PMR446

PMR446 (Private Mobile Radio, 446 MHz) 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 (similar to those used for FRS/GMRS in the United States and Canada). Depending on surrounding terrain range can vary from a few hundred metres (in a city) to a few kilometres (flat countryside) 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 (dPMR446) and digital mobile radio (DMR Tier 1) 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.

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 (98)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 (SRBR) service.

In October 2005, ECC Decision (05)02 added unlicensed band 446.1–446.2 MHz for use by digital DMR/dPMR equipment.

In July 2015, ECC Decision (15)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.

Until recently, PMR446 radios were handheld transceivers with fixed antennas (see Technical information). In November 2015, Midland Radio announced the release of the GB1 mobile PMR446 radio for vehicular use.