Mar 10, 2010 10:03 AM

Harris today introduced a vehicular repeater for trunked systems, a new mission-critical portable radio and a P25 contract in Florida at the International Wireless Communications Expo (IWCE).

The VRS7010 cross-band vehicular repeater combines a vehicular repeater and a mobile radio that communicates on P25 trunked and conventional radio systems in the 700 MHz and 800 MHz bands. As a vehicular repeater, the product retransmits weak or low-level signals to extend coverage or reduce signal degradation.

“The VRS7010 delivers extended coverage, better interoperability and a P25 radio — all in one package,” George Helm, vice president and general manager for Harris public safety and professional communications, said in a prepared statement. 

Harris also announced that the P7300 multimode portable radio operating in the 700 MHz and 800 MHz bands is available. Although rugged, the P7300 is a lighter-weight handheld that is software-upgradeable to P25 Phase 2.

“We’ve done extensive testing in the field, and it’s been well received,” Harris spokesman Steve Frackleton said during an interview with Urgent Communications. “People like the size and the audio quality.”

A P25-compliant device, the P7300 is a feature-rich, single-band radio and can operate on systems using P25 trunking, P25 conventional, ProVoice digital trunking, OpenSky trunking, EDACS and analog conventional, making it a “great migration radio” for many systems.

One such system is in Volusia County, Fla., which is migrating its legacy EDACS analog conventional trunking system to a Harris P25 system operating at 700 MHz and 800 MHz. The 12-site system will support 9,000 users from more than 40 agencies.

“As a popular destination for a number of events, including the Daytona 500, Bike Week and Biketober Fest, we welcome millions of visitors to Volusia County each year,” Volusia County chair Frank Bruno said in a prepared statement.  “It’s imperative we have a dependable, modern communications system so our first responders can communicate clearly and quickly. By migrating over time to the new P25 technology, we will have minimal disruption to users during the transition, while maximizing our current radio resources.”

Updated 3/16/2010
 

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