Backhaul: the industry 25 and 10 years ago (July 2017)

Backhaul takes you on a trip down memory lane as we look at what was happening in the comms field of yesteryear.

25 YEARS AGO. The cover of the August/September 1992 issue of What’s New in Radio Communications featured Motorola’s six-channel, handheld GPS Traxar navigator, one of the new breed of amazingly small GPS units (it weighed only 480 g!). Inside the magazine, we reported on Fiji becoming the first country to begin trials of GPS for aviation navigation; Philips PTS supplying an average of one High Capacity Radio Concentrator per month to Telecom; AWA winning an million-dollar contract to supply microwave equipment to BP Exploration in Colombia; OTC’s success in installation ‘echo cancelling’ equipment in the Sydney and Brisbane Seaphone systems; and Siemens Ltd winning a $41 million contract to supply a new radio system for CityRail in Sydney. John White (Philips Mobile Communications) presented a paper on how to integrate mobile data and vehicle tracking; and Peter Hilly took us through the process of planning and designing low-capacity fixed links.

10 YEARS AGO. The cover of the July/August 2007 issue of Radio Comms Asia-Pacific featured the Kenwood TK-2170/3170 UHF/VHR portables, billed as examples of the latest generation of two-way radios and featuring a 128-channel/128-zone capacity, FleetSync, emergency facilities and an 8-character backlit LCD. Inside the magazine, Grant Stepa opined on the benefits of WiMAX in the 4.9 GHz band and its many uses, such as transmitting X-rays from the Melbourne Grand Prix’s trackside medical facilities directly to the Alfred Hospital. Paul Schmitz from Agilent presented a technical paper on distortion testing of multifunction amps, and Brett Biddington (then of Cisco) presented results from the 16th Fleet Mobile Conference in Sydney.

Pictured: The Motorola Traxar handheld GPS unit.

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