The Return Of The Real Walkie-Talkie

from the breaker,-breaker dept

Fri, Dec 19th 2003 10:57am — Mike Masnick

Forget push-to-talk, in Hong Kong people are going old school, and buying traditional "walkie-talkie" 2-way radios. People use them for all sorts of reasons. It doesn't sound that dissimilar to here in the US. I own a set of 2-way radios that I use when snowboarding with friends, so we can find each other. However, in Hong Kong it's apparently becoming something of an obsession for people to use just while walking around. So why aren't they using push-to-talk type solutions on mobile phones? They're actually interested in the CB like quality of being able to talk to anyone "out there" on the same channel. Maybe that's an area the push-to-talk folks need to explore: push-to-talk chat rooms. Then again, maybe (hopefully, please) it's just a fad.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

4 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

dorpus, 20 Dec 2003 @ 1:59am

Text Message Spam
In Asia, text message spam on cell phones is a big problem.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
huklp, 22 Dec 2003 @ 1:45am

Cost
And of course you don't have to pay for the calls!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Marc H. Nathan, 22 Dec 2003 @ 7:48am

HK walkie-talkies
Before this article came out, I was a little worried about being pegged for a tourist when I used my 1st-gen motorola talkabouts in HK next week. Since everyone is apparently using them there now, my loud voice and obnoxious attitude when speaking on them will be the only thing that will prove to those around me that I am in fact an American tourist.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
John Bartley K7AAY, 22 Dec 2003 @ 4:58pm

Yeah, but...
1. The sound quality is hideous.
2. Most of the wrist-mounted versions have no CTCSS (aka PL) privacy call codes, so instead of hearing just your honey ask you if you want green eggs or ham, you hear _everyone's_ transmissions.
3. The antenna is pitiful, so the reception.. you guessed it.
4. Unreliable. On mine, the battery pops out within its compartment, and it's suddenly dead with no warning to you.

Even the $20-for-two FRS shirtpocket radios are better than this.

Hey, I was the first geek on my block to get one, and therefore the first to FreeCycle it away
[ link to this | view in thread ]