Author Archive

As the utility industry moves toward the smart grid, mobile radio communications and digital technologies will become even more important because of reliability, spectrum and backup needs, said utility professionals during a roundtable May 3. Mission-critical communications issues, including coverage, data, spectrum, security and others, were addressed during the discussion.

Although commercial networks are used for some applications — meter reading and satellite services, for example — communications managers prefer private networks that give them more control.

See the full article here: Radio Resource Magazine: OnlyOnline.

To keep personnel and communities safe now and in the future, public safety agencies must work together to overcome technology barriers. While interoperability is the ultimate goal, there is often confusion about exactly what interoperability means and just how genuine claims relating to it are.

Interoperability refers to a variety of scenarios including: multiple vendors’ radios working together; multiple agencies working together – for example, police, fire and EMS at an incident scene; neighbouring state-wide networks working together.

Failure to interoperate in any of these scenarios can have drastic consequences. This article addresses multivendor interoperability and its implications for public safety agencies.

See the full article here: P25 interoperability for public safety agencies :: RadioComms.

Coverage reliability is possibly the single most critical requirement for public-safety communications. It’s also one of the most complex. Effective coverage takes a deep understanding of coverage theory, a toolbox of principles and approaches, and the practical experience of successful implementations.

Coverage reliability is an engineer’s way of stating the probability that public-safety officers can communicate clearly, at any time and any place within their coverage areas. Typically, radio network operators specify a service area reliability of 97 percent.

See the full article here: Radio Resource Magazine: OnlyOnline.

As part of a series of changes to its spectrum management arrangements in the 400 MHz band, the ACMA has released a consultation paper on a proposal to introduce opportunity cost pricing for apparatus licences taxes in the high density areas of this band.

The ACMA proposes to increase apparatus licence taxes to $199 per kHz over a five year period. Stakeholders are invited to comment on:

the methodology for estimating the opportunity cost of spectrum;

the implementation issues associated with the changes; and

the introduction of opportunity cost pricing in other bands, examination of OC pricing in remote areas and future price reviews and iterations.

See the full article here: ACMA – IFC 9/2012.

In April 1995, Oklahoma City’s Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was bombed, killing 168 and injuring more than 680 others. What made matters worse was the inability of public safety to communicate, which was so profound that information was passed by messengers moving from one end of the scene to the other.

Then 9/11 happened. The New York City police and fire departments couldn’t communicate with each other on that day, because they were on disparate radio systems. Overloaded commercial networks prevented public-safety and government agencies from communicating. And the inability to share critical data — such as building plans — may have contributed to the deaths of many first responders and citizens.

“Oklahoma City really showed our vulnerability as far as interoperability, and then we saw it again on 9/11,” said Bill Webb, executive director of the Congressional Fire Services Institute.

See the full article here: How broadband will help fire, EMS — Urgent Communications article.

Decibels are used throughout the radio communications and electronics industries, and are often misunderstood. This brief explanation should help the reader better understand decibels, how they are calculated and how they are used.

See the full article here: Understanding decibels — Urgent Communications article.

The AFI-IP+, our operator interface to the DX-Altus dispatch system, is now available.

Due to the constant need to improve Occupational Health & Safety, Omnitronics has added an Acoustic Shock Protection feature to the AFI-IP.

This feature ensures that high volume shrieks or loud buzzes caused by interference and third party radio equipment is eliminated. This enables a constant safe level of audio to operators so that hearing is not impaired or damaged over the long term.

For more information, contact our sales team.

There are a number of scenarios in which a fixed IP line is not available to organizations and therefore 3G or 4G is required. However, these come with the extra complication of dynamic addressing.

Click here to learn how to connect your IPR device when dynamic addressing is used.

Does your simulcast radio system seem to exhibit improved range and performance when certain transmitters are turned off? In almost every case, this is an indication of improper system operation and that your system needs on-site optimization.

In a simulcast system there are several parameters that adversely can affect system performance, but one parameter that is sometimes misunderstood is time-delay interference, or TDI. In this article we begin a discussion of TDI and its significance in a simulcast radio system.

Simulcast radio systems are used when a limited number of RF channels are available and a large geographical area needs to be covered. As the name implies, simultaneous broadcast, or simulcast, occurs when two or more sites transmit at the same time on the same frequency; invariably the coverage from these multiple sites will overlap.

See the full article here: A look at time-delay interference — Urgent Communications article.

Spectrum belongs to every country as a natural and renewable resource. It is limited because of the demand by so many different sectors of industry, commercial business, education/academia, research and government. For example, TV and radio broadcasters use their channels to entertain and inform. Many universities use frequencies for scientific research. Aviation uses spectrum for air-to-ground communications. Public safety uses frequencies for communications when responding to help citizens in trouble. Because of the limited amount of spectrum, governments manage the entire spectrum range for all sectors of industry, allocating segments as they need to, in the best interest of the country and as fair as possible for all users. There is a high demand for frequencies, often making it difficult to get spectrum when needed. Most of us believe that frequencies will always be made available for two-way radio systems, even if the spectrum takes a lot of time and justification to acquire. However, spectrum is becoming more limited and tougher to get.

See the full article here: Radio Resource Magazine: OnlyOnline.