ianews, your connection to

Icom Americas Land Mobile

Division! Keep up with the
latest products, news and
technical information in this
newsletter thats just for
Icom America dealers.

IN THIS ISSUE:
FR5000 Test Drive and Review
F50V Pivotal in Storm Dispatch
FR5000/FR6000 High Performance
2U Rack Mount Digital/Analog
Repeater
Meet Your Icom Team:
Mike Hilton

ia

March 2008

FR5000 Series

Test Drive and Review from Rick Burke, Federal Radio

Several dealer stores in a number of states and regions received

the new FR5000 series repeater
following
its
anticipated
release
in February. The scalable, expandable repeater completes the Icom 6.25
kHz product line of ultra-narrowband
capable two-way radios, aka IDAS.

The strong opening orders are being

pointed out largely as a result of the FR
laying down a flexible migration path from
analog to digital. A big draw for this
repeater is the fact that it can be used as
a transition tool, says Icom Mid Central
Area Sales Manager, Mark Maynard.
The FR5000 will operate as conventional analog in 12.5/25 kHz
while setting up a comprehensive
strategy toward 6.25 kHz digital,
Continued on page 2

F50V Pivotal in Storm Dispatch

Pacific Public Safety & Communications Provides

Critical Assistance During Coastal Disaster

Icom Monthly Haiku

Introducing the A14 Air Band Radio
Not Just Outstanding, Exceptional!
Icom Americas GSA Report Card
Scalable, Expandable, Flexible!
Tech Corner - Setting Tones
in the FR6000 Repeater
Which 4 Channel System Fits
YOUR Needs?

How do you cut your rack

space rental fees in half?
See illustration at end of
this newsletter to see how.

2008 Icom America Inc.

The Icom logo is a registered trademark
of Icom Inc. All other trademarks remain
the property of their respective owners. All
information and specifications subject to
change without notice or obligation. 9453

A massive storm that pummeled

the Washington and Oregon coast last
December will be remembered by public
safety officials for years to come. Wind
gusts topping 130 mph took down power
and phone lines, disabling 9-1-1 service
for up to a week in Clatsop County, Ore.
Public safety communications took a
direct hit when a generator went down,
complicating dispatch capabilities.
The state of Oregon was issued a
declaration of major disaster.
With near-freezing temperatures, hurricane force winds, rising flood waters,
and extensive structural damage, local
public safety agencies faced a serious
crisis. Citizens needed a way to call for
help, and agencies needed a reliable way
to make sure that help arrived quickly.
Ready for the challenge, Steve and
Emalee Newby of Pacific Public Safety
& Communications in Warrenton, Ore.,
stepped in to ensure local public safety
agencies maintained communications
capabilities throughout the storm.

Courtesy of The Daily Astorian of Astoria, Oregon.

Pacific Public Safety is the sole two-way

radio service provider in Clatsop County,
and the Newbys take the responsibility
very seriously.
When the December storm hit, the
Newbys worked round the clock for
several days, transferring systems to
Continued on page 3
For People Who Make Smart Choices

Continued from page 1

FR5000/FR6000
High-Performance 2RU Rack Mount
Digital/Analog Repeater
136-174MHz (VHF),
400-470, 450-520MHz (UHF)
The FR5000/FR6000 seems to have a
thing for doubling up the ante for one
repeater: Analog + digital, two channels*,
dual mode operation and doubling of
channel capacity.
Heres more:
Digital/Analog dual mode operation
*Two RF channels in one unit (second
RF module optional)
50W output at 50% duty cycle
25W output at 100% duty cycle
0.5ppm frequency stability
5-tone, DTMF
Multiple table (16 pairs of CTCSS,
DTCS and RAN codes per channel)
19 rack mountable at 2RU height
Clear audio w/AMBE+2 vocoder
Analog audio compander
12-digit dot-matrix display
32 memory channels
Base station operation w/ 5 program mable buttons and internal speaker
D-SUB 25-pin RS-232 interface for
external controllers
Integrated digital features with IDAS
digital portables and mobiles
Software PC programmable
And much more, please ask for
a brochure!

ianews
FR5000 Series

explains Maynard. This makes the

most sense to companies and agencies
that notice future growth in technology
and are also looking to replace their
legacy repeaters.

Icom has hit a home

run with the 6.25 kHz
FDMA technology!
Rick Burke, Federal Radio
While a number of dealers contacted
were still in process of configuring and
test driving the FR5000, Icom America
received feedback on the repeaters
performance from a store in Maryland.
Rick Burke, general manager of
Federal Radio, a Specialized Mobile
Radio provider located in Aberdeen,
Md., returned his comments on the
FR6000 after two weeks of testing
the repeater in trunking and 6.25 kHz
digital operations. I am very impressed
with its performance and ease of
set-up, says Burke.
Burke configured the FR6000 with a
home channel using Xtreme controllers
operating the PassPort protocol developed by Tident Micro Systems. The
trunked alignment process was simple
and required no changes to the factory
alignment setting. Audio quality is very
good, says Burke.
The 50 watt FR6000 repeater (25 watt
full duty cycle) was then operated in 6.25
kHz digital mode alongside LTR 100
watt repeaters on a 25 kHz system tower
as described by Burke.
Range tests were made with portables comparing the LTR with 6.25
kHz digital, says Burke. The most
remarkable improvement of digital over

analog is the total lack of noise when the

portable is transmitting/receiving from
a moving vehicle.
Burkes testing between analog and
digital revealed the clarity and integrity
of the digital technology used in the FR.
The audio quality does not suffer under
the varying conditions of motion, trees
or buildings. The digital mode is able to
transmit and receive in places where the
LTR system cant.
Burke provided a solid number as
reference for digital quality: Our testing
shows a nearly 20% improvement in usable portable range when operated in a
vehicle or in buildings.
In agreement with Icoms Mark
Maynard, Burke commented on the
opportunity that the FR5000 provides
analog customers looking to replace
existing radios: now is a perfect opportunity to upgrade to digital with no
increased burden to their budget.

Our testing shows

a nearly 20%
improvement in usable
portable range . . .
Burke
Burke says further that SMR operators are in need of a radio that provides
some financial options along with the
audio quality of the 6.25 digital system.
He believes that the FR5000 repeater
and digital radios will look very attractive
to local customers dissatisfied with
national carriers.
According to Burke, Icom has hit
a home run with the 6.25 kHz
FDMA technology!

For People Who Make Smart Choices

ianews

/ March 2008

Page 2

Meet Your Icom Team

Mike Hilton
Technical Service Representative

The strikingly handsome model sporting

the new A14 (see ad next page) is Icom
Americas own Mike Hilton. Hilton is a
Technical Service Representative (TSR)
for Icom America now 7 years, answering
radio questions for Icom aviation, marine
and amateur.
Hilton is a Vietnam veteran, having
served as a helicopter, UH-1H (Huey),
crew chief/door gunner in the U.S.
Army,assigned tothe 1st Aviation Brigade.
My unit was the 176th Assault Helicopter
Company called the Minutemen, says
Mike. I got about 70 hours of stick time
where I actually flew the helicopter.
Years after Vietnam, Hilton took flying
lessons from an aviation company located
at Boeing Field just five miles south of
Seattle. While Hilton is not a fixed wing
licensed pilot he aims to complete his
flight training.
Hilton was grabbed by Maureen
Blomgren, Icom America graphic designer
and the creator of the A14 ad. He was
perfect for the photo I wanted, says
Maureen. He is so gracious and knows a
lot about avionics. The photo shoot was
held at Glasair Aviation, a leading kitplane
manufacturer in Arlington, Wash.
Hilton spoke enthusiastically about the
kitplanes being created at Glasair, and
that he hopes to be flying in one of his
own very soon. When asked about the
whole creative experience, Hilton affably
says It was a great time.

Continued from page 1

ianews

F50V Pivotal in Storm Dispatch

backup power and lending demo radios

to local public safety agencies and 9-1-1
dispatch centers.
One of the demo radios, an F50V,
was given to the Astoria fire department
before the storm hit. The transceiver was
used to dispatch local fire departments
and volunteers on a mountain top until
the repeater located there was operational again. Steve Newby had already
pre-programmed the F50V with the
countys fire paging codes.

Steve Newby, with Emalee Newby, demonstrates DTMF on the F70T

inside Pacific Public Safety and Communications. The Newbys
hooked up the county sheriffs department to an old community
repeater with telephone interconnect in order for sheriffs deputies
to reach Astoria dispatch. Photo by Alex Pajunas. Reprinted with
permission from The Daily Astorian of Astoria, Oregon.

The Newbys also had their own problems while attending to a number of radio
sites located around the county three
trees landed on the Newbys home and
heavy rains washed out their driveway.
The Newbys SUV had seen storms
before but the December storm had put
water depths over the hood. We have
since had it [SUV] washed but you should
have seen it before, chuckles Emalee.
We started preparations as soon
as we knew the storm was coming,
says Steve Newby, who says the F50V
worked flawlessly throughout the storm
and subsequent recovery efforts. The
F50Vs highly durable, waterproof
construction was a good feature to
have when confronting the storms
most extreme weather.

Pacific Public Safety also provided

Icom mobiles and portables to two
dispatch centers for communications
during the storm. Clatsop Countys
North County Dispatch Center, based in
Astoria, relied on an Icom F1721 mobile
to dispatch fire and police departments
and the county sheriffs department.
At the South County Dispatch Center
in Seaside, dispatchers used an Icom F50
to dispatch police and fire departments.
Recognizing Steve and Emalee
Newbys extraordinary efforts during
the storm, the Clatsop County Board of
Commissioners presented Pacific Public
Safety Communications with a plaque of
recognition in thanks for their cooperation and good nature during challenging
conditions and for service above and
beyond the call of duty.
Clatsop County also recognized the
emergency communications assistance
received by ham radio operators during
downed electrical, landline and cellular
services, amateur radio operators
provided our only communications link
to the outside world.
[The storm] was a real opener, one
that we have constantly tried to bring
to the attention of emergency services
in the area, says Emalee Newby. The
one thing this county found out was how
much they relied on hard landline and
cellular phones for communication.
Local agencies were impressed with
the performance of the F50V and many
are now purchasing the radio as an
alternative to the Minitor VTM, Steve
Newby says. They like the small size
and ability to tone out [receive and
decode paging tones], he says.
The extraordinary efforts of Steve
and Emalee Newby were covered in
the December 14th issue of The Daily
Astorian.

For People Who Make Smart Choices

ianews

March 2008

Page 3

ianews

Introducing a New Air Band Radio

A14/A14S

Icom Monthly Haiku

FR5000:
A new Icom repeater.
Scalability!
Pay by the RU?
Check the FR5000:
Cut your rental fees!
Lets go digital!
F3161
Yeah, thats the ticket!
Grow with digital!
But -- abandon analog?
Not what Icom says.
New IDAS:
Just another acronym?
No. It is the future!
Written by anonymous

Introducing the A14/A14S series

Li-ion powered air band transceivers.
The A14 radios offer all of the Icom
ruggedness and reliability that all
other Icom handheld radios are well
known for.

Air band radios are typically operated

in high noise environments. The A14,
with 700 mW audio output combined
with a BTL amplifier, offers outstanding
volume and clarity for the tarmac and
maintenance shop. And Icom V Speed
Audio cuts through the cabin noise.
The durable A14 is lightweight, making for an easy carryon in a pilots bag.
Use the A14 as a standalone onboard air
band or emergency backup to the panel
mount. For ground crews, the A14 can
be comfortably worn on a belt throughout the day.
The A14 is the perfect air band
companion for pilots of kit planes or light
sport aircraft, explains avionics expert,
Mike Hilton, Icom America Technical
Service Representative and spokes
model for the A14 ad. Pilots of these
lightweight aircraft typically do not want
to install panel mounts.
Look for more on the A14/A14S at
icomamerica.com/avionics

Not Just Outstanding, Exceptional!

A haiku is a form of Japanese poetry.

Icom America Receives GSA Report Card

Submit your own haiku to

icom@icomamerica.com.

Congratulations to the Icom America

government sales team, particularly
Government
Customer
Service
Supervisor, Etsi Tamura for her outstanding management of the numerous
compliance rules and details that make
up Icom Americas GSA contract.
Icom America Inc. has received
the prominent Exceptional rating
by the U.S. Governments General
Services Administration (GSA) for exemplary management of its GSA contract
GS-35F-0109L. Icom America Inc. sells
directly to Federal and State and Local
government agencies by authority of
its GSA contract.
It is important to be rated well in the
annual compliance review so that we can

If we use it well send you a nice

piece of swag.

be listed as a contractor in good standing

with GSA, says Tamura. This recent
award will show Icom Americas ongoing
commitment to its customers and GSA
pricing policies.
Ratings are delivered via an
Administrative Compliance Report
Card after a GSA audit.
In addition to the recent award in
March, Icom Americas government
division received Outstanding ratings
the prior three years due to Tamuras
consistent efforts.
Excellent job, Etsi!
Icom Americas GSA contract is valid
until 12/13/2010.
For People Who Make Smart Choices

ianews

March 2008

Page 4

ianews

TECH CORNER Setting Tones in the FR6000 Repeater

Because the FR6000 receives and transmits signals in any combination of analog and digital,
programming tones/RAN codes is an important part of setting up your repeater for the performance
you want.

FR5000/FR6000
Scalable, Expandable, Flexible!
Customize your FR5000/FR6000 with these
available system accessories from Icom
America Systems:

When programming tones, the first step is programming tones in the Multiple Table. Here you can
enter all tones/codes: CTCSS, DTCS, and digital RAN codes. There are a total of 16 tables that can be
programmed; enter the number of the table in the Table No. field to call up the one you want.

RF modules
External trunking controllers
External pass/notch duplexers
Expandable/redundant ower supply
Power amplifiers

The FR5000 series offers greater flexibility

when customizing a solution for your unique
applications. Contact your Icom America Systems manager for more detailed information.

Next, reference the tone sets in the appropriate channel by entering the number of the Multiple Table
in the Multi Table No. field.

Turnkey system solutions are available to

you for plug and play.
Icom America Systems provides highly
trained and qualified system designers
and engineers ready to help you with
your customized system.
Call Icom America Systems
(425) 586-6363

If tones are not entered in the Multiple Table, or if the table is not referenced in the Multi Table No.
field (in the Memory CH), the repeater will respond differently. When in analog mode, the repeater will
be open squelch and will accept any signal and tone as long as the frequency matches. It will then
transmit with the tone entered in the TX C. Tone field. This tone is used by the repeater when being
used as a base station.
With digital channels, if the frequency matches, the repeater will simply ignore the RAN codes and
pass the signal through with the original RAN codes from the radio intact.

Icom America Inc.

2380 116th Ave NE
Bellevue, WA 98004
Phone: (425) 454-8155
Fax: (425) 454-1509
Customer Service: (425) 454-7619

Icom America Systems

Phone: (425) 586-6363
Fax: (425) 586-6321
ias@icomamerica.com

If you would like more complete programming instructions for repeater use, refer to knowledge base
article: FR6000 Repeater Programming (#83PG632517).

For People Who Make Smart Choices

ianews

March 2008

Page 5

Digital is the Future of Two-Way Radio.

Grow your System into it with Icom.

FR5000 series

Icoms IDAS digital radios offer

analog AND digital, programmable by channel. So grow into
digital. With 512 channel capacity, theres lots of room to grow!

Controller

F3161 series

F5061D series

Save 62.5%
in rack space
rental fees.

Controller

Controller

Controller

4 Channel, 16 RU
12.5 or 25 kHz Conventional

Power Supply

Icoms IDAS digital repeater, the

FR5000 series, occupies less
physical space AND less spectrum space (preserving your FCC
allocation). Discover the power
of data. Clearer voice. Impressive scalability and easy, powerful PC programming. Grow into
digital the smart way. With Icom.
Contact us today.

4 Channel, 6 RU
12.5 or 25 kHz Conventional
6.25 kHz Digital

800-USA-ICOM www.icomamerica.com

*Action by the Commission, by Third Report and Order (FCC 07-39) March 2007. 2008 Icom America Inc. The Icom logo is a registered trademark of Icom Inc. 20015