Survey Technologies adds bit-error rate testing
Survey Technologies said during last week’s Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials conference in Montreal it has developed a product that enables law enforcement personnel to conduct bit error-rate testing in the field for Project 25-compliant radios. The product is scheduled for availability in the fourth quarter of this year.
The unit would be placed in a vehicle to take field measurements that determine how a signal deteriorates in certain conditions, according to the company’s Carl Peek. “It’s not a predictive tool, but provides verification of signal quality,” he said.
Data collected from the unit would be plotted by RF system analysts to determine areas where signal coverage is poor and alert law-enforcement personnel to them, Peek said. “Every radios system has issues, and some of them you need to live with, but our system will show public-safety personnel how to use their radios more safely,” he said. “For instance, instead of pulling someone over for a traffic stop right away in an area where they know the signal is weak, they can go down the road a quarter mile, where they know the signal is better.”
Peek added that the data could also be added to Geographic Information System databases in order to provide personnel with color-coded maps that would be easier to reference.