What Frequencies do Walkie Talkies use?

Today, smartphones and other mobile devices are used for communication. Accordingly, the use of Everyman Radio has decreased. Nevertheless, there are numerous frequencies available for communication with radio devices. In this article, I will explain which frequencies are used by walkie-talkies today and which ones are available beyond that.

 

Short Answer

Modern walkie-talkies in the USA nowadays usually use FRS (Family Radio Service). This is a license-free radio application with 22 channels in the range from 462.5625 MHz to 462.7250 MHz. The maximum transmission power is limited to 0.5 watts or 2 watts depending on the channel.
Furthermore GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) with a frequency of 462.5625 MHz to 462.7250 MHz is available. A license is required for the use of GMRS. However, it is possible to transmit with a higher power of up to 50 Watt on 30 different channels.


Long Answer

In the “short answer”, I have already explained that walkie-talkies for private use can usually communicate in a frequency range from 462.5625 MHz to 462.7250 MHz. Also, there are other radio applications with which walkie-talkies communicate. I would like to introduce all of them to you now and explain their most important features.

 

FRS

The FRS (Family Radio Service) is a radio service that uses 22 channels in the UHF band. These are in the frequency range from 462.5625 MHz to 462.7250 MHz. The maximum power output is 2 watts (channels 1 to 7 and 15 to 22) or 0.5 watts (channels 8 to 14). No license is required to operate walkie talkies with FRS. However, you must follow the rules of the FCC.
In the following table, all FRS channels are listed with the corresponding frequencies:

Channel Frequency EIRP Restriction
1 462.5625 MHz Up to 2 Watt
2 462.5875 MHz Up to 2 Watt
3 462.6125 MHz Up to 2 Watt
4 462.6375 MHz Up to 2 Watt
5 462.6625 MHz Up to 2 Watt
6 462.6875 MHz Up to 2 Watt
7 462.7125 MHz Up to 2 Watt
8 467.5625 MHz Up to 0.5 Watt
9 467.5875 MHz Up to 0.5 Watt
10 467.6125 MHz Up to 0.5 Watt
11 467.6375 MHz Up to 0.5 Watt
12 467.6625 MHz Up to 0.5 Watt
13 467.6875 MHz Up to 0.5 Watt
14 467.7125 MHz Up to 0.5 Watt
15 462.5500 MHz Up to 2 Watt
16 462.5750 MHz Up to 2 Watt
17 462.6000 MHz Up to 2 Watt
18 462.6250 MHz Up to 2 Watt
19 462.6500 MHz Up to 2 Watt
20 462.6750 MHz Up to 2 Watt
21 462.7000 MHz Up to 2 Watt
22 462.7250 MHz Up to 2 Watt

Read more about FRS here: Does FRS require a License?

 

GMRS

GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) is a radio application that uses channels in the frequency range from approximately 462 MHz to 467 MHz. GMRS is mainly used for data transmissions over short distances, such as with a walkie talkie.
An FCC license is required to use GMRS. The license is issued for 10 years. To obtain it, you must be at least 18 years old.
The following table shows you all channels and frequencies of GMRS:

Channel Frequency EIRP Restriction Bandwith
1 462.5625 MHz Up to 5 Watts 20 kHz
2 462.5875 MHz Up to 5 Watts 20 kHz
3 462.6125 MHz Up to 5 Watts 20 kHz
4 462.6375 MHz Up to 5 Watts 20 kHz
5 462.6625 MHz Up to 5 Watts 20 kHz
6 462.6875 MHz Up to 5 Watts 20 kHz
7 462.7125 MHz Up to 5 Watts 20 kHz
8 467.5625 MHz Up to 0.5 Watt 12.5 kHz
9 467.5875 MHz Up to 0.5 Watt 12.5 kHz
10 467.6125 MHz Up to 0.5 Watt 12.5 kHz
11 467.6375 MHz Up to 0.5 Watt 12.5 kHz
12 467.6625 MHz Up to 0.5 Watt 12.5 kHz
13 467.6875 MHz Up to 0.5 Watt 12.5 kHz
14 467.7125 MHz Up to 0.5 Watt 12.5 kHz
15 462.5500 MHz Up to 50 Watts 20 kHz
16 462.5750 MHz Up to 50 Watts 20 kHz
17 462.6000 MHz Up to 50 Watts 20 kHz
18 462.6250 MHz Up to 50 Watts 20 kHz
19 462.6500 MHz Up to 50 Watts 20 kHz
20 462.6750 MHz Up to 50 Watts 20 kHz
21 462.7000 MHz Up to 50 Watts 20 kHz
22 462.7250 MHz Up to 50 Watts 20 kHz
23 467.5500 MHz Up to 50 Watts 20 kHz
24 467.5750 MHz Up to 50 Watts 20 kHz
25 467.6000 MHz Up to 50 Watts 20 kHz
26 467.6250 MHz Up to 50 Watts 20 kHz
27 467.6500 MHz Up to 50 Watts 20 kHz
28 467.6750 MHz Up to 50 Watts 20 kHz
29 467.7000 MHz Up to 50 Watts 20 kHz
30 467.7250 MHz Up to 50 Watts 20 kHz

 

PMR446

PMR446 is now a kind of quasi-standard for privately used walkie-talkies. The abbreviation denotes an application for public address radio in the EU and UK. PMR446 analogously transmits speech. DMR446 is the digital counterpart to PMR446.

The channel raster is 12.5 kHz, the maximum transmission power is 0.5 watts, and a transmission cycle must not last longer than 180 seconds. A total of 16 channels with the corresponding frequencies are available for communication, which you can see in the table below:

Channel Frequency
1 446.00625 MHz
2 446.01875 MHz
3 446.03125 MHz
4 446.04375 MHz
5 446.05625 MHz
6 446.06875 MHz
7 446.08125 MHz
8 446.09375 MHz
9 446.10625 MHz
10 446.11875 MHz
11 446.13125 MHz
12 446.14375 MHz
13 446.15625 MHz
14 446.16875 MHz
15 446.18125 MHz
16 446.19375 MHz

PMR446 may not be used in the USA, Canada, and Australia as it is assigned to amateur radio operators and military radar systems.

 

UHF

UHF stands for Ultra High Frequency. This frequency band ranges from 300 MHz to 3,000 MHz. At Business radios in Uk, UHF is used over a range from 400 MHz to 470 MHz.

 

VHF

VHF is the abbreviation for Very High Frequency. This frequency band usually ranges from 30 MHz to 300 MHz and is used at sea, among other things. For example, frequencies between 136 MHz and 174 MHz are used for communication between ships.
VHF is also used by business radios in the UK, which use the same frequency ranges as for communication between ships.

 

Other Frequencies

Other frequencies you should know are the Citizens Band Radio Service (CBRS) and the Multi-Use Radio Service (MURS). However, these two are rarely used, so I will not introduce them further. The most important thing you need to know about them is that they have similar functionality to GMRS and FRS.


Conclusion – Walkie Talkie Frequency

The frequency you can use with a walkie talkie depends on your device, the country you are in, and whether you have a license. There are also differences between UHF and VHF, as you have learned in the text.
I hope that I was able to help you. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to comment. 🙂

 

Marcel

Founder of walkie-talkie-guide.com & TechVert.com. Tech enthusiast. Interested in gaming, computers, and walkie-talkies.

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