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Multimode radios

Sep 1, 2009 12:00 PM, DONNY JACKSON

Harris introduced three multimode portable radios, the P7300, the P5300 and the P5400. The P7300 is a Project 25 Phase 2-upgradable radio that can host multiple operating modes, including P25 digital trunking, P25 digital conventional, analog conventional, EDAC or ProVoice. The radio is being introduced in the 450-512 MHz band, or T-band, and has features similar to those provided by the P7200 in the 700/800 MHz bands, said John Vaughan, senior vice president of marketing and business development for Harris RF Communications.

“The 7300 is everything the 7200 is, but in a smaller package,” Vaughan said, noting that the radio is still large enough to be used by responders wearing gloves. Later versions of the P73000 will be available for the VHF band and low split UHF band.

The intrinsically safe P5300 and P5400 radios are for first responders operating in chemically volatile or explosive environments.

In other news, Harris debuted an interoperability solution that leverages two key strengths of the newly merged Harris RF Communications unit — the IP-based VIDA network platform from the former Tyco Electronics, and the Unity XG-100 multiband portable radios, Vaughan said.

Multiband radios such as the Unity let users talk on a UHF, VHF or 700/800 MHz radio system. However, the radios must be reset if the user is traveling between system A and system B, for example, Vaughan said.

“This is the first complete interoperability solution, because VIDA ties the networks together and multiband radio ties the radios together, so you have interoperability at both levels,” Vaughan said. “And that's never happened before … it completes the circle.”