Backhaul, December 2015: industry news from 25 and 10 years ago

Backhaul takes you on a trip down memory lane as we look at what was happening in the critical communications field 25 and 10 years ago.

25 YEARS AGO. The cover of the December 1990/January 1991 issue of What’s New in Radio Communications presented the Midland FM portable radio range from Exicom. The different units came with between 16 and 99 channels, some crystal controlled and others programmable. Feature articles in the issue included a summary of mobile radio signalling (CTCSS, ANI, Selcall, CAD) by John Barber of Signalling Technology; Timothy Burke, from Andrew Corporation, discussing the ins and outs of cellular coverage in building and tunnels; and Ron Bertrand bringing us up to date with intermodulation interference issues. It’s really interesting to flick through the pages of a 25-year-old magazine, spotting company names that have disappeared (eg, OTC) and others that are still around (eg, Barrett Communications, Rohde & Schwarz, Emona Instruments).

10 YEARS AGO. The cover of the November/December 2005 issue of Radio Comms Asia-Pacific featured the Tait TM8100 and TM8200 radios, TB8100 and TB7100 base stations and 9000-series P25 radios. Inside, Peter Schlusser from Infostream presented the merits of paging systems; we had a case study on a high-bandwidth radio link between a company’s two separated offices in Brisbane; Ron Gatzke from Maxim Integrated Products gave a primer on RF modulation/demodulation; and we had another case study on providing wireless internet services aboard UK rail fleets. Martin Cahill also went on the attack against Ni-Cad batteries, calling for them to be banned for environmental reasons. We also had an update on CSIRO research into more efficient spectrum usage, out of its then ICT Centre in Marsfield, Sydney.