Daniels/Catalyst Digital Ethernet Interface Product Pressed into Wild Land Fire Suppression Support

What started out as a small blaze caused by discarded embers from a wood stove quickly turned into a conflagration which consumed nearly 1,100 acres in South Central Virginia recently. On Saturday, March 4^th, a blaze dubbed the "Quarry Fire" (for it’s proximity to a rock quarry) evolved into a major incident which was battled for several days by more than 120 people from local, regional, state, and federal agencies. Initially, radio communications between the myriad agencies was nearly non-existent.

Dispatchers at the George Washington/Jefferson National Forest in Roanoke, Virginia, had to handle unique requirements such as flight following, aircraft monitoring and dispatch. A new digital end-to-end Radio over IP (RoIP) dispatch solution using IP|25D, a new product from Catalyst Communications Technologies, Inc., www.catcomtec.com and the Daniels MT-4 radio with a new module called the Universal Interface Card (UIC) were being beta tested at the forest at the time. Up until this point, the software had received nominal use on routine Forest Service traffic in what could be called a "test" environment. Due to the increased radio activity associated with coordinating myriad agencies, IP|25D and the UIC were pushed into around-the-clock emergency service. The IP|25D gateway at the main Forest Service office in Roanoke was dedicated to flight following and dispatch operations. Kim Brookshire, chief dispatcher at the George Washington National Forest explained that the system was used to monitor radio traffic and talk to 3 aircraft (two helicopters and a small plane). These aircraft were used to perform such tasks as oversight of "back burning" acreage to contain the fire, carrying water buckets, and providing senior officials a good vantage point from which to monitor fire-fighting efforts. According to Ms. Brookshire, "I was able to maintain constant contact with the aircraft using Radio over IP on our North Net and South Net channels." According to all involved, the interface worked seamlessly. When asked her opinion of the system, Ms. Brookshire smiled and said "One question, I want to know what we have to do to keep this equipment after the beta test!" To learn more about the UIC card visit our website and download the brochure http://www.danelec.com/pdfs/brochure_eng_RoIP.pdf .

The Integre Base 25 Integrated P25 Base Station

During IWCE (May 17-19) in Las Vegas, Daniels showed a new product that is in the development labs called the Integre Base 25, an integrated P25 Desktop Base Station as shown to the right. With the Integre Base 25, P25 infrastructure will be affordable for all agencies from the smallest sheriff’s office to the largest integrated national network.

The Integre Base 25 offers an integrated P25 Desktop Base Station in a single compact package suitable for desk, wall or rack installations. The Integre Base 25 supports digital P25 in clear or secure encrypted mode (AES or DES-OFB) as well as analog communications allowing a seamless migration from analog to digital. It is also available in an analog only version that can be firmware upgraded to P25.

Standard on each unit is a digital RoIP Ethernet interface compliant to the P25 Fixed Station standard offering connection to dispatch consoles, the Internet or VPN for seamless interconnectivity with disparate communications systems (PSTN, cellular, LMR, etc). The Integre Base 25 will be available in the VHF, UHF or 800 MHz bands and provides 30 Watts of continuous duty output. Full details on the Integre are available in the Integre brochure mentioned below in the literature section. It is Daniels intent to bring this product to market late in 2006. To learn more about its capabilities contact Daniels Sales department sales@danelec.com

MT-4D and MT-3 Radios superceded with new MT-4E

Effective September 1, 2006 Daniels Electronics will begin commercial shipment of the MT-4E radio, a new radio platform for both digital P25 radios as well analog LMR radios. With the introduction of the MT-4E radios, Daniels will be superseding the MT-4D Digital P25 Radio, the MT-3 Low Current and MT-3 Enhanced Analog Radios with the MT-4E platform. Daniels Paging products, Low Band AM Aviation band and 800 / 900 MHz radios are not affected by this announcement.

The MT-4E radio (transmitter shown to the right) is a high performance, low current FM radio capable of P25 digital or analog operation in 12.5 KHz (narrowband) or 25 KHz (wideband) channels. The MT-4E is available in the frequency bands: 136-174 MHz and 406 - 470 MHz. Daniels MT-4E radios support either repeater or base station configurations. When used in base station applications they will receive clear or secure (encrypted) P25 and analog voice radio communications. When used in repeater applications they will repeat clear or secure (encrypted) P25 and analog voice radio communications. P25 operation is supported via a purchasable P25 firmware option and secure mode operation is available via optional encryption modules. The MT-4E provides new product functionality compared with the MT-3 and MT-4D:

• Extended UHF frequency band: 380 - 512 MHz
• 700 / 800 MHz support: 700 - 960 MHz - planned for 2007
• Flashable firmware via a USB interface
• Purchasable firmware upgrade from analog only to P25 digital (analog, mixed mode, digital clear and secure)

The MT-4E provides all the capabilities supported by the MT-4D radios, the MT-3 Low Current Analog radios and the MT-3 Enhanced Analog Radios. Both Analog only and P25 (Digital, Clear or Secure, Mixed Mode and Analog) functionality are supported on the MT-4E platform with the appropriate selection of firmware.

Products being Superceded

Daniels will supersede the current MT-4D Digital P25 Radio, the MT-3 Low Current and the MT-3 Enhanced Analog Radios with the MT-4E platform. Daniels Paging products, Low Band AM Aviation band and 800 / 900 MHz radios are not affected by this announcement. Full details on the MT-4E and the supercession are contained in the following product announcement: MT-4E New Product Announcement / Replacement. For affected products, Daniels will offer customers a last buy opportunity in accordance with the following schedule:

Daniels Electronics is committed to providing ongoing support for our current product line as well as our discontinued items. For more information please contact the Sales Department at Daniels Electronics sales@danelec.com at the above address, or visit www.danelec.com.

The Daniels Electronics website offers an extensive library of product and technical literature http://www.danelec.com/library/english/. We now have 3 new pieces of literature that are available from Daniels or your Sales Representative:

• An updated catalog on the entire Daniels product family
• An updated mini CD of all our product literature
• An advance brochure on the new Integre Integrated P25 Desktop Base Station described above.

Daniels in conjunction with its regional sales representatives will be participating at the upcoming industry events:

Communicasia Singapore June 20-23 www.communicasia.com
APCO International Orlando, Florida August 6-10 www.apco2006.org
APCO Canada 2006 Toronto, Ontario October 1-4 www.apco.ca
FCCA Gettysburg, PA Oct 1-4 www.fcca-usa.org
International Association of Chiefs of Police Boston , MA Oct 14-8 http://www.theiacpconference.org/

It was a pleasure to see many of you at IWCE again a few weeks ago and we enjoyed the chance to share with you our many new product announcements including the Integre Base 25 Integrated Desktop Base Station, our Fixed Station Interface release for the UIC and the latest enhancements to the popular briefcase repeater. We are very excited about the potential for the Integre Base 25 and certainly your feedback is helping to ensure we bring the right product to market to meet your needs.

The imminent release into manufacturing of the MT-4E radio will change our product line up dramatically but at the end of the day we are offering you a more flexible radio platform that supports analog or P25 digital applications with a firmware upgrade. It also introduces across our entire product line firmware flashing for future bug fixes or product enhancements and most importantly expands our frequency bands into 380-406 MHz, 470-512 MHz and next year into 700-960 MHz.

Our tradeshow season is in full force and we look forward to seeing the rest of our customers at one of these shows. Please stop by and take a look at the new Integre.

Cheers.

Robert Small, VP & COO