Useful DAS Monitoring Starts With the Right Alarm Settings A public safety radio monitoring system should help building staff recognize a problem and give the service team enough information to investigate it. That requires more than installing monitoring equipment. The channels being observed, the signal levels considered acceptable and the way alarms are handled all
Public Safety BDA Shutdown Controls Belong in the Building Readiness Plan A bidirectional amplifier (BDA) helps improve public safety radio communication within buildings where signals may be too weak. In addition to being able to provide better coverage, the equipment also has to be able to be shut down if there is harmfully interfering with
A Monitoring Upgrade Is Not a Replacement Project There’s no reason to upgrade a public-safety radio system just to get a better view of what’s going on. There are many other reasons to monitor an existing public-safety radio system. All of your antennas, cable, and amplifier equipment should be inspected, tested and evaluated based upon
Installation Readiness Begins on the Ground Discovering a damaged connector, incorrect setting, or unresolved test result after equipment is mounted complicates a job that was supposed to be an installation. Preinstallation RF testing moves those questions to the workbench, where components remain accessible and the configuration can be examined before tower work begins. TX RX
A Site Expansion Does Not Always Need Another Receive Antenna When a radio system upgrade begins with expanding additional receivers at an established site, there are many ways to implement such upgrades. One method to expand the receivers at a site is to provide a dedicated Antenna for each additional receiver. However, another option exists.
Growing Communications Complexity Is Making Long Term Manufacturer Support More Valuable When updating a public safety communications network, it will generally not replace all the equipment currently being used. Instead, the update will typically add newer technologies to an existing radio network. Therefore, agencies are now required to support two (2) systems; the original equipment
Purchase Price Captures Only the First Transaction It is essential to recognize that the “purchase” price of a piece of RF infrastructure captures only the first transaction in a potentially multi-year series of transactions that represent the “operational” price of that equipment. Initially, a filter, combiner, duplexer, receiver system, antenna, or tower-mounted device is primarily
Long Service Life Is Becoming a More Important Measure of RF Infrastructure Value Infrastructure is typically analyzed in three ways: (a) through specifications; (b) through quoted price; (c) through delivery schedules. While each of these criteria are important, none address the full cost of owning and maintaining equipment that may serve your needs for decades.
Communications Center Mutual Aid Is Becoming Part of Disaster Readiness Emergency communications center Disaster plans typically focus on the physical aspects (i.e., the building itself), power generation, communication circuit back-up and restoration of communications. While important, these elements alone cannot guarantee that an emergency communications center remains functional during a Disaster. Many factors beyond physical
Everyday Maintenance Habits That Prevent Long Public Safety Radio Outages Public safety radio outages can occur due to many factors such as a malfunctioning power source, broken feed line, environmental alert, or network issues. The length of time for the outage is typically caused by something much less dramatic then what initially started the outage;
Useful DAS Monitoring Starts With the Right Alarm Settings A public safety radio monitoring system should help building staff recognize
Public Safety BDA Shutdown Controls Belong in the Building Readiness Plan A bidirectional amplifier (BDA) helps improve public safety radio
A Monitoring Upgrade Is Not a Replacement Project There’s no reason to upgrade a public-safety radio system just to get
Installation Readiness Begins on the Ground Discovering a damaged connector, incorrect setting, or unresolved test result after equipment is mounted
A Site Expansion Does Not Always Need Another Receive Antenna When a radio system upgrade begins with expanding additional receivers