radio, in contrast to radiotelegraphy (transmission of teleg
raph signals) or video transmission. Where a two-way radio system is arranged fo
r speaking and listening at a mobile station, and where it can be interconnected
to the public switched telephone system, the system can provide mobile telephon
e service.
Contents [hide]
1 Design
1.1 Mode of emission
1.2 Modes of operation
2 Features
2.1 Privacy and selective calling
3 Uses
3.1 Conventional telephone use
3.2 Marine use
4 Regulations
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References
Design[edit]
Mode of emission[edit]
The word phone has a long precedent beginning with early US wireless voice syste
ms. The term means voice as opposed to telegraph or Morse code. This would inclu
de systems fitting into the category of two-way radio or one-way voice broadcast
s such as coastal maritime weather. The term is still popular in the amateur rad
io community and in US Federal Communications Commission regulations.
Modes of operation[edit]
A standard landline telephone allows both users to talk and listen simultaneousl
y; effectively there are two open channels between the two end-to-end users of t
he system. In a radiotelephone system, this form of working, known as full-duple
x, require a radio system to simultaneously transmit and receive on two separate
channels, which both wastes bandwidth and presents some technical challenges. I
t is, however, the most comfortable method of voice communication for users, and
it is currently used in cell phones and was used in the former IMTS.
The most common method of working for radiotelephones is half-duplex, operation,
which allows one person to talk and the other to listen alternately. If a singl
e channel is used, both ends take turns to transmit on it. An eavesdropper would
hear both sides of the conversation. Dual-frequency working splits the communic
ation into two separate channels, but only one is used to transmit at a time. Th
e end users have the same experience as single frequency simplex but an eavesdro
pper with one receiver would only hear one side of the conversation.
The user presses a special switch on the transmitter when they wish to talk this i
s called the "press-to-talk" switch or PTT (colloquially, sometimes called "the
tit"). It is usually fitted on the side of the microphone or other obvious posit
ion. Users may use a special code-word such as "over" to signal that they have f
inished transmitting, or it may follow from the conversation.
Features[edit]
Radiotelephones may operate at any frequency where they are licensed to do so, t
hough typically they are used in the various bands between 60 and 900 MHz. They
may use simple modulation schemes such as AM or FM, or more complex techniques s
uch as digital coding, spread spectrum, and so on. Licensing terms for a given b
and will usually specify the type of modulation to be used. For example, airband
radiotelephones used for air to ground communication between pilots and control

lers operates in the VHF band from 118.0 to 136.975 MHz, using amplitude modulat
ion.
Radiotelephone receivers are usually designed to a very high standard, and are u
sually of the double-conversion superhet design. Likewise, transmitters are care
fully designed to avoid unwanted interference and feature power outputs from a f
ew tens of milliwatts to perhaps 50 watts for a mobile unit, up to a couple of h
undred watts for a base station. Multiple channels are often provided using a fr
equency synthesizer.
Receivers usually features a squelch circuit to cut off the audio output from th
e receiver when there is no transmission to listen to. This is in contrast to br
oadcast receivers, which often dispense with this.
Privacy and selective calling[edit]
Main article: Selective calling
Often, on a small network system, there are many mobile units and one main base
station. This would be typical for police or taxi services for example. To help
direct messages to the correct recipients and avoid irrelevant traffic on the ne
twork's being a distraction to other units, a variety of means have been devised
to create addressing systems.
The crudest and oldest of these is called CTCSS, or Continuous Tone-Controlled S
quelch System. This consists of superimposing a precise very low frequency tone
on the audio signal. Only the receiver tuned to this specific tone is able to re
ceive the signal: this receiver shuts off the audio when the tone is not present
or is a different frequency. By assigning a unique frequency to each mobile, pr
ivate channels can be imposed on a public network. However this is only a conven
ience feature it does not guarantee privacy.
A more commonly used system is called Selective Calling or Selcall. This also us
es audio tones, but these are not restricted to sub-audio tones and are sent as
a short burst in sequence. The receiver will be programmed to respond only to a
unique set of tones in a precise sequence, and only then will it open the audio
circuits for open-channel conversation with the base station. This system is muc
h more versatile than CTCSS, as relatively few tones yield a far greater number
of "addresses". In addition, special features (such as broadcast modes and emerg
ency overrides) can be designed in, using special addresses set aside for the pu
rpose. A mobile unit can also broadcast a Selcall sequence with its unique addre
ss to the base, so the user can know before the call is picked up which unit is
calling. In practice many selcall systems also have automatic transponding built
in, which allows the base station to "interrogate" a mobile even if the operato
r is not present. Such transponding systems usually have a status code that the
user can set to indicate what they are doing. Features like this, while very sim
ple, are one reason why they are very popular with organisations that need to ma
nage a large number of remote mobile units. Selcall is widely used, though is be
coming superseded by much more sophisticated digital systems.
Uses[edit]
Conventional telephone use[edit]
Main article: Mobile radio telephone
Mobile radio telephone systems such as Mobile Telephone Service and Improved Mob
ile Telephone Service allowed a mobile unit to have a telephone number allowing
access from the general telephone network, although some systems required mobile
operators to set up calls to mobile stations. Mobile radio telephone systems be
fore the introduction of cellular telephone services suffered from few usable ch
annels, heavy congestion, and very high operating costs.
Marine use[edit]

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this s
ection by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challe
nged and removed. (December 2009)
The Marine Radiotelephone Service or HF ship-to-shore operates on shortwave radi
o frequencies, using single-sideband modulation. The usual method is that a ship
calls a shore station, and the shore station's marine operator connects the cal
ler to the public switched telephone network. This service is retained for safet
y reasons, but in practice has been made obsolete by satellite telephones (parti
cularly INMARSAT) and VoIP telephone and email via satellite internet.
Short wave radio is used because it bounces between the ionosphere and the groun
d, giving a modest 1,000 watt transmitter (the standard power) a world-wide rang
e.
Most shore stations monitor several frequencies. The frequencies with the longes
t range are usually near 20 MHz, but the ionospheric weather (propagation) can d
ramatically change which frequencies work best.
Single-sideband (SSB) is used because the short wave bands are crowded with many
users, and SSB permits a single voice channel to use a narrower range of radio
frequencies (bandwidth), about 3.5 kHz. In comparison, AM radio uses about 8 kHz
, and narrowband (voice or communication-quality) FM uses 9 kHz.
Marine radiotelephony first became common in the 1930s, and was used extensively
for communications to ships and aircraft over water. In that time, most long-ra
nge aircraft had long-wire antennas that would be let out during a call, and ree
led-in afterward.
One of the most important uses of marine radiotelephony has been to change ships
' itineraries, and to perform other business at sea.
Some ships, including almost all military ships, carry teletypewriters, and use
them to communicate over short wave. This is called "marine radiotelegraphy". Th
e equipment is a shortwave radio transceiver with an attachment that generates a
nd receives audio tones in order to drive the teletypewiter.
Regulations[edit]
In the United States, since the Communications Act of 1934 the Federal Communica
tions Commission (FCC) has issued various commercial "radiotelephone operator" l
icenses and permits to qualified applicants. These allow them to install, servic
e, and maintain voice-only radio transmitter systems for use on ships and aircra
ft.[1] (Until deregulation in the 1990s they were also required for commercial d
omestic radio and television broadcast systems. Because of treaty obligations th
ey are still required for engineers of international shortwave broadcast station
s.) The certificate currently issued is the general radiotelephone operator lice
nse.