Hi Guys, can you help me out here? I'm wanting to know the proper name for a radio that would be used by police/swat/law enforcers that would be clipped to a belt/clothing but would have a wired (or wireless, I guess but wired is fine) earpiece ... I have 'radio transceiver' in mind but I'm just not sure if that term is correct. Thanks xx
If you mean one of the many different iterations of what this officer is wearing, in America it's just called a radio, typically. It is technically a transceiver, but police lingo just calls it radio or sometimes portable to distinguish it from the one mounted in a service vehicle.
I worked for Motorola for a few months in the early 80s, installing an ambulance radio system. We just called them radios. Everyone called them radios. Radio was the professional word; "walkie-talkie" was the term for a kid's toy. If we needed to distinguish between what you're describing and a base-mounted piece of equipment, we'd say "hand-held radio." But it was usually just "radio."
So, as it's one like this but it has an earpiece rather than a mouthpiece (so no-one else can hear the chat) and I'm talking about this in the description, not in dialogue, I could get away with calling it a radio or a radio transceiver. When I think of just 'radio' I don't associate the wired earpiece with it. Or maybe that's just me? Thanks guys x
OK, so I'm now wondering about this ... I know this is more for military police etc., but I'm kinda dealing with a situation where snipers/swat are involved. I don't want the main character to hear the communications between the lead guy and his crew which means he's going to have to have some kind of in-line mic which is always open (transmitting and receiving) as I don't want the guy to be constantly pressing buttons or (cliché alert) touching his ear when he speaks. Why do I do this to myself? (I guess a lot of authors often ask themselves the same question!)
Typically transmitters are keyed to transmit. This is for a few reasons. Transmission requires considerable power compared to receiving. So if you don't want the battery to die off quickly it is keyed. Also transmitter frequencies are shared as are receivers, but, depending on the type of modulation, AM, FM, SSB etc. the one being received the strongest will overpower or step-on and make garbled the other transmissions. It's not like hard wiring a phone conversation. There may be more sophisticated systems but basic radio is not like that.
What the story keys in on is your answer, @cutecat22. Why describe it in narrative? Why not show it in narrative? The earbud buzzed. She heard the words in her earpiece. "Check your earpiece, can you hear me now?"
Readers generally have an understanding and vocabulary better than writers imagine. They don't need redundancies like transceiver, two-way et.al. Just use the word radio, and they'll form their own picture. Isn't that the object? It may only be important if how they work and/or components add to the story.
I guess I'm wanting to know if the idea is feasible. It's absolutely possible that by simply using the words radio, earpiece etc, the reader will know what I'm talking about, I hope ... If I know it's a piece of kit that actually exists, then I find it easier to write it into the story. I don't like to think that my readers stop reading at any point and think "hang on a minute, is that even possible?" I know it's fiction, but I still want it to be believable. Thanks xx
Trust us, we've seen enough movies and TV shows to know that when someone mentions earpieces, radios, receivers, etc. in books, we can paint a picture of a person equipped with such a thing. She grabbed her walkie. (...) She pressed the button and spoke... He put his finger on his receiver and listened closely.... They adjusted the radio frequency.... We're not that helpless.
That I honestly don't know. Old police radios from back in the '40s would often tell their patrol units something like, "We have a (series of numbers) located at (xyz), we need all patrol units nearby to respond immediately." and the officers nearby would respond with "10-4!" which meant they were going there presently.
yes, that's the codes for occurrences. 211 is a robbery, 215 is a carjacking, 390 is a drunk, 240 = assault, 207 = kidnapping etc etc. What I mean, is the channel number where someone gives you the radio and says something like "here, we're on channel 7 ..."
In doing research for my current project (a bodyguard thriller), I found an article about how the US Secret Service pulls off a major op (in this case a UN General Assembly meeting), and it included what they named their radio channels. Here: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/03/inside-the-secret-service/308390/ Here also is a specific transcript of a short period where the author of the above article was allowed to listen in on communications: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/03/radio-chatter/308385/ Also, this may be a bit too sci-fi for what you seem to be angling towards, but I always liked the name "coms" or "comms" (short for "communicators" or "communications") for law enforcement/espionage radios. Hope this helps! PS: I kinda stole the pictures you posted further up the thread-- they're great reference material for my own project!
Thanks for that, @Bryan Romer My books are set in NYC/NJ/Colorado and New York State so the above won't apply, however, I'm sure anyone writing something based in the UK will be able to use that info.
