For those who have watched the global two-way industry evolve in the last 30 years, it’s obvious that the more user-focused manufacturers have learned a lot from listening to professional business and industry users and their fundamental need for flexible, efficient and cost-effective radio communications.

Owners of UHF CB radios will now have access to more channels in the 400 MHz band, following a three-year ACMA review and release of its time frames and plans to restructure the band.

We are pretty much aware of the shift in telecommunications usage, away from fixed-line telephone to a combination of IP-based and mobile access. The lines between voice and data are becoming less and less clear. Indeed, it makes no sense to discern between voice and data - both are simply payload.

Last issue we introduced RoIP as a means to achieving interoperability in and across two-radio networks. Interoperability is more than the integration of different radio formats and RF interfaces.

Antennas are the heart of every radio transmitter and receiver. So vital are they that it seems appropriate to look more closely at them. And whether you are experienced in their use or are coming to them for the first time, there is bound to be information here that could be useful.

Picture this frightening scenario: a lone fireman stranded in the middle of a burning building. He reaches for his radio, pressing buttons by touch, not sight, because visibility is down to inches. The only sounds he hears are his colleagues rushing to the scene, still too far away to be of any real help to him or the frail civilian he’s pulled from the flames.

This article introduces multipath fading and describes the results of experiments conducted by Alciom on short-range 2.4 GHz RF links in indoor environments.

Interoperability between different agencies has been highlighted as one of the key challenges to improve emergency services’ responses to incidents - ranging from accidents to natural disasters and terrorist attacks. Mark Ward, national business development manager for Airwave Solutions Australia, explains the benefits of taking a ‘service management’ approach to address this challenge.

Today’s immediate need is for radio interoperability. Standards, industry and government initiatives are addressing the issue, but not entirely and, arguably, not quickly enough. It is important that standards are developed, and the efforts to define them are invaluable.

As microprocessors get increasingly more powerful, so does the appetite for additional software functionalities. Size of embedded systems software increases every year, bringing new types of problems.

Historically, connectors designed specifically for distributing power have been comparatively slow to adapt to changing needs. This product segment had not attracted major investment in research and design for a variety of reasons, including relatively low sales volume, highly customised application requirements and possible liability issues.

The ACMA is seeking public comment on a second consultation paper.

Designing and developing a test system that has component and unpowered testing, device programming, radio signal analysis and calibration, and no operator intervention for production testing of a point-to-multipoint radio product used for remote supervisory control and data acquisition network applications, is the challenge.

We’re all familiar with the old ‘break-fix’ model of service - it’s been the way of life for many years. It works well; it generates revenue and keeps you in business alongside hardware sales. The problem is that it’s a short-term solution for a long-term user.

In the November/December issue of Radio Comms Asia Pacific, David Cox, operations director of Pacific Wireless Communications, took issue with the DMR bid to ‘take over the world’ of mobile radio in his article “DMR - is it the road to nowhere?” He argued that Tetra has largely already achieved what DMR is wanting to do so, following on from that argument, this article looks more closely at what the DMR standard is all about.