December 2005, Volume 1 , Issue 11 ianews, your connection to Icom Americas Land Mobile Division!

Keep up with the latest products, news and technical information in this newsletter.

Military Bundle Sales Open to Icom Dealers

Dealers Can Now Sell Some Products to Feds, U.S. Military
open the sales to dealers also. Its a tightly controlled process, so dealers must follow the established procedures each and every time, but Adam Strode, Icoms manufacturing representative for the Southeast, says there are plenty of new potential customers dealers can legitimately pitch through this program. Under the loosened restrictions, dealers can sell the 380-430 MHz range F43GS 86 radio to any federal government agency (no sales to state and local government or commercial companies are permitted). Dealers can sell the military bundles only to branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, and instead of the dealer receiving shipments, Icom will ship orders directly to the Armed Forces ship-to address. Continued on page 2

IN THIS ISSUE: Military Bundle Sales IAS Increases Pre-Stock Product Spotlight: F14/24 Radio Series Meet David Hoeft TECH CORNER Using the CTCSS Reverse Burst Settings Accessory of the Month Otto Legacy Speaker Phone

Icom dealers now have another market opportunity open to them, selling radios and military bundles (a radio, scrambler and accessories) to the federal government and U.S. military. Because of the companys successful military bundle sale, in which approximately 33,000 F43 bundles have been sold directly to the U.S. Army, Icom decided in October to

HOLIDAY HOURS Closed December 26 Closed January 2

Icom America Systems Increases Pre-Stock, Shortens System Turnaround Time

Icom America Systems (IAS) knows that emergency conditions require immediate response. Thats why IAS has increased the amount of pre-stocked OEM parts to handle last-minute emergency orders for systems, shortening the time it takes to produce tuned and aligned systems for shipment. Typically it takes 5-15 days to obtain the necessary parts, and another day or two to assemble and stage the equipment, depending on the system complexity, said Richard Varbero, who has recently returned to Icom America to head IAS. But we know sometimes people need systems faster. Rather than requesting that the manufacturers do the tuning and aligning, IAS engineers and technicians custom tune and align each system to the customers exact specications. We have established increased levels of inventory of OEM vendor parts to allow us to assemble these systems quickly and to the customer specications, said Varbero. Instead of buying parts from other OEM vendors specically turned and aligned, we do that in the Icom systems staging area with highly trained engineers and technicians.

2005 Icom America Inc. The Icom logo is a registered trademark of Icom Inc. All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners. All information and specications subject to change without notice or obligation.

For People Who Make Smart Choices ianews / December

Continued from page 1: Meet Your Icom Team

Military Bundle Sales Open to Icom Dealers

that the army is using. Every national guard unit in my region except two are using Icom products, and I have bids into those two units. Besides the national guard units, Strode recommends pitching any federal department using FEMA money, such as agencies dealing with hurricane season clean-up. There is a lot more federal money out there. Dealers should track it in their region, he says. There are many potential sales out there because of these products.

Previously, Icom had restricted dealer involvement from selling to the federal government because the radio doesnt have an FCC type acceptance certicate, says Chris Lougee, Icom Land Mobile vice president. To control distribution, Icom will require dealers to send a copy of the federal government purchase order along with their own purchase order. The big military bundle sale helps a lot, because it increases the market awareness of the Icom products, its good brand-name recognition, said Strode. A guard unit will be called up to Iraq, and want to use the same products

David Hoeft Quality Control and Parts Dept. Supervisor As supervisor for both Quality Control and the Parts Department, 44-yearold Hoeft wears many hats. Hes involved in testing new products, radio modication management and product rmware updates and management. When Icom offers a new radio into the market, whether its amateur, marine or aviation, part of my job is to test that product and make sure its ready for release into the market place, he says. When I see it offered in a sales ad, I get a real sense of pride knowing I had a hand in making that product available.

Product Spotlight F14/F24 Radio Series

Icoms new generation of lightweight, portable transceivers -the IC-F14/F14S (VHF) and IC-F24/F24S (UHF) series -- features high-end functionality at a low-end price. Sporting rugged, military-specication construction and a wide frequency range, the F14/F24 series is perfect for small police and re departments, warehouses, department stores, schools and hotels. The radios come in both 16-channel and two-channel versions and feature emergency call and voice privacy as standard features. The positive-action push-totalk and function buttons make the radios easy to operate even while wearing gloves. Compatible with either 25-kHz or 12.5kHz channel spacing, the F14/F24 series is the ideal product to accommodate radio operators changing requirements.

For People Who Make Smart Choices ianews / December / Page 2 of 3

Did You Know?

TECH CORNER Using the CTCSS Reverse Burst Settings

When 2 radios communicate, there is a slight time lag between the time that the transmitting radio stops talking and the receiving radio is still listening (open squelch). During this time lag, the RX radio is waiting for another signal from the TX radio; when this does not occur, the RX radio will hear noise (squelch tail).

This base station is now available for the P25 F1721/F1821 mobile series.

Accessory of the Month Otto Legacy Speaker Microphone

When transmitting using CTCSS tones, you can suppress this noise by setting the TX radio to transmit an out-of-phase CTCSS signal at the end, or tail of its transmission. Instead of hearing noise from the TX radio, the RX radio will recognize the out-of-phase CTCSS tone and will shut down its squelch immediately.

This affordable, high quality, lightweight mic is ideal for retail, light industry and hospitality markets. Clothing spring clip can be positioned in any direction, and an optional earphone kit is available to t the 2.5 mm jack.

To use this feature, open your cloning software and navigate to Continuous Tone > Continuous Tone Settings. In the Tone Burst eld, select Phase. The CTCSS Reverse Burst Timer eld sets the length of time that the TX radio will transmit an out-of-phase, or reverse tone following release of PTT. An optimal setting for most users is 0.15. For People Who Make Smart Choices ianews / December / Page 3 of 3