Briefs: FCC announces first post-Sandy field hearing

Resiliency of commercial wired and wireless networks in light of the communications problems encountered in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy will be the focus of an FCC field hearing that will be conducted on Feb. 5, the agency announced.

This will be the first in a series of Sandy-related field hearings that previously were announced by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. The morning session will be conducted from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. eastern time at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Customs House in New York City. The afternoon session will be from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Stevens Institute of Technology Babbio Center in Hoboken, N.J.

Klein unveils speaker/mic

Klein Electronicsintroduced its Valor professional speaker/microphone for two-way radios. This speaker/microphone is rubber over-molded, and features the following: side and front push-to-talk buttons; two audio ports (top and bottom) with patent-pending locking cams; and contoured edges for improved grip and feel. The accessory comes in black or safety orange and has a two-year warranty.

Miami-Dade County transitions users to P25

More than 10,000 government users have migrated from an 18-year-old analog radio system to a 700/800 MHz P25 radio system manufactured by Harris. More than 16,000- radios were replaced or reprogrammed in 2012, and about 14,000 additional radios used by law-enforcement agency are scheduled to be replaced or reprogrammed in 2013. Most of the radios were acquired at no cost to the county under a 2010 rebanding agreement with Sprint Nextel.

Genesis adds director

The Genesis Group recently announced that Mike Batis joined the company as director of Genesis Services, a new division that is expected to “help built out a complete, holistic approach to managing and monitoring mission-critical communications systems,” according to Phil Burks, president and CEO of the Genesis Group. Previously, Batis served as a senior system engineer for Teletouch Communications in Tyler, Texas, providing engineering support to Motorola two-way radio shops.