We
received several calls this week regarding MURS radios. We felt the questions and answers might be of
interest to others considering the
purchase of the radios offered at www.mursradios.com. The first question was from a church wanting
to know if the MURS radio could cover a 100,000 square foot, three floor
facility. The answer is that a 2 watt
VHF MURS radio can be expected to cover up to 15 floors or 250,000 square feet.
A
contractor called wanting to know what kind of range could be expected for
outdoor use of MURS portables.
The answer is that a VHF 2 watt
MURS radio has a Line-of-Sight range of up to 2-4 miles. Range can be extended
with our MURS fixed stations
when required.
Our
answers are based on engineering probabilities based on established testing and
performance, not marketing mumbo jumbo.
Obviously, there can be exceptions, but these answers should help
prospective users to separate fact from fiction.
Another
common question is why can't any FCC type approved 2 watt radio be used for
MURS operation? There are two
answers involving both legal and technical issues. Legally, any radio operated on MURS frequencies must be approved
under FCC Rule Part 95, Subpart J.
Radios approved for FCC Rule Part 90 have different technical standards
such as channel spacing. MURS radios
have a channel spacing of 11.25 kHz versus 12.5 kHz for Part 90 radios. Long story short, if the radio is not Part
95 approved, MURS channels cannot be used. Click here
for more information.
Another
frequent question is how many channels are available? The answer is five, although the basic five
frequencies can be configured for different functions such as selective call
paging, receipt of alarms or device notifications, private talk groups,
etc. We offer two MURS portables. One has up to eight channel configurations,
the other up to ten. If you have
additional questions about MURS, please visit our web site at www.mursradios.com or just give us a call
at 205.854.2611. We'll be looking
forward to hearing from you!
