PMR446

PMR446 is a licence-exempt service or UHF CB in the UHF radio frequency band, as personal radio service or citizens band radio, and is available for business and personal use in most countries throughout the European Union, Malaysia, Singapore, Norway, and the United Arab Emirates.
PMR446 is typically used for small-site, same-building and line of sight outdoor activities. Equipment use ranges from consumer-grade to professional quality walkie-talkies. Depending on surrounding terrain range can vary from a few hundred metres to a few kilometres to many kilometres from high ground.
Historically, analogue FM is used but a digital voice mode has been available in radios conforming to digital private mobile radio and digital mobile radio standards designed by ETSI.
Originally 8 channels were available in analogue mode but this has now been increased to 16 channels.
Typically PMR446 is used for both recreational and business use, additionally it has been utilized by amateur-radio operators and radio enthusiasts as a license-free experimental band.

History

The first steps towards creating licence-free short range radio communications were taken in April 1997 when the European Radio Communications Committee decided on a 446 MHz frequency band to be used for the new radios. In November 1998, ERC Decision 25 allocated frequency band 446.0–446.1 MHz for analogue PMR446; another two decisions established licence exemption for PMR446 equipment and free circulation of the PMR446 equipment. The first country which introduced these frequencies for licence-free use was Ireland on 1 April 1998. The United Kingdom introduced PMR446 service in April 1999; since 2003, it has replaced the former short-range business radio service.
In October 2005, ECC Decision 02 added unlicensed band 446.1–446.2 MHz for use by digital DMR/dPMR equipment.
In July 2015, ECC Decision 05 doubled the number of analog channels to 16 by extending analog operation onto the 446.1–446.2 MHz band previously used by digital DMR/dPMR equipment, effective January 2016; from January 2018, the number of digital channels was doubled by extending onto the 446.0–446.1 MHz band used by analog FM.

Range

Until recently, PMR446 radios were handheld transceivers with fixed antennas. In November 2015, Midland Radio announced the release of the GB1 mobile PMR446 radio for vehicular use.
The range of PMR446, just like any VHF or UHF radio, is dependent on many factors like environment, height above surrounding obstructions, and, to a lesser extent, weather conditions. The antenna type and location, transmit power and receive sensitivity also affect range. However, with PMR446 most of these variables are fixed at manufacturing to comply with the PMR446 specifications. Most of the time the maximum range that a user in a city can expect is a few hundred metres or less.
Range may be many kilometres, for example between hilltops, or only a few hundred metres, if for example a hill or large metal object is in the transmission path between radios. The best known long-distance record is 333 mi from Blyth in the United Kingdom to Almere, Netherlands. This was the result of enhanced propagation conditions, not a line-of-sight signal.

Use worldwide

PMR446-compliant equipment may be used anywhere throughout Europe, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Type approved PMR446 radios with power up to 500 mW can be used without any licence in India and Vietnam. The devices may not be base stations or repeaters, and must use integrated antennas only.
PMR446 radios use frequencies that in Australia, the U.S., and Canada are allocated to amateur radio operators, and military radar systems.
Instead, the U.S., Canada and Mexico use the Family Radio Service system, which provides a similar service on different frequencies, around 462 and 467 MHz. These frequencies are allocated to the emergency services in Europe, notably the fire brigade in the UK, police in Russia and commercial users in Australia. Interference with licensed radio services may result in prosecution.
Australia, New Zealand, Vanuatu use the UHF Citizen's Band system in the 476–477 MHz range and a maximum power output of 5 W giving improved range over the lower power PMR system.

Technical information

PMR446 covers band 446.0–446.2 MHz. The general ECC decision however still requires integral antennas and the actual implementation varies between different countries.

Analogue FM and digital TDMA">Time division multiple access">TDMA

Analogue PMR446 uses 16 FM channels separated by 12.5 kHz from each other. Maximum power is 500 mW ERP and equipment must be used on a mobile basis. CTCSS is usually used, with more upmarket models also featuring DCS and/or fixed-carrier voice inversion. Before January 2016, only the lower 8 channels were allowed for analog FM operation.
For those older PMR446 radios with 38 codes, the codes 0 to 38 are CTCSS Tones:
For those newer PMR446 radios with 121 codes, codes 0 to 38 are as above while codes 39 to 121 are DCS codes:

Code	DCS	Code	DCS	Code	DCS
39	023	67	174	95	445
40	025	68	205	96	464
41	026	69	223	97	465
42	031	70	226	98	466
43	032	71	243	99	503
44	043	72	244	100	506
45	047	73	245	101	516
46	051	74	251	102	532
47	054	75	261	103	546
48	065	76	263	104	565
49	071	77	265	105	606
50	072	78	271	106	612
51	073	79	306	107	624
52	074	80	311	108	627
53	114	81	315	109	631
54	115	82	331	110	632
55	116	83	343	111	654
56	125	84	346	112	662
57	131	85	351	113	664
58	132	86	364	114	703
59	134	87	365	115	712
60	143	88	371	116	723
61	152	89	411	117	731
62	155	90	412	118	732
63	156	91	413	119	734
64	162	92	423	120	743
65	165	93	431	121	754
66	172	94	432

Digital PMR446 DMR Tier I uses 16 digital voice channels separated by 12.5 kHz from each other with 4-level FSK modulation at 3.6 kbit/s. Before January 2018, only the higher 8 channels were allowed for digital TDMA operation.
Some Digital PMR446 radios support Dual Capacity Direct Mode, which allows for the use of two timeslots during simplex communication. This effectively doubles the channel capacity by allowing two simultaneous transmissions on one channel.
Color Code is the equivalent of CTCSS for digital. It's used to isolate a population of users.
By convention CC1 is used for public contact.
TalkGroups are used to separate groups of users.
By contacting a specific TG, each user subscribing to this TG will hear you.
A user can subscribe to many TGs.
It is also possible to contact all users in your color code.
Radio ID One for each user, to be contacted directly.

Channel	Frequency	Channel Spacing	Channel Spacing Known As	Comments
1	446.00625	12.5	Narrow	FM: Emergency communication FM: Trucker FM: Baby monitor FM: Children's channel
2	446.01875	12.5	Narrow	FM: Geocaching FM: Camping FM: Mountain
3	446.03125	12.5	Narrow	FM: Prepper Channel, in disasters FM: Bicycle, Mountain bike FM: Mountain
4	446.04375	12.5	Narrow	FM: Drone-Pilot Intercom FM: 4WD FM: Boat
5	446.05625	12.5	Narrow	FM: Scouts
6	446.06875	12.5	Narrow	FM: Event Channel FM: Hunters FM: Fisherman FM: Inland sailing FM: Free Radio Network
7	446.08125	12.5	Narrow	FM: Mountain. Mountaineers in Spain propose using channel 7 subtone 7 for mountain safety.
8	446.09375	12.5	Narrow	FM: DX & Calling Channel FM: Distress, European emergency channel FM: Mountain - Hill Walking Radio Network FM: Mountain
9	446.10625	12.5	Narrow	DMR: Digital Calling Channel DMR: Distress, EmCOMM other channel with same TG FM: AIRSOFT
10	446.11875	12.5	Narrow	FM: Fox Hunting, A.R.D.F.
11	446.13125	12.5	Narrow
12	446.14375	12.5	Narrow
13	446.15625	12.5	Narrow
14	446.16875	12.5	Narrow
15	446.18125	12.5	Narrow
16	446.19375	12.5	Narrow