Hey Nate, i'm new to all this and the guys I work with were having a similar discussion about communication. I'm sure all of us agree that communication amongst your team is vital and a safety matter. For the time being, we are syncing up our cells via bluetooth before we go to a persons door.
The positive things I see with this option are:
- You have instant access to your teammates. People answering the door won't know that you are relaying info to other teammates.
- If something "bad" happens all of your team knows whats goin on and you don't have to reach for a radio to key it up to call for assistance.
- If a teammate is watching the back they can hear the whole conversation and chime in. Or if they see something out back, they can have the teammate up front ask questions related to it.
- If you're all on the same provider (we're all on Verizon) you can talk all day to each other without losing minutes.
Negatives:
- Depending on your service area and provider, you may no get good reception or may lose comms (Bad).
- Some phones have short battery life.
Radios can be really pricey, so as more cases and cash come in, we'll be looking to get radios. But, for now this works for us. Just my 2 pennies worth
