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IN THIS ISSUE:
Hanging Up the Old 2-Tone Hat
Meet Your Icom Team:
Carl Shearer - Tech. Services Rep.
Accessory of the Month HM-169 Speaker Microphone
Icom America Welcomes
Mark Behrends
Tech Corner - 5-Tone
Icom America 08
Trade Show Schedule
F60V Portables Arriving
Icom Dealer Training Program
Available Online with WebEx

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. 9454

ia

April 2008

Hanging Up the Old 2-Tone Hat

Shaving Seconds for Sonoma County Fire Districts

Can an idle 25 to 30 seconds during
a 9-1-1 radio dispatch call determine
the entire outcome of an unsuppressed
wildfire? Phil Williams of Williams USA,
a two-way radio dealer in Santa Rosa,
Calif., is canvassing Sonoma County fire
districts with that question as he aims
in helping them retire their 50-year-old
paging technology.
Voice paging systems and pagers
alerting firefighters and EMS typically employ Quick Call, a 2-Tone selective calling
format originally developed by Motorola
in the 1950s.
2-Tone remains a familiar standard
thats seemingly entrenched within the
firefighting community, despite other
advanced selective calling formats available for pagers, radios and systems
that can ultimately improve emergency
response times.
One such format widely used by public
safety in Europe where it originated is
5-Tone, now an international standard
thats long been recognized but under
utilized by the U.S. Getting public safety
to use 5-Tone is a marketing communications opportunity that Williams hopes to
leverage by touring county firehouses for
5-Tone demonstrations.
Williams 5-Tone proposition to some of
the bravest firefighters in the Golden State
is to give Old Man 2-Tone the boot for a
day and try out a better signaling format
with an extremely faster tone out rate plus
added capacity and improved reliability.
Throwing in a few Icom demo F70 and
F50V radios to sample 5-Tone on surely
wont hurt either.
Southern California suffered one of its
worst fire seasons in October-November,
2007 when 23 fires burned for 21 days,

Phil Williams of Williams USA (left) with Rincon Valley Fire

Protection District, Assistant Chief, John Lantz

resulting in 10 fatalities, over 3,000 homes

and structures destroyed and over half
a million acres burned. CalFire reported
all associated costs for the October
wildfires at over $291 million, paid for
by California taxpayers.
April is reported to be drier than normal,
spurring Californias 2008 wildfire season
which typically begins in the middle of
May off to an early start.
In order to reduce widespread blazes
and the millions in associated costs
combating them, Sonoma County fire
districts are proactively increasing their
dispatch levels for initial attacks. When
theres a fire everythings thrown at it,
says Williams.
Redwood
Empire
Dispatch
Communications Authority (REDCOM)
dispatches all city, district and volunteer
fire departments for Sonoma County.
Normal protocol for a county fire
emergency is to call up to five engines,
water tenders, air attack and volunteer

Continued on page 2

For People Who Make Smart Choices

Meet Your Icom Team

Carl Shearer
Technical Service Representative

Meet Carl Shearer, Icom Technical

Representative (TSR) for D-STAR, Amateur,
Aviation and Marine.
Following a career in the food industry
for 23 years, Carl decided to go back to
school where he studied computers and
networking along with graphic and web
design. After completing school, Carl
handled Tier III phone support for cellular,
PDAs and wireless cards at wireless
company WDS Global.
Carl started with Icom America as temp
for the QA department prior to being hired
full time in November, 2007.
Carl is also a gamer and loves to play
online multi player games (EverQuest,
Wow, D2, Counter-Strike among others)
and likes to visit a few gaming conventions.
My nickname is Taz since high school,
says Carl. If you play online games seek
out Taz.
Carl is a single father to his son, Brian,
whos studying to be a physiologist and
daughter, Kassandra, whos studying to be
an orthodontist.

Continued from page 1

ianews

Hanging Up the Old 2-Tone Hat

backup, says Williams. The first responding Battalion Chief either keeps
the units coming or cancels them as not
needed. During ninety-degree summers
when the fire index is high, even more
units are requested.
Williams points out that all those added
resources are being called into action
using the 2-Tone paging format which is
needlessly delaying first responders.
Paging multiple fire stations first requires a sequence of decoding or toning
out their pagers (1st station, 2nd station,
3rd station ) before the dispatching operators voice with the call can be heard.
With that in perspective, tone out times
between the two formats as demonstrated
by Williams is critical.
The 2-Tone signaling format typically
transmits two sequential audio tones: the
first tone lasting one (1) second followed
by the second tone lasting three (3) seconds (4 seconds total). A standard 5-Tone
signaling format transmits a quick burst
of five sequential audio tones lasting less
than a second (.877 sec.) in its entirety
explains Williams.
Stagnant seconds certainly matter
when prolonging response times. And
5-Tones efficiency in shaving seconds
tells further when a number of districts,
departments and agencies county-wide
are summoned collectively to a fire.
Toning out three agencies can take up
to 35 seconds with 2-Tone when just 3.5
seconds with 5-Tone, says Williams.
The first agency or special unit paged
is usually the most valuable resource
requested and at a standstill while
waiting for the decided contingency to
be called, according to Williams. These
firefighters are sitting ready in their engine
sometimes up to a minute before they
can get the address from the dispatch
operator and roll.

Toning out three

departments takes
35 seconds with
2-Tone while only 3.5
seconds with 5-Tone
Phil Williams, President
Williams USA Inc.
Rincon Valley Fire District Assistant
Chief, John Lantz, is the chairman
of the Dispatch Operations Advisory
Group (DOAG), a sub-committee of the
REDCOM Board. The DOAG also acts
as the Radio Committee for the Sonoma
County Fire Chiefs Association. We are
paging 5 agencies at a time now with a
required turnaround of 70 seconds to
get apparatus out the firehouse door, he
says. 5-Tone absolutely makes sense.
Williams left an F50V with Lantz to test
the radios built-in 5-Tone signaling and
dispatching capability. Within 6 months
there was an order for over 100 units. A
federal grant is now in process to convert
the entire county over to 5-Tone. Williams
gives Lantz all the credit for championing
5-Tone on behalf of the fire districts and
Sonoma County.
For the past 10 years, Icom is the only
radio manufacturer incorporating 5-Tone
signaling into its entire line of private land
mobile radios.

For People Who Make Smart Choices

ianews

/ April 2008

Page 2

ianews

Accessory of the Month

HM-169 Speaker Microphone

Icom America Welcomes Mark Behrends

Land Mobile Business & Industry National Sales Manager

Icom America is proud to introduce
its new Land Mobile Business & Industry
National Sales Manager, Mark Behrends.
This newly created role announced in
April will lead dealer channel sales efforts
while focusing on business and industry
(B&I) related Icom mobile, portable,
trunking subscriber and BRS/GMRS/
FRS products.
Mark Behrends brings over 23 years
of product development and product
management experience.

Introducing the new HM-169 speaker

microphone. This speaker mic is
waterproof (IPX7) and slightly slimmer
than the current HM-138 speaker mic.

For the last 15 years Mark has worked

within the communications industry. As
a civilian employee for the Dept of Navy,
Mark deployed and managed large scale
infrastructure projects, SONET, ATM and
Gigabit Ethernet, for the U.S. military in
Southern California.

There are a few improvements over the

HM-138 that include: better audio and
a more sturdy rotary type belt clip with
a metal base.

Mark then relocated his family to Seattle

to oversee product development for microwave backhaul equipment at Innova, Inc.,
later moving into product management.

You can use this speaker mic with

following series radios:

For the past 8 years, Marks product

management
experience
includes
Ethernet switches and routers, SCADA
devices, fire station alerting systems,
9-1-1 call taking systems, land mobile
accessory devices and services at Allied
Telesyn and, most recently, Zetron, Inc.
A product managers role requires that
one foot be planted firmly in Engineering
and the other in Sales to act as a collector, synthesizer, strategizer, and driver of
ideas having to do with the profitability
of products, says Mark.
Mark started out in his early career in
the 80s designing control mechanisms
for bomb and missile warheads and
propulsion engines.
Mr. Behrends lives in Seattle with his
wife, Brenda, son, Alek (16) and daughter, Kimber (14).
Mark reports to Icom America Vice
President, Bob Carey.

F50 Series + F50V Series

F70 Series
F3061 Series
F3161 Series
We have limited stock available to sell
now with more arriving in May & July.

TECH CORNER

5-Tone

Although it is dubbed 5-Tone, this signaling protocol consists of a fast data burst of one
(1) to seven (7) frequency tones that can selectively signal a radio. 5-Tone works with
other brands using 5-Tone signaling. Many manufactures build dispatch consoles with this
capability. 5-Tone has numerous formats such as: CCIR, ZVEI1, ZVEI2, DZV1, EEA, EEA2,
DAPL, EIA, and DTMF.
5-Tone does not require knowledge of the frequencies to be used (unlike 2-Tone). Each
digit in the sequence is already predefined with a specific frequency depending on the
format selected during programming. All the programmer needs to know is what format is
being used and what code needs to do what. The system does the rest.
5-Tone features include selective calling, group calling, answer back call, auto transmit,
stun/kill, radio regroup, PTT ID, audible alerts, emergency signaling, and dispatch functionality. More information on 5-Tone (PMR) and programming help is available by contacting
an Icom Technical Service Representative.

For People Who Make Smart Choices

ianews

April 2008

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ianews

Icom America 08
Trade Show Schedule
Utilities Telecom Council
Orlando, FL, 5/4 5/6
Railway Systems Suppliers Inc.
Grapevine, TX, 5/21 5/22
APCO International
Kansas City, MO, 8/4 8/6
American Association of State
Highway and Transportation
Officials
San Francisco, CA, 8/11 8/12
Forestry Conservation
Communications Association
Orlando, FL, 10/6 10/7
National Association for Pupil
Transportation
Myrtle Beach, SC, 10/28 10/30
Enterprise Wireless
Scottsdale, AZ, 11/5 11/6

F60V Portables Arriving

Hybrid: A Fusion of Radio & Paging

The F60V 11 (400-470MHz) is currently
in stock. The F60V 18 (450-512MHz)
arrives in July.
BTL Audio The F60V transceiver
delivers a loud 700mW audio output with
built in Bridge Tied Load (BTL) amp. The
built-in audio compander provides clear
communications on 12.5 kHz narrow
band frequencies.
Vibrate Function Users can program
the radio to vibrate when user receives a
pre-programmed 2-tone/5-tone code or
call from a specific user (in MDC mode
only).
8 Min Voice Recorder When a
pre-programmed 2-tone/5-tone code or
a SelCall (MDC mode only) is received,
the voice recorder automatically starts
recording the message. You will not

miss a call even when you

are temporarily away from
the radio. You can also
manually start recording
incoming calls or transmitting messages.
Other Features - 128
Channels; Switchable wide/
narrow 12.5/25kHz; Wide
Spectrum136-174MHz; 8
character
alphanumeric
display; Built-in CTCSS,
DTCS, 2/5-tone & MDC1200 signaling;
Lone worker function; Mil Spec C, D, E +
F; DTMF encode, selective call, ANI and
stun/kill; 2 step power save; IP67 dust
tight & waterproof protection; 8 programmable buttons; and much more.

Icom America Dealer Training Program

Available Online with WebEx

What do you know about Icom Digital Advanced System? Its called IDAS,
Icoms 6.25 kHz digital land mobile radio system featuring the NXDN common
air interface. Find out about IDAS this month at Icom Americas online training,
using WebEx.
The Icom America Dealer Training Program is online and free to Icom dealers. Register today to learn about new Icom products, participate in technical
programming such as scanning and boost your Icom product knowledge.
There is a brief Q&A following most technical training sessions. Please contact
Icom Technical Trainer, Andrea Brunson to learn how to register and for class
times. andreab@icomamerica.com

May Technical Training Calendar

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

5/12: Scan Training

5/14: IDAS Radios
5/19: Radio Fundamentals
5/20: IDAS Radios
5/21: FR5000/FR6000

IDAS Repeater

5/22: Intro to P25

5/27: Programming

Accessory Boards
5/27: MDC 1200 Compatible
5/29: F50V
5/29: Which to Choose
For People Who Make Smart Choices

ianews

April 2008

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