BiTEA, the British TETRA equipment manufacturer, has released two new products – the NC2015 portable data logger for testing and monitoring TETRA coverage and the NC6054LP low profile TETRA radio programming pod.
The NC2015 handheld device (currently priced at £500) is small, lightweight and interfaces with standard Sepura TETRA terminals, which are used as the TETRA receivers to record network coverage data. The NC2015 allows the user to carry out walk and drive-tests using vehicle sets with external antennas and body worn radios. The equipment is also suitable for carrying out hybrid tests where body worn sets are used inside vehicles.
Additional NC2015 features:
- Integrated GPS position and data capture
- Produces a single integrated log file for post-processing
- Auto power on and record when plugged in.
- Displays serving cell identifier, RSSI and frequency information
- Displays best neighbour identifier and RSSI information
- Provides benchmark data for future comparison
The NC2015 is supplied with an 8 GB micro SD card to store data which is then transferred to a PC for analysis by BiTEA’s NC2020 software application to create walk and drive test coverage maps (£3,000 or £1,500 when purchased with the NC2015). The NC2015 has already seen orders from British Transport Police and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.
“The concept of the NC2015 is that you can give it to your operational staff to collect network coverage data, so if you’re a paramedic or a police officer and you’re going on duty with your radio, the person in charge of coverage can ask you to take the NC2015 with you and it will automatically record network data as you travel,” said Philip Durham, managing director of BiTEA. “The final output of the NC2015 is a network coverage map. It’s easy to use, and can be used by experienced radio engineers or operational staff. It can be given to anyone, it just has to be plugged in, it is automatically powered up and starts recording.”
BiTEA's TETRA survey coverage and performance tools include the NC2000 software application, which operates as a field test tool and data collector. The NC2000VQ (Voice Quality) option for carrying out automatic voice quality testing using the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) standard PESQ (Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality) algorithms, the current industry standard for objective measurement of speech quality.
NC6054LP
This new release for its NC6000 range (currently priced at £250) is a radio pod designed to provide remote or local programming for Sepura TETRA radio terminals and is more than eight times lighter than some previous products. It weighs 0.8 kilograms after changing to a new method of manufacturing involving aluminum housing that is both rugged and transportable.
It is available for both STP and SRH radios and is designed for programming hand held, body worn and has an option for programming a mobile TETRA terminal. Standard terminal manufacturer interfaces are used to ensure robust and reliable terminal connectivity.
Additional NC6054LP features:
- Modular designs with easily replaceable parts
- Compatible with standard radio manufacturer programming software
- For use with hand portable, body worn and mobile radios
- Can be used for local or remote programming with a PC
“We like to supply value for money to our end-users and we make things simple by clever engineering and we have done the same with this new product to make it lightweight and affordable,” added Durham. “We spent thousands of pounds developing the tools to make the plastics for the radio cradles to make it low-cost. The NC6054LP can be used for local or remote programming with a PC. We are champions for remote programming which is all about saving money in logistics and management time.”
