Icom to Ship Trunked P25 Interoperability Radios for Public Safety Users
BELLEVUE, WA – Icom America is proud to announce that it will start shipping
Icom’s very first Project 25 (P25) trunked radio products in early 2009. The new
F9011 trunking portables and the F9511 mobiles feature a control channel that
opens the door for public safety agencies to a number of new call features and
networking capability.
“P25 trunking is really different from the LTR® trunking format, which has no
control channel,” said Chris Lougee, Vice President of Icom America. “You can
use the control channel for data and voice operations and radio system control
functions, such as over the air re-keying and, eventually, over the air
programming.”
Having a control channel also opens the door to networking and roaming
capability. This allows a public safety agency to deploy a multi-site network
across a large county or across a state and have seamless roaming from site to
site.
“What many people don’t understand about P25 is that it comes with greatly
enhanced networking capability,” said Lougee. “Automatic registration of the
roaming unit allows you to effortlessly transmit and receive over the nearest
site, while efficiently using your radio system’s resources.”
The need for P25 equipment has never been greater. All Federal agencies are
currently required to purchase P25 radios to ensure interoperability amongst
each other, and now state agencies are beginning to have the same requirements,
now including the states of California and Washington. Icom P25 trunked radios
are ideal for rural first responders, state and local VHF/UHF conventional
users, such as fire agencies, as well as Federal agencies, including the U.S.
Forest Service/Bureau of Land Management/Department of the Interior.
“Interoperability saves lives during major disasters. That’s a fact. It is a
huge priority here at Icom to provide public safety with that capability,” said
Lougee. “Our family of affordable P25 radios is a big step toward making
interoperability a reality for public safety agencies.
“The time is now for the public safety community to purchase Icom P25
equipment,” Lougee added. “Thanks to improvements in digital technology and
price reductions in multimode analog/digital equipment, plus grants from the
Department of Homeland Security, it is more affordable than ever to upgrade your
system to P25 with Icom.”
Grow Into P25 at Your Agency’s Speed
The IC-F9011B/S/T portables and the IC-F9511S/T mobiles have built-in analog
conventional, P25 conventional and P25 trunking capability, making them forward
and backward compatible. The mixed mode operation allows operation on a mixed
system with analog and digital signal and the radios feature multiple channel
spacing options: 15kHz/30kHz (analog) and 12.5kHz (digital). This means most
agencies can introduce P25 equipment without abandoning a legacy analog system.
To ensure interoperability with other brands of P25 equipment, both the
portables and mobiles conform to the standard specifications for TIA/EIA
TSB-102, CAAB, Digital C4FM Transceiver Performance Recommendations.
The 6-watt portables and the 50-watt mobiles each feature 512 channels, 100
individual ID and 250 talkgroup ID memories. A visual display makes it easy to
select the person or group the user wants to call. AES and/or DES encryption for
secure conversation is available with the optional UT-125 AES/DES encryption
unit or UT-128 DES encryption unit. The portables are submersible to IP57
standards while the mobiles are water resistant to IP54 standards (controller
only).
Other features include built-in CTCSS and DTCS encoder and decoder capabilities
for use in setting up talk groups and programming the radio to stand-by quietly
when other groups are talking. Selective calls to individuals or to control a
repeater can also be set up.
Icom America's parent company, Icom Inc., was founded in Osaka Japan. Icom is a
publicly held Japanese corporation; its stock is traded on the Tokyo and Osaka
Stock Exchange. Icom began as an engineering and manufacturing company, making
advanced, compact solid-state radio equipment for use by amateur radio
enthusiasts. Icom has since grown to become an industry leader using the D-STAR
standard, with a product line that includes other state-of-the-art digital
communications equipment for land and marine use as well as avionics. Icom
America's headquarters are in Bellevue, Washington. www.icomamerica.com.
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