Ya' know?? It's kind'a funny, a lot of farming operations got away from two-way a few years ago thinkin' cell phones were a viable replacement. The problem with cell phones is they're mostly point-to-point and you have to dial a different number for each person, or unit. With two-way radios ya' just grab the mic and speak... and everybody, and every mobile unit with a radio hears it. During planting and harvest, when there may be a dozen, two dozen, or more pieces of equipment running everybody gets the same message simultaneously. The cell phone just didn't work out; the last couple of years most of them have come back to two-way... they're just faster, handier and everybody knows what everybody else is doing. Most of 'em even install a base radio in the farmhouse kitchen so mama can call 'em all in for lunch... she just grabs the mic and hollers... CHOW‼
Some of the small family farms are using cell phones, the three and four man operations... but once you start gettin' up around a dozen people/pieces of equipment running the cell phone ain't cuttin' it for 'em. The two biggest complaints I hear is trying to manipulate the cell while trying to drive a combine, and loading/unloading trucks and wagons. If'n ya' need to holler "STOP"... well... by the time ya' dial the number and the other guy answers it flat too damn late.
This was actually the coop's repeater... and coops have always stayed with two-way. When ya' have that many different trucks and pieces of equipment the two-way radio is the only real option. I just up-graded a coop this summer to all new radios... 87 mobile radios in as many pieces of equipment, 5 office base radios, three repeaters, a three dozen handhelds (portables). Yeah, it weren't cheap for them, but think of what the cell phone bill would be each month... and think of the nightmare trying to keep all the phone numbers straight, and keep everyone informed and on the same page?? Using two-way, the guy in the office grabs the mic and every employee, in every piece of equipment, hears what he's yellin'.