April 30, 2014
What Causes the ‘Static’ Sound on Walkie-Talkies?
Essentially, radio static during a call is a sign that the signal strength is degrading (or that there is no signal coming through at all). When signal strength degrades sufficiently, the static sound emerges.
When there is no message coming through, it’s a slightly different story. A walkie-talkie has what’s known as a ‘squelch’ control circuit that keeps tabs on the signal strength. The squelch circuit will mute the speaker as soon as it realizes that there is no signal coming through to the device. This is, essentially, the same function as your TV has when it cuts off an unavailable channel after a preset time. However, in the moments before your walkie-talkie ‘squelches’ the sound, you will hear static, or ‘white noise’ as its also called.
‘Squelching’ is a pretty vital part of any/all broadcasting equipment. The method used in your walkie-talkie is called a ‘carrier squelch’ and is more than likely to be manually adjustable.
From Wikipedia (as of 17th of May 2013):
So what is ‘white noise?’ According to Joe Shambro, writing for About.com’s guide to home recording,
If you’re experiencing signal degradation on your walkie-talkie, there may be several causes for this. ‘Wireless Woman’ a blogger with an excellent site about two-way radios, has this to say:
So there you go.