Signum Outdoors
How-to guides

How the radios reach each other.

No towers and no internet. Your radios talk to each other directly, and they can pass messages along for each other, so every radio in your group helps the others get through.

01

Phone to radio, radio to radio

  • Your phone talks to your own radio over Bluetooth, like a pair of earbuds. That's all the phone does: it doesn't need signal.
  • The radios talk to each other over the air. Every message, position and photo goes from your radio to the other radios in your group.
  • How far depends on what's in between. With a clear view between two radios they reach a long way. Hills, ridges, thick trees and buildings cut that down.
02

More radios, more reach

Messages can hop. When relaying is on, every radio in your group also passes along the messages it hears, so a message can travel from you, through a friend, to someone you couldn't reach on your own.

A message hopping over a hill A hill stands between you and someone in the next valley, so your radios can't reach each other directly. A friend on the ridge can reach both, and their radio passes your message along. You Friend on the ridge Next valley over hill blocks the direct path
Your radio can't reach the next valley through the hill. Your friend's radio on the ridge hears your message and passes it along.
  1. 1

    Each radio helps

    A group spread out along a trail, a river or a ridge stays connected as long as each person can reach the next. The more radios you have spread out, the more ways a message has to get through.

    Signum map with group members spread out along a trail, each with how long ago they were heard
    Your group, spread out
  2. 2

    It's on when you make a group

    Help relay messages for the group is ticked when you create a group. It needs up-to-date radio software. You can turn it off later in Radio Settings.

    Create group screen with Help relay messages for the group circled and ticked
    Leave it ticked
03

Relay radios: reach for the whole group

  • A radio left up high passes messages for everyone. A radio set up just to pass messages along, left on a ridge, at camp or in the truck at the trailhead, can cover a whole valley. It isn't paired to anyone's phone.
  • Height matters most. A relay radio on a hilltop or a vehicle's roof reaches much farther than one on the ground.
  • Other people's relay radios can help too. If someone nearby already runs one, your messages can pass through it.
04

Still private along the way

  • Radios that pass your messages along can't read them. Only phones that joined your group, with its QR code, can. That includes relay radios that aren't in your group.
05

Get the most out of it

  • Carry your radio high. On a shoulder strap, the top of your pack or the dash, not deep in a pocket or the bottom of a bag.
  • Keep it charged. The Home screen shows your radio's battery.
  • Each hop takes a moment. A message that hops through several radios arrives a little later. Check marks show when it was delivered.
  • Delivery is never guaranteed. Good to know covers the limits.