During airsoft games, radios are a great way for commanders and teams to communicate, but which radio should your team choose for the terrain being played on?

Before choosing a radio, it is important to recognize all the requirements such as are you playing in areas with a lot of buildings, indoors, outdoors in open areas or all of the above? Will you use the radio at long ranges (i.e., for command purposes) or within a small unit? What sort of headset will you require? It is important to consider all these questions and more when choosing your radio.

One major factor when determining the radio’s effectiveness is the radio band. Personal radios use 1 of 3 bands with each band designed for different terrains.

Family Radio Service (FRS) or Personal Mobile Radio (PMR) radios are the cheapest radios available. They tend to be compact with small antennas and low powers, and operate on an FM service of– channels. They allow a range of microphones from lapel mics to headsets and do not require a license to use.

Unfortunately, because of their small antennas and low power signals, they have a hard time penetrating buildings and forests, so their range is can be an issue depending on your requirements. For use in airsoft, these personal radios are great to be used within a team but not for command purposes.

Multi User Radio Service (MURS) radios are higher powered alternatives to FRS and PMR radios and use an FM service with five channels. As they can connect to external antennas and their signals are capable of bending over hills, they are a popular choice for hikers and climbers and do not require a license to use.

However, MURS radios are more expensive than their counterparts are and you are unable to use as wide a range of headsets with them. Also, even though they have stronger signals, they are not able to penetrate buildings and dense forests either so they are generally not a good option for airsoft.

General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) radios are the highest performance personal radios, operating on significantly higher powers (up to 50 watts) and up to 16 duplex channels. They can also utilise repeaters and a much better at penetrating dense forests and buildings.

However, this performance does come at a cost. GMRS radios can be very bulky and expensive and licenses are required to use them.

So which should you buy? It’s likely that budget will be a factor, so identify the radios that you can afford and revisit your requirements. If you’re purchasing radios for each member of your team it’s likely that you’ll be on a tight budget, in which case FRS / PMR radios may be the best choice initially. If you are commanding a group of teams, you will likely need a GMRS radio to communicate effectively, so have a shop around.

Of course, the final decision on which radio to choose is up to you. Always be sure to research all options in advance in order to avoid disappointment with your purchase later.

Simplyairsoftguns is a site providing detailed tutorials on airsoft guns and equipment. For more tutorials on the use of radios in close quarters games, visit cheap airsoft machine guns.