Aaron Cohen
Nov 20, 2025
The walkie talkie timeline starts in 1937, when Donald Hings built a portable packset for Canadian mining, and runs through the 1940 Motorola SCR-300 and the 1941 SCR-536 Handie Talkie of World War II. It continues through transistor handhelds in the 1960s, digital radio in the 1990s, push to talk over cellular in the 2010s, and smart radios such as the Walt Smart Radio System in the 2020s.
The history of the walkie talkie spans nearly ninety years of engineering development. This timeline documents every major milestone from the earliest portable field radios through World War II deployments, commercial and public safety adoption, digital standards, hybrid radio–cellular systems, and modern smart radio platforms. The 2020s introduction of the Walt Smart Radio System by weavix marks the point where the walkie talkie moves from a basic voice device to a fully connected communication tool capable of handling voice, video, data, and integrated safety functions.
Read the full history of the walkie talkie, including who invented it and when
Related reading: how push to talk devices evolved from walkie talkies to smart radios, what a walkie talkie is and how it works, and the Nextel chirp and what replaced it.
>>See how the Walt smart radio system works.
From Donald Hings and Alfred J. Gross, through wartime Motorola field sets and digital standards,
to the Walt Smart Radio System by weavix. One timeline of how portable voice communication evolved.
Donald Hings designs a backpack portable radio for remote mining operations. This packset is widely regarded as the beginning of the history of the walkie talkie and proves that mobile person to person radio is practical.
Alfred J. Gross works on compact FM radio systems. His focus on frequency modulation improves audio clarity and resistance to interference and becomes an important foundation in walkie talkie evolution.
Engineers at Motorola build the SCR-300, a VHF FM backpack radio used by Allied troops. Journalists call it a walkie talkie and it becomes one of the first widely deployed field radios in the walkie talkie history timeline.
The SCR-536 Handie Talkie arrives as a one person handheld radio. It weighs about five pounds and is used during amphibious landings and short range infantry communication.
Allied forces deploy tens of thousands of backpack and handheld radios. Real time coordination between infantry, artillery, and aircraft becomes possible and walkie talkies shift from experimental devices to essential battlefield tools.
After the war, surplus military walkie talkies are sold into civilian markets. Police, fire, civil defense, and amateur radio operators adopt them and build the first public safety and industrial two way radio networks.
The transistor replaces fragile vacuum tubes in radio circuits. Radios become smaller, cooler running, and more efficient, which is critical for the next phase of walkie talkie evolution.
Motorola introduces the HT-200, often called the brick. It is one of the first fully transistorized handheld walkie talkies and becomes a standard professional radio for police, utilities, and industrial users.
The FCC moves consumer walkie talkies to the 49 MHz band to separate them from Citizens Band activity. This change drives a surge in family and toy walkie talkies and brings the technology into everyday life.
Miniaturized components and mass production make inexpensive walkie talkies widely available. They appear on construction sites, at events, in warehouses, and in homes as simple push to talk communication tools.
Digital Mobile Radio and Project 25 introduce digital modulation for two way radios. Audio quality improves, encryption becomes common, and multiple talk paths can share the same channel. This is the start of the digital walkie talkie history era.
Gateways link land mobile radio networks with cellular and satellite infrastructure. Organizations extend push to talk communication across regions and countries without relying only on local radio coverage.
Push to talk over cellular platforms such as Zello and carrier enhanced services bring walkie talkie style communication to smartphones. LTE and early 5G networks carry group calls across very large geographic areas.
The Walt Smart Radio System by weavix introduces an enterprise grade smart radio that integrates voice, video, data, safety sensors, and IoT connectivity in one platform. The device acts as an intelligent edge endpoint that links frontline workers directly to cloud based analytics, safety systems, and workforce applications. This marks a new phase in walkie talkie evolution where the radio becomes a smart, networked communication hub.