Play with Your Walkie Talkie in India Without Getting into Jail

In India, One having a 5,000 Rs can order a pair of random “ Professional ” Wireless Walkie Talkies from Amazon.in and start using them right?

Wrong!

Without basic knowledge or precautions, the chances are either you will be charged with a huge penalty fine or you end up in jail (I am not kidding in this part).

Like any other country, India had a great history in wireless radio wave communication, and still, it is being widely used, mainly by defense force, airlines, police force, explorers and ham operators, and also by citizens.

So before you even planning to buy a wireless radio transceiver in India, you need to familiarise some rules are regulations of WPC (Wireless Planning & Coordination) Wing of India and some basic concepts about radio frequencies and their transmission. Because funny though, even listening to certain frequencies in India and just owning the equipment for that for civilians is illegal. And most of the Chinese walkie talkies you find in Amazon.in will be having a transmission frequency which is not license-free in India.

First things first, Radio waves can be categorized by its transmission frequency called bands. This categorization is called the radio spectrum. An increase in frequency will increase bandwidth and will reduce the range it can cover (if the power of transmission is the same). Since here we are talking about wireless walkie talkies I am only including the bands we are interested in. These are the common bands used in wireless communication.

• Medium Frequency (MF) 6.3 to 3 MHz
• High Frequency (HF) 3 to 30 MHz
• Very High Frequency (VHF) 30 to 300 MHz
• Ultra High Frequency (UHF) 300 to 3000 MHz

From these bands, in India, for wireless communication, without any license you can only transmit in these frequency ranges,

• 26.957 MHz to 27.383 MHz (Citizen Band)
• 335 MHz (for remote control of Cranes)
• 865 MHz to 867 MHz
• 2.4 GHz to 2.4835 GHz (Wifi, Bluetooth)
• 5.825 GHz to 5.875 GHz (Wifi, Other forms of High Bandwidth Digital Transmissions like transmission of Drone Video Footages)

NB: Even though these are license-free bands, we are only allowed to transmit in limited power and using WPC certified transceivers only.

In these bands one of them is quite common, which is 26.957–27.383 MHz that too with a maximum of 1W power and using WPC certified transceivers only. This band is called Citizen’s Band or CB radio which is an HF Band open for citizens. The Indian CB band plan consists of 40 frequencies spaced a relatively tight eight kHz apart.

So next time a manufacture tries to sell you a license-free walkie-talkie, check for their frequency band of operation and WPC certification.

But hey! This isn't enough... Even with using some powerful antennas, you can maximum get 3km range through CB, and through other license-free bands, a maximum of 1km with limited power. Don’t worry, the WPC got you covered. Like any other country, you can get a license for amateur radio operator (ham) and make use of a wide variety of bands in HF, VHF, and UHF in the radio spectrum and you can communicate with other hams like you, around the globe and even with astronauts in International Space Station. Trust me, there are millions of licensed hams in the world. Getting a restricted license for ham radio operations in India is just as easy as having age more than 12 and writing a single easy exam. And of course, you are in India, so waiting for about a year to get a license approved won't trouble you right? (I am planning to write a detailed article about ham radio soon, stay tuned). The frequency band allowed for restricted ham licensed holders for transmission are

82 to 1.86 MHz — 160m, MF
3.5 to 3.7 MHz — 80m, HF
3.8 to 3.9 MHz — 75m, HF
7 to 7.2 MHz — 40m, HF
14 to 14.35 MHz — 20m, HF
18.086 to 18.168 MHz —17m, HF
21 to 21.45 MHz— 15m, HF
24.89 to 24.99 MHz —12m, HF
28 to 29.7 MHz — 10m, HF
50 to 54 MHz — 6m, HF
144 to 146 MHz — 2m, VHF
434 to 438 MHz— 70cm, UHF

So this is the second legal way of having a wireless handset in your pocket. and also the sweet part is using a receiver you can tune into any of these frequencies and listen hams talking without a license. Yea that's right, you need only ham license for transmitting in this frequency. So technically you can buy and hide a Ham radio transceiver secretly under your bed and decide never press the push to talk button until you get a license but listen to them talking (though I don’t recommend it). This part is very important because if someone noticed your transmission and found out you are not a ham (since you won't be having a call sign until you get a license), tracking you down will be as easy as a fox hunt (new post coming soon) for them if they want to.

Yep! so you can listen to these frequencies without getting into jail. Then what about the other frequencies not mentioned in this list? Simple answer, some are the bands that you can legally obtain a license for like FM broadcasting services or maybe personal and commercial use (Contact WPC for more info regarding this), and others are simply not meant to know by civilians. One such frequency band is 76 to 86 MHz HF band... NEVER EVER, I REPEAT NEVER EVER even for shorter distance do not transmit anything in this frequency nor tune and listen to it. If you did, your transmitter can be and will be eventually tracked down (Never underestimate the power of India Police) and you will definitely get into some serious trouble, also probably get into to the place where I mentioned in the title, because it is usually the band used for communication inside Indian Police Force, So never do it. And there are bands used for military communications as well, which we don't know.