blog.icomamerica.comTwo way radios for amateur, avionics, land mobile and marine use

Icom America Inc. Icom America News Back to IcomAmerica.com About Contact Categories Amateur Avionics Land Mobile Systems Marine Network Improving School Communications July 19, 2022 by Kevin Macaraeg, Marketing Coordinator Icom CONNECT Wheel Summer break is when school districts look to improve their learning environment. Security and efficiency contribute to a productive learning atmosphere by providing a safe and well-maintained setting. Emergencies, disasters, and intruders require preparation and practice so that when they occur, everyone remains safe. Along with safety, efficiency ensures arrival/dismissal, extra-curricular, maintenance, cleanups, busing, and event transportation go as smoothly as possible. These things enable students to thrive and parents, faculty, staff, and the community to take pride in their schools. Read More... Filed Under: Land Mobile A CLEAR Path to Interconnected Communications June 29, 2022 by Mark Behrends Your team is spread out all over the building, site, or city, and you need to talk to them frequently throughout the work day. Dialing on the phone is time-consuming and isn’t practical when contacting more than one or two people at a time. Push-to-Talk (PTT) devices, such as two-way radios or walkie-talkies, are purpose-built for that application. These devices have continued to evolve with digital radios, LTE radios, WIFI radios, and even Satellite radios. Each of them allows one push for everyone in the group to hear and be able to respond to your call. Read More... Filed Under: Land Mobile Steps After Buying an Land Mobile Radio April 26, 2022 by Kevin Macaraeg, Marketing Coordinator So, you bought a land mobile radio, now what? Icom America has developed a list of best practices for your post-purchase decisions. There are a couple of ways to buy Icom’s products in person, over the phone, or through the internet via Icom authorized dealers. Depending on the dealer, you may have bought it online through a demo visit and quote or a phone call. Depending on your use case of radios – there may or may not be a point of contact available to help you. Step One: Identify your Land Mobile Radio Land mobile radios come in various shapes and sizes. It is essential to determine what kind you have before starting the discussion. Read More... Filed Under: Land Mobile Command Your Satellites April 12, 2022 by Kevin Macaraeg, Marketing Coordinator Did you know you can control satellites? Well, in a way, we can. You can control where in the world you want your coverage to be for Icom’s satellite radios, the SAT100 and SAT100M. Update or configure coverage on the move for cross-county, state, and country operations. 66 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites circle the globe every 100 minutes at around 27,000 km/h (roughly 1,6777 mph). Satellites fly overhead every 8 minutes, you’ll rarely be without one overhead. For an average human to circle the globe once on foot, it would take approximately 335 days. If you were on a roundtrip flight around the world on a Boeing 747, it would take about 45 hours. The point is, these satellites travel fast, and the tool to command them is even faster. Read More... Filed Under: Network Understanding Waterproof Radio Ratings March 25, 2022 by Kevin Macaraeg, Marketing Coordinator I have thrown our radios in a river, poured water on the speakers, and tossed ‘em in the mud. I can confidently say they are waterproof, in-fact most of our land mobile radios have a high waterproof rating. A lot of products claim they are waterproof, water resistant, but they may not list any statistic on how waterproof/resistant they are. You may have seen a rating like IP67, but not know what it means. Heck, you’ll find that most high-end smartphones have waterproof ratings too. In this blog, we will explore how to breakdown and determine Icom’s radio waterproof rating. Read More... Filed Under: Land Mobile Choosing a Mobile Radio January 27, 2022 by Kevin Macaraeg, Marketing Coordinator So, you’re a manager, technician, or the owner of a business researching mobile radios to buy for the first time, perhaps to replace older radios? When you’re browsing the web, you might notice how oversaturated the market is with products. Do you need a license, do you need all these features, does price really matter? When I first started out in the radio industry, I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information. With time, radios became easy to understand. With mobile radios its not that complex and can be easily divided into 3 sections. What are radios, types of popular mobile radios for businesses, and how they fit into each industry. Lets dive into it, step by step starting from the basics. Read More... Filed Under: Land Mobile Popular Walkie Talkie Types January 4, 2022 by Kevin Macaraeg, Marketing Coordinator Types of Popular Walkie Talkies Have you seen walkie talkies in your favorite department store? It’s probably in the electronics aisle, maybe even the toy aisle. These are classified as personal walkie talkies or radios. Most likely, the walkie talkies you see on these very shelves are one type of radio for personal use. In this blog, we will discuss the differences between the three most popular short-range radio services, FRS, GMRS, and MURS. Family Radio Service (FRS) FRS radios, as mentioned in the intro, they are most likely the ones you see on most department store shelves. They are typically inexpensive radios meant for basic operations. FRS radios operate on either 2W or 0.5W of output power depending on the frequency. A max of 2W most likely means it will have a max-range of 2 miles. Read More... Filed Under: Land Mobile Differences between VHF and UHF November 17, 2021 by Kevin Macaraeg, Marketing Coordinator Do I want a hamburger or a chicken sandwich? The biggest question I face when I order at fast food restaurants. Not necessarily fast food, but you may have to choose between VHF and UHF frequencies. In this blog we will explore the differences between VHF and UHF and where it might fit in your operation. Definitions Frequency – Defines the oscillation rate of a radio wave, how fast it goes up and down. This frequency rate is called Hertz. VHF – Very High Frequencies. Radio waves that oscillate between 30 megahertz (MHz) and 300 megahertz. Read More... Filed Under: Land Mobile What do you mean by Simplex, Duplex, Half Duplex, Full Duplex? October 20, 2021 by Mark Behrends Two-way radios have been around a long time. There’s a reason for that. Radios have and continue to provide a useful function for many. Hobbyists use them for fun. Boaters use them for safety. Businesses use them to streamline crew communications. And radios are a vital piece of the public safety personnel’s communication system. Before you can talk on a radio, you have to talk about radios to select the right radio for your application. Yet, some terms may be unfamiliar or confusing to you. Don’t let terminology get in the way. Read More... Filed Under: Land Mobile Emergency Communication Planning September 15, 2021 by Kevin Macaraeg, Marketing Coordinator In emergency planning, communication is one of the key elements to make sure operations go over smoothly. Land mobile radios are essential for ground communications. Marine radios are useful for scanning regular and emergency channels, pairing with radars, and more. Even some amateur bands have dedicated emergency channels. However, due to the nature of these protocols, they cannot talk to each other on the same frequency due to FCC regulations. Managing and monitoring these protocols simultaneously can be troublesome, especially for emergency situations. Multiple devices may be in play relaying messages, instant response is crucial in dire situations. Icom has two solutions to fortify and enhance communications. The first one is Icom’s VE-PG4 gateway, it can interconnect these protocols to talk with each other. Read More... Filed Under: Network 1 2 3 … 11 Next Page » Recent Posts...