I was just looking at Production Intercoms website, and I came across this new type of wireless system- Half-Duplex. There are one or two disadvantages, but it is cheaper, and if you are only using one or two wireless there are barly any disadvantages. There are also many perks too.... for instance, it does not eat up as many channels as full-duplex systems do. Below is a section I copyed from their website-
There is a diagram as to how they work at- http://www.beltpack.com/HD903-diagram.pdf
Cool stuff-
What do you all think? Has anyone used this?
Half-Duplex: Half-duplex describes a system which consists of simplex portable transceivers (walkie-talkies) or simplex mobile or marine transceivers, but, rather than communicating directly with each other, they talk through central transmitter/receiver called a repeater. The transceivers are programmed to transmit on one frequency and receive on another. The repeater receives all the transmissions from the transceivers on first frequency and retransmits them on the other.
The repeater is designed to transmit constantly. (Portable transceivers are not designed to do this.) A half-duplex system is primarily used to increase the range of a group of hand-held, mobile, or marine transceivers, as the repeater can be many times more powerful than the portable or mobile transceivers, and it can be equipped with a raised antenna sophisticated enough to pick up the weaker transmissions from the portable transceivers from a greater distance. Half-duplex systems are very common. It is probable that your local police, fire, and emergency services are using them. The repeater in a half-duplex system is different from the one used in a full-duplex system in that it receives only on a single frequency, so only one portable transceiver can talk to the repeater (and thus be heard by all the other portables) at a time.
Because the half-duplex repeater is transmitting constantly, the portable transceivers can receive constantly and are going to hear all the voice ‘traffic’ on their frequency. But, because the portables are simplex, they will have to press a talk button to transmit.
http://www.beltpack.com/howtheywork.htm
There is a diagram as to how they work at- http://www.beltpack.com/HD903-diagram.pdf
Cool stuff-
What do you all think? Has anyone used this?