Well I kinda agree with the Radio's but I feel like there are 2 options; you go full hog and basically do something like ACRE/TFAR or just keep it plain and simple, anything in between would be a waste of time and effort.
Personally, I think radios should be properly simulated because radios would be hugely important in a post-apocalyptic situation. So for civilian's, you could just have things like:
Walkie-talkies which work on a fixed frequency and have a short range and low output power
Portable (Handheld) radios which are more advanced and can be programmed and have a better range. You could have 2 or 3 models which have different maximum output power, frequency ranges and memory sizes (for saving frequencies as channels)
Mobile radios for vehicles and structures which have much better ranges and output power plus maybe have 1 model that can support dual channel. These would need big batteries and separate antennas but obviously be more useful [Up
Military radios would be more powerful but much more difficult to find and to upkeep:
Portable radios have limited channels and power with some models offering encryption and some not, mainly used for "squad net" so talking as a group.
Mobile radios for vehicles and backpacks with much larger ranges and power and all support encryption but are able to toggle encryption when outputting (always accept encrypted radio traffic)
All civilian radios would be unencrypted so you could scan through frequencies and pick up other people's signals. You could also use different batteries, you can get larger batteries for handheld radios at a cost of weight and size, having the option would be nice. Also, the more advanced handheld radios and the portable radios should be able to set their output power so you can balance battery life and range/penetration. You could also find headsets to use with the higher end portable models and mobile radios so someone can't hear your radio when they walk past.
Military radio encryption would work by faction when they spawn but with the ability to find a reprogrammer (small device with a cable to connect to radio) to change the encryption so only the radio's you reprogramme can work together when encrpted. The frequency they should do is HF for long range, VHF for a balance of range and penetration (trees and building) and UHF for short range. Radios should interfere with each other if their frequencies are too similar.
I know this would be complicated and I wouldn't expect this until very close to release but DayZ needs a commitment comms system or everyone will just use Teamspeak which, in my opinion, would damage the gameplay. Imagine a person tracking your group down by listening into your radio frequencies or calling a server event by getting to one of the large radio transmitters and sending out a message. The dev team could work with the ACRE team as they seem to have done a lot a ready and could impart some useful knowledge and experience to speed up the process or ensure the implementation is well done.
