Oct 19, 2005 6:49 PM, By Donny Jackson

The Commercial Equipment Direct Assist Program (CEDAP) has selected the Incident Commander’s Radio Interface (ICRI) from Communications-Applied Technology (C-AT) for inclusion in its 2006 catalog of approved products for smaller entities to request via application, C-AT announced today.

Created by the Office for State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness, CEDAP lets police and fire departments serving populations of less than 100,000 request equipment they need from a pre-approved catalog list without the complications associated with most grant applications. The 2006 catalog’s portable interoperability solution is the cigar-box-sized ICRI, which lets five radio systems, a cell-phone system and a satellite system interoperate on four talk groups, C-AT President and founder Seth Leyman said.

Leyman said the ICRI selected by CEDAP operates for 30 hours on eight “AA” batteries, so there is no dependence on the power grid. In addition, it can be deployed in less than five minutes without specialized personnel or training, a company spokesman said.

CEDAP’s budget for 2006 has not been established, but a House bill funding the Department of Homeland Security calls for the program to provide $32 million in equipment to smaller entities. Leyman said he believe the CEDAP budget could be increased to $50 million. The fact that there is such an emphasis on interoperable communications bodes well for C-AT, he said.

“So, we’re hopeful that a good piece of that will come our way,” Leyman said. “And the credibility that [CEDAP approval] brings is certainly worth something.”

Leyman said he believes CEDAP will release its 2006 catalog in November.

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