Talk:Radiotelephone

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Is this the British English word for two-way radio? If so, should this be merged with the other article? User:David Jordan 9/27/06

No, a radiophone is a (usually non-cellular) radio telephone system. The article is mostly concerned with two-way radio, which isn't anything to do with radiophones. Needs correcting. Rapido 23:17, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Um... Actually David Jordan is more correct. Radiotelephone is a not specifily British English term for the transmission of voice or other audio by radio in general.

It is risky to say that the term "radiotelephone" was never used for pre-cellular mobile phones. However, those phones were most commonly known as "mobile phones" or sometimes "car phones". In how many old movies (I know, weak source) has the detective picked up the phone and asked for the mobile operator?

Radio has many uses, and radiotelephone is one of them. You have Radio Navigation (finding location using beacons, etc), Radiotelegraphy (transmission of text using Morse or another code), Radio control (of models or useful equipment), RADAR (RAdio Direction and Range), Radiotelepony (the transmission of voice or other sounds by radio). Others will no doubt occur to me as soon as I post this.

Until a few years ago in the United States you needed a Third, Second or First class Radiotelephone Operator's license to perform certain duties at a radio broadcast station. The FCC (the US regulator of all things radio) still issues a "General Radiotelephone Operator's License" (GROL) that covers mainly two-way radio.

My point is that radiotelephone is more likly to mean "two-way radio" than "pre-cellular mobile phone". I think it is reasonable to merge any appropriate information from this article into the "two-way radio" and other articles. This page should then either redirect into "two-way radio" or have a short definition and links to specific articles about various uses of radio telephony, including two-way radio. Ferritecore 01:15, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

I'm pulling the flag to merge the articles because a case can be made for either definition. User:David Jordan 11/19/2006.