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Recently I was lucky enough to receive a tour of the new Ronald McDonald House, now the world's largest, which opens officially on June 26 in downtown Chicago. The 14-story, 86-room facility at 211 E Grand includes “nurturing communal areas to provide a home away from home” for families of the patients seeking vital care at The Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago.

Critical Communications Lessons Learned From NATO

 The recent events of the NATO summit in Chicago has a number of very important lessons that can be applied to our own communications plans for our businesses.

#1 - Effective communication requires immediate access in critical situations.  Messages cannot be delayed by network congestion or distances when situations are rapidly changing.

As protestors got more and more aggressive in demonstrating during the NATO summit, the Chicago Police relied on two-way radio communications to obtain orders directly from Police Supt. Garry McCarthy.  Despite the radio communications amongst officers, miscommunications did occur, and without direct access to clarify, a potentially dangerous situation did not escalate any further than absolutely necessary.  The Police maintained their professionalism, and the demonstration was allowed to resume in an appropriate manner.

You’re Standing on the Tracks and the Digital Train is Coming Through...

     The digital train is rolling.  It is picking up speed and before long it will be virtually unstoppable in the world of two-way radio technology.  Some might even say that it is already unstoppable!

     Criminals today are getting more and more sophisticated and the tools to combat them need to keep pace.  Rioting mobs are using social media and smartphones to coordinate their activities, international drug cartels use encrypted digital radios to report the activities of Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Border Patrol Agents; even the “common” thief can get a smartphone app to monitor some police radio traffic, as evidence by this recent situation in San Diego.  The bottom line is that the enemy is striving to become more sophisticated than the law enforcement personnel trying to stop them.

      In schools, a strong communication system is vital to maintaining a safe environment. Whether reassuring seamless alarm alerts or connecting with the needs of students, instant communications are essential. The community in a school or university includes personnel - grounds and maintenance, administration, faculty and students. Here are some examples of situations where two way radios can come in more than handy.

Scenario #1:

Campus security at a University receives a call in the middle of the night that someone in a mask is lurking around one of the academic buildings. They send out a broadcast with their two way radios, and the nearest guard checks out the area.

Result: Because there's a quick response, the intruder is scared away before causing any damage.

Tom's Tech Talk (#8): "Sync" Your two-way Radios & Accessories

     As most people believe that hooking up a radio is a couple of wires, consider this. Typical radio antenna connections are 50 ohms of impedance. Antenna cable comes in many varieties. For instance your Cable TV Cable is 75 ohms impedance. Twin lead for an outdoor antenna is 300 ohms. Standard 2 Way Radio cable is 50 ohms. In layman’s terms, ohms equates to the resistance of a part or device. When mixing different varieties of cables, you actually get a mismatch. This mismatch usually results in degraded performance or even failure.

    For two way radio, the typical impedance is 50 ohms. This means that the radio should match the antenna cable and the antenna cable should match the antenna. When done properly you obtain maximum transfer of power to the antenna. When done improperly the mismatch can actually cause reflected power back into the radio either shortening the life of the amplifier or causing degraded performance in the operation of the radio.

Battery capacity and the duty cycle of the radio will determine talk time. Typically a radio AT MINIMUM should last 8 hours. Over the years as batteries age, their ability to meet the customers requirements diminish and the batteries need charging during the shift or workday. New technology such as Motorola’s Impress battery systems enhances battery life as the charging systems are intelligent and adjust the charge rate for the type of use. Battery technology changes over the years have led to increased battery life as well.

What is digital?

Digital is a process to modulate the radio channel or frequency using data instead of traditional analog voice. By converting ones voice into a data stream and sending it over a radio channel we can improve the ability of the signal to be decoded and reproduce the audio at the other end to be heard. All cellular systems today use digital technology. Two way radios have both analog and digital. Digital affords some additional benefits such as a two for one channel usage. Thus one frequency or channel will allow you two simultaneous transmissions. This may allow for reduced costs in radio equipment.

FAQs

As we migrate to a more digital universe, as I’ve indicated in my previous Tech Talks, Radio is usually slower to follow. What should be recognized is preplanning for systems. Just as telephone systems are changing out from Analog to Digital, so are radios. With this migration, we see implementations from Villages and corporations to provide network connectivity between buildings or facilities, whether on a campus or miles apart, data paths are reshaping connectivity.

While we have always relied on the telephone company to provide our wide area connectivity, solutions like fiber and wireless links contain a larger up front cost, but a greater return on investment. With these paths we can achieve huge bandwidths that allow us to carry voice, data and video.

    Tom's Tech Talk (#3):
What does TEAM mean for your business?

     After returning from the IWCE tradeshow in Las Vegas (earlier this year), it appears that radio platforms are starting to have the ability to merge together. At a seminar held by Motorola, they presented the Motorola TEAM product. This product, although specific in application, allows for disparate systems to link together. The intent is to have one number, one voicemail. The concept links an IP based telephone system in your office with your handheld smartphone and your radio system all together.
    

 Tom's Tech Talk (#2): Analog vs. Digital with Motorola’s MOTOTRBO

With the current evolution of technology, two way radios have been slow to change. Motorola within the last several years has developed a radio platform that will not only allow for a migration path from analog to digital, but also allow for third party developers to create software products to enhance the functionality of the system.
     Analog radio allows a user to basically push to talk and release to listen. There are variations within this that can allow users to do GPS and status messaging. These required the use of the channel to send data across it when no voice communications were present. With Motorola’s MOTOTRBO digital platform, an existing analog user can buy the repeater and use it in analog. As the user budgets for new equipment, when complete, the entire system can be converted to digital.
     Why Digital? To start with, by using a repeater in the digital mode, Motorola allows for two completely simultaneous conversations over the same channel. With radio spectrum a commodity, this allows for minor modifications to the license which allows the TDMA protocol to handle two concurrent calls. In addition, having this digital capability allows a user to Privately Call another user so the typical Party line radio communication is not heard. In addition to features like private call you can do simple text messaging across
the system to communicate.
     To further enhance the system’s ability is the “Third Party Application Vendors”. Through licensing, Motorola has allowed for their system to be used as a backbone to allow for wireless applications such as GPS, Telephone, Email and Indoor location services by outside developers. In essence a system purchased that originally was used for push to talk and release to listen has now created tracking, monitoring, texting and telephone, all from a single radio channel.