Icom America Inc.

January 2005, Volume 1, Issue 3

Icom America Wins Major U.S. Army Order For New F43G Series Radio The U.S. Army has selected the Icom F43G series portable transceiver for in-the-field soldier communications. “We are honored by the U.S. Army's selection of Icom’s two-way radios for soldiers in the field,” says Hiro Nakaoka, President of Icom America Inc. The Icom F43G radios are part of a package known collectively as the Military Bundle. Other elements of the

Bundle include a headset, an encryption module, and the accessories needed to complete the custom package. But it’s the F43G radios that are the core of the Bundle. These radios were tested extensively by the Army’s Battle Lab before a purchase recommendation was made. The GSA purchase deal is for over 20,000 Bundles and represents the Continued on page 3

Call Icom America today: 800.USA.ICOM All departments open 7:00 AM – 5:00 PM Pacific time, unless stated otherwise Customer Service and Orders: sales@icomamerica.com Parts Department: parts@icomamerica.com (open 8:00 AM) Technical Support: landmobile@icomamerica.com Literature Request: literature@icomamerica.com - 24 hour online lit request form: www.icomamerica.com/dealersonly

In this issue:

• Icom America

Wins major U.S. Army Order for New F43G Series Radios

• New Mezzanine

Level Added to IA Warehouse

• IA Quietly Marks

25th Anniversary – For Now

• IAS New Faces

• A P25

DIRECTION: IA’s Analog to Digital Conversion

• TECH CORNER: The OPC-617 Option Cable

For People Who Make Smart Choices

©2005 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.

Page 2 of 4

For People Who Make Smart Choices

New Mezzanine Level Added to Warehouse Icom America long ago outgrew its onsite warehouse capabilities. We’ve taken the opportunity to add 3,000 more SQ of space via a mezzanine. “3,000 square feet doesn’t sound like much, but it’s important,” says IA Distribution Manager Bruce Grote. “Keeping our highest volume product in-house is important to fast turn-around times. The mezzanine allows us to keep more of our most popular

accessories in-house, which really speeds up our pick and pulls.” The addition took a surprising amount of permit runaround and lead time, but the actual installation gave us only two down days – December 1 and 2. Those days were not lost. “There’s always plenty to do in a high-volume warehouse, whether orders are going out the door or not!” says Bruce. We dare you to test our new addition. Call our sales desk and place an order today!

IA Quietly Marks 25th Anniversary – For Now In the fall of 1979, entrepreneur Bob Brunkow founded Icom America Inc. The company was started out of his garage, and quickly moved to a small office space in Bellevue, WA―barely a stone’s throw where the company headquarters building came to rise. Starting with amateur radios, then adding marine, avionic, and, finally, land mobile radios, Icom America has seen remarkable growth in the radio industry. Icom radios now dominate the first three markets, and growth in its land mobile division―its youngest ―has been remarkable.

Today, Icom America is headed by President Hiro Nakaoka, and its Land Mobile division is headed by Vice President Chris Lougee. To mark its 25th anniversary, IA held an employee-only, on-site catered event. The anniversary celebration carried over to our annual winter holiday event held at a rowdy, cowboy-themed watering hole in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. Afraid you’ve missed out on the fun? Don’t be. You’ll be hearing more about our 25th anniversary special dealer events in the months to come. Help us celebrate the year-long observance!

Getting things organized on the new mezzanine.

John Dunker and Masaaki Takahashi

are always up to something fun. Girls gotta be girls.

Up on the bar at Cowgirls, Inc.

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For People Who Make Smart Choices

Large U.S. Army Order Continued from page 1 largest government order in Icom America’s 25 year history. This order follows on the heels of an earlier, high profile U.S Army order from Icom America – the Soldier Intercom. The new order uses Icom’s new, next generation F43G series portable radios. These radios offer more power for today’s urban-patrolling soldiers. The extra power helps radio signals “wiggle” around buildings, vehicles and other obstacles. “We have over 5 years of experience supplying radios to first line Army units,” said Chris Lougee, Vice President for Icom America. “The Icom

Soldier Intercom was the first use of two-way radios at the squad level. It proved the viability of radios to replace hand and arm signals for coordinating squad actions on an objective.” These new models increase transmission security, reduce size and weight, and supply improved battery performance, he added. The largest previous government order was in 2000, for the U.S. Army’s Soldier Intercom portable radio. The F43G differs from the Soldier Intercom in numerous ways. The previous Soldier Intercom was ordered by the Army with specifications for lowering the power level to 1/10th of a single Watt. The F43G offers 5 full Watts.

New Faces Join Icom America Systems Icom America Systems (IAS), a subsidiary of Icom America Inc, continues to grow and expand its operations. Now in its third year, three more faces joining the group, bringing the total to eight. Robert (Bob) McDonald joins IAS as a Field Engineer. Bob is based out of his home office in Colorado. Having worked as an RF engineer for the past 24 years, Bob is no stranger to systems. He’s a specialist with network services. He’s also worked on Motorola’s FTR program. As the demand for privately owned communications systems that are totally independent of public infrastructure continues to increase, Bob’s experience will prove a major asset to IAS. Sandy Williams, a longtime (17 years!) Customer Service Representative for Icom America, recently transferred full time to IAS as our systems coordinator. Sandy brings a wealth of information along with her, having memorized many part numbers and mainframes over the years. When you call IAS, it’s Sandy who’ll usually be taking your call!

Sergey Maksimenko is a new IAS Technician. Sergey is a newcomer to America, having recently emigrated from his native home of Siberia. He has an impressive 20 year background as a radio engineer, both scholastically and in practical application. Working closely with our lead technician, Stan Sychev, Sergey helps spec and bring together all the needed components that gives IAS its competitive edge in custom systems design.

Please join us in welcoming these new team members to the IAS family!

Bruce Grote, Distribution Manager

Bruce joined Icom America over 15 years ago, starting as Warehouse Supervisor.

Along the way, he’s also managed the service department and parts

department, introduced bar coding and other important warehouse advances, and

played a key role in the remodeling of our corporate office. Every month end and year end when we need the

impossible made possible, Bruce and his team get it

done!

Meet your Icom Team

The IC-F43GS is the non- keypad version. A full keypad version, known as the F43GT,

is also available. Both versions are

available in commercial configurations.

Sandy Williams, ready at her command post.

Sergey Maksimenko attends to a desktop repeater.

com

Last year, Klein Electronics came out with a heavy duty

speaker microphone for Icom’s F11 series radio. Now Klein has modified the connector

design to also work with Icom’s new F14 and F33G series

radios. The screw down mic connector secures the mic to

any of these radios, so there’s no chance of it slipping out!

For People Who Make Smart Choices

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New P25 Series: Analog to Digital Conversion If you have not already heard of Icom’s new P25 portable and mobile radios, you soon will. Our radios, the F1720D mobile series and the F70D portable series, are recently FCC approved. A few introductory ads have even already made their way in to print. Icom America’s solution to the P25 upgrade problem many agencies are facing is to grow into digital. Some large, first responder agencies have already made the leap into a digital system. The smaller first responder agencies and other non-first responders are having a much more difficult time. When an agency’s analog system works fine and they have a lot invested in it, it doesn’t make sense to lose it all. With Icom’s Analog-to-Digital solution,

agencies can opt for our dual-use analog/digital portables and mobiles. That means they can retain their analog investment and switch to digital channels during an emergency for interagency communications. More information on Icom’s P25 radios is coming soon. Stay tuned!

TECH CORNER The OPC-617 Option Cable The OPC-617 option cable can be used for most Icom mobile radios. This accessory cable is for external terminal/data connections. Such applications include remote adaptors, horn honking, ignition switch connections, and modems. Here are some helpful hints for installing the OPC-617 option cable:

Detect the audio equal’s discriminator audio before installation.

PTT is 5V and then goes to ground.

For PTT (in some models), you will need to enable EPTT in the software.

All ground goes to chassis ground.

AF OUT equals pre-emphasized AUDIO OUT, and

this level is controlled by the volume knob.

Solder bead F for Data. Solder bead D for AF IN. Pin 1 of the DB9 is used for

Ignition Switch connections. Pin 6 of the DB9 is the carrier

operated relay that is used for horn relays.

Note These are the very basic pin outs available through this cable. For specific applications, please contact landmobile@icomamerica.com.

Accessory of the Month

Klein K9900-S6 Screw down speaker microphone

New Icom P25 ads like this

are begining to appear in various public safety and government publications.