Tait Communications TP9900 P25 multiprotocol portable

Tait Communications is releasing a portable radio that should improve communications between public safety and other community organisations, enabling rapid, efficient coordination to make our communities safer.

The TP9900 rugged portable radio is designed to easily connect communities where the local law enforcement and other first-responder agencies are using the radio standard P25 while other organisations — such as schools and universities, airports, highway control, utilities and public transport providers — are using DMR. This mix of land mobile radio technologies is common in North America and Asia Pacific.

A further complication to widespread interoperability is that different user groups often will be operating on different radio frequencies. Now a police force can set up a fleet of TP9900 portable radios so its officers can talk to school security teams, teachers and administrative staff at all schools in their district, as well as talk to neighbouring police and other first-responder agencies such as ambulance and fire.

That’s because the radio is built to speak in three ‘languages’ (P25 and DMR digital as well as in analog) and can access a wide spectrum of radio frequencies. Changing between P25 and DMR or VHF and UHF is as easy as changing channels — users don’t need to worry about which frequency or protocol the radio uses and can just focus on which channels are the right ones for different groups of users or situations.

The portable radio includes features such as over-the-air programming (OTAP) and over-the-air rekeying (OTAR) for encryption management, and is configurable to operate on any combination of VHF, UHF, 700/800 and 900 MHz spectrum bands. It will be available from mid-2024.