ia

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Icom Americas Land Mobile
Division! Keep up with the
latest products, news and
technical information in
this newsletter.

PassPort 4.0 Offers Enhanced Reliability

and Security

IN THIS ISSUE:
PassPort 4.0 Offers Enhanced
Reliability, Security
Meet Your Icom Team Jesse Skipton, Advertising Trade
Show Lead
D-Star Shines in Fire Department
Chalk Full of Amateur Operators
Upcoming Trade Shows!

Icom Press Release - New Icom

F5021 Offers Enhanced Features
and Flexibility for the Everyday
LMR User

2009 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 specifications
subject to change without notice
or obligation. 10122

June 2009

Mission-critical radio users such as

government, public safety and utilities
share a common requirement: reliable
and secure communications.
The latest generation of the PassPort
protocol, now available for Icom F3161/
F4161 portable and F5061/F6061 mobile radios, meets these users needs by
providing several key enhancements to
the classic low-speed trunking protocol,
including channel backup, priority access and emergency declaration.
PassPort is ideally suited for users
with elevated security needs, says Rick
Burke, general manager of Federal Radio
in Aberdeen, Md. Federal Radio operates a PassPort multi-site trunked radio
system that leases airtime services to
federal government and museum users.
I have the ability to control who is on
the network through embedded ESNs
(electronic serial numbers) and unique
radio IDs, Burke says. And as I expand
the network through adding sites or
changing frequencies I dont have to
reprogram every radio.
From an end-user standpoint, key
benefits of PassPort include its caller
ID capabilities, telephone interconnect
and individual selective call, Burke says.
But as a network operator, hes sold on
its high level of network security and
ease of network expansion.
PassPorts high reliability and network
security features also make it a great
choice for hospitals, museums, college

campuses and manufacturing companies.

Channel
backup
ensures a high level of
reliability by eliminating
downtime caused by
channel failure. New
security features include an emergency
declaration feature and priority access,
which allows network operators to assign a priority level to each radio, giving
higher-priority radios access to available
channels during emergencies.
Burke says that over the past few
months customers have started to
upgrade from Icoms F4TR and F43TR
to the new F4161 subscriber unit, and
that customer interest is on the rise.
According to Burke, user feedback is
so far, so good, who says customers appreciate the radios great audio
quality and loudness.
Icom now offers PassPort 2.8
and 4.2. Please call 425-454-8155 for
more information.

For People Who Make Smart Choices

ianews
Meet Your Icom Team

Jesse Skipton
Advertising Trade Show Lead

Jesse Skipton, Icoms Advertising

Trade Show Lead, has been working
diligently organizing and scheduling
tradeshows, keeping track of our inventory of equipment, and overseeing daily
literature pulls for a little over 2 years.
Jesse heads up scheduling and planning
for the amateur tradeshows, as well as
being involved with planning for marine,
avionics, and land mobile shows.
Another essential function is attending
to the daily literature pulls keeping on
top of the requests that come in daily for
Icom maps, brochures, price lists, etc.,
while maintaining our contact list.
Jesses favorite job by far is traveling
to set-up/break-down and work in our
tradeshow booths at several larger
tradeshows Icom attends each year.
Talking with the folks attending these
shows gives me a better understanding
of how our radios work in the eyes of the
field user, Jesse said.

Icom America Inc.

2380 116th Ave NE
Bellevue, WA 98004
Phone: (425) 454-8155
Fax: (425) 454-1509
Customer Service: (425) 454-7619

D-STAR Shines in Fire Department Chalk Full

of Amateur Operators
Western Washington state
sees approximately 1,000
minor tremors annually, and
the area is constantly under
threat of a major earthquake.
Additionally, local emergency
services
personnel
must
always be prepared for major
Pacific storms that can bring
severe weather and flooding to
this densely populated region.
Just south of Seattle in the
heart of the Puget Sound region
sits the growing community of
Tukwila, Wash. While the local
first responders are confident their 800
MHz LMR system will see them through
any emergency they may face, recent
disasters around the country including
hurricanes Katrina and Ike prove that
backup communication is mandatory.
With this in mind, the Tukwila Fire
Department set about securing a stateof-the-art digital backup communications system. There was one significant
caveat, however: Most of Tukwila Fires
communications budget was tied up in
its primary 800 MHz system. Any solution it choseincluding base stations,
repeaters and transceiverswould have
to fit within a very tight budget.
Longtime amateur radio enthusiast
and Tukwila Fire Communications Unit
Leader Matt Hickey explored a few options, but kept thinking about how ham
radio operators shine in disaster situations, providing emergency communications for first responders when their
primary systems have been knocked out
or are overloaded.
Amateur radio could provide an ideal
backup two-way communications system for Tukwila Fire, Hickey concluded,

but all operators would need to be

licensed. Would all firefighters agree to
learn a new radio system and put the
time in to acquire a license? Most were
enthusiastic when they learned about
the opportunity to become ham radio
operators, but there were a few holdouts, Hickey admitted.
Confident he could get the rest on
board, Hickey sold the merits of ham
radio to the fire chief, who approved
$45,000 for the system. Hickey looked
to one of the top amateur radio lines to
meet his needs: Icoms D-STAR system.
With the funds, Hickey worked with Ham
Radio Outlet in Portland, Ore., to acquire
47 IC-92AD portable and 8 ID-800 mobile
radios, 2 ID-RP2C repeater controllers,
and 2 ID-RP4000V repeaters.
Tukwila chose the Icom D-STAR
system because of its proven reliability
and affordability, according to Hickey
who noted that a digital LMR system
would probably have cost hundreds of
thousands of dollars more. We also like
the fact that our portables are submersible, which is critical in an environment
such as ours.
Continued on page 3

Icom America Systems

Phone: (425) 586-6363
Fax: (425) 586-6321
ias@icomamerica.com

For People Who Make Smart Choices

ianews

June 2009

Page 2

ianews
Continued from page 2

D-STAR Shines in Fire Department

Chalk Full of Amateur Operators

In addition to key personnel

who are assigned a portable radio,
each fire engine is outfitted with
four portables and one mobile. The
mobiles are attached to a laptop
computer equipped with D-RATS
(RATS is STAR backwards)
software to support data transmission over D-STAR, including
instant messaging, file
transfers, GPS positioning and RSS/CAP feeds,
among other capabilities.

The IC-92AD is a MILSTD

810C, D, E, F tested amateur
dual-band radio built to IP57
dust and submersible
standards. Shown with
optional GPS hand mic.

Each of Tukwila Fires

three shifts has two
communications technicians who have become
experts
on
D-STAR,
keeping equipment in top working order
and assisting firefighters on the finer
points of ham radio. With most users
comfortable on the system, Tukwila
Fire runs drills using only the amateur
equipment
simulating
a
disaster
scenario that could take down its
primary LMR network.

One great benefit of the D-STAR

system is its analog capability, Hickey
noted. We are able to talk with ham
radio operators who help out with communications for other fire departments,
even if theyre not on D-STAR.
While ham radio operators have long
supported emergency operations, Hickey
isnt aware of other fire departments that
have leveraged amateur radio to this extent. Yet as a part-time logistics section
chief for the Department of Homeland
Security who is dispatched around the
country as part of a disaster response
surgical team, hes wouldnt be surprised
if amateur radio is relied on more and
more in these situations.
Ive been exposed first-hand to the
lack of communications in a disaster
area, he relayed. Ham radio operators
live and work in the areas where disasters occur. Their equipment is already
in place, and they can be very helpful
when called upon to support primary
two-way communications.

Drop by our booth at these

upcoming trade shows!
APCO International
August 16 20, 2009
Las Vegas, NV
http://www.apco2009.org/

Request more information on

D-STAR by calling our literature
support line at 800-999-9877
or by visiting online:
www.icomamerica.com/dstar

FCCA
October 4 7, 2009
Mesa, AZ
http://www.fcca-usa.org/

AASHTO
October 22 27, 2009
Palm Desert, CA
http://www.transportation.org/
meetings/181.aspx
EWA
November 3 6, 2009
Atlanta, GA
http://www.ita-relay.com/ events/
events.htm

For People Who Make Smart Choices

ianews

June 2009

Page 3

ianews
Icom America Inc.
2380 116th Avenue NE
Bellevue, WA 98004
Tele: 425-454-8155
Fax: 425-454-1509

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Alicia Scott,
425-450-6092
aliciascott@icomamerica.com

ICom America
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able for immediate downloading
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Print-ready, high resolution imag
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from www.icomamerica.com/dow
Icom Inc. 10118
logo is a registered trademark of
2009 Icom America Inc. The Icom

First In Communications