F70D / F80D

Icom F70 / F80 Two Way Radio Series

Today’s public safety workers—from police officers and firefighters to federal agents and military personnel—face more on-the-job challenges than ever before. In addition to keeping the peace and responding to emergencies, they have become the first line of defense for homeland security.

Not only is it critical that these first responders have reliable two-way communications with their coworkers at the scene of an incident, they now also require the ability to communicate immediately across multiple agencies and disciplines. But two factors have often prohibited the public safety community from deploying effective interoperability equipment: cost and complexity.

Icom America recognized these challenges and launched a complete line of radios based on the APCO Project 25 interoperability standard that are both cost-effective and easily implemented. To accomplish this, Icom developed a method that enables agencies to convert the transceivers from analog to digital at their own pace, which ultimately maximizes the agency’s communications system investment. Anchoring this line of P25-compatible equipment is the IC-F70/F80 Series of VHF/UHF portable transceivers.

Choose a Migration Strategy

Icom designed the F70/F80 Series as a flexible solution for any public or private agency wanting or needing interoperability, whether they are looking for P25 digital capability immediately or would rather deploy analog radios now and migrate to digital at a later time.

The company offers three different options for achieving full P25 interoperability.

• For agencies that choose to implement a P25 solution right away, the F70D/F80D versions are ready for digital programming out of the box.
• A second version of the radios is analog-ready with digital hardware installed. All the public safety agency must do to convert to digital is install Icom’s P25 activation software.
• A third version is for agencies that do not have a near-term requirement for P25 but would like the option to convert in the future. Agencies can operate the radio in analog mode, and when they are ready to go digital, simply install the DSP firmware and P25 software.

Icom is able offer these three options in the same equipment because they have engineered to the radios to accept both analog and digital signals. Each of the radios’ 256 channels can be designated for digital use, analog use or mixed use. As an organization grows, analog channels can be switched to digital mode, completing agencies’ digital migration.

Curt Law of Aksala Electronics, a two-way radio shop on Kodiak Island in Alaska, recently sold a number of F70 radios to the Borough of Kodiak Fire Department. With homeland security money funding the deployment, they choose to implement the full P25 digital solution. With the dual-mode capability, however, the fire department can continue using their existing analog communications system for day-to-day communications, while still meeting the federal government’s P25 requirement.

Put the Radios to the Test

A common misconception among many public safety personnel is that in order for a P25 radio to be both durable and full-featured, it must be large and heavy. Icom has rewritten the rules on radio design and produced one of the smallest and lightest P25 radios on the market today. At 2 5/16 inches wide by 5 31/32 inches high by 1 1/2 inches deep and approximately 14 ounces in weight, the F70/F80 Series will not get in the way of firefighter or police officer, yet has enough mass to remind users that its there and available when they need it.

“My customers just like the way this radio is put together,” says Luke Wheeler with Trueline Communications, an Icom dealership in Jacksonville, Ill. “Firefighters that wear gloves need a radio they can feel in their hands, but also one that does not weigh them down.”

Not only does the F70/F80 Series meet MIL-STD 810 specifications for high and low temperature, shock, vibration, dust and other extreme environmental conditions, but they go one step further: The F70/F80 Series is completely waterproof—fully submersible in fact to IEC IPX7 submersion ratings of 30 minutes at 1-meter depth.

The radios’ “AquaQuake” speaker grill water removal design guarantees that communications will always remain crystal clear, even when the elements aren’t. Its waterproof gaskets seal out the elements such as rain, snow, sleet and mud ensuring that the radios are not only waterproof but resistant to corrosion—a natural enemy of any electronic equipment.

The waterproof feature cannot be underestimated. It’s the single most important reason Law’s public safety customers have chosen the radios. “Since most of the equipment I sell in public safety is to the fire department, there is very high demand for radios with this capability.”

One Kodiak Island fire department officer wasn’t convinced that the F70/F80 Series was truly “submersible.” After all, he had been using rugged radios his entire career that he wouldn’t dare get too wet for fear the manufacturer wouldn’t honor the warrantee due to water damage. While demonstrating the radio at the fire station, Wheeler promptly tossed his own F70 into a sink full of sudsy water and dishes. “I took it out and it worked fine. I invited him to do the same with his radio from another manufacturer, but he declined.”

Another feature the public safety community appreciates is the standard 1,600 mAh lithium-ion battery, which provides up to eight hours of operating time. The Li-ion chemistry packs a lot of power into a small package and gives users charging flexibility as the batteries have no memory issues. To ensure an even longer-lasting charge in the field, many agencies have opted for the 2,400 mAh battery pack, which lasts up to 12 hours between charges. And for those users who are deployed in the field for an extended period without the ability to regularly recharge their radios, such as wildland firefighters, Icom offers a battery case that holds six AA alkaline cells.

Full of Features and Functionality

Another bit of misinformation that has filtered throughout the public safety community is that P25 radios are always complex and difficult to operate. Icom has also dispelled of this myth by developing a public safety radio with a very intuitive user interface. The F70/F80 Series comes in versions with and without the 10-keypad. Both versions have four programming buttons on the front and a 16-channel rotary knob on top.

The F70/F80 Series’ large, high-contrast alphanumeric display features a full dot-matrix character readout. The LCD screen can be programmed to display either one line with 12 characters or two lines with 24 characters. Functions assigned to the four programming buttons are indicated on the bottom of the display.

The channel knob combined with a large display screen is important for firefighters and others in continuous action, Wheeler says. “They don’t have to look at the display to see what channel they’re transmitting on. And if they forget what frequency has been assigned to the channel, they can easily identify it on the display.”

Also critical for public safety is the need for private and secure communications. The F70/F80 Series features a built-in inversion type voice scrambler. For public safety agencies desiring stronger security, operators can install additional encryption boards depending on their required protection levels. The UT-109 internal unit offers 32 non-rolling-type scrambling codes, while the UT-110 encryption board provides 1,020 rolling-type scrambling codes. And in digital mode, AES and DES encryption standards are available when activated with the P25 software.

Like other Icom equipment, functions to make the radio more robust are standard. The radios offer wide frequency range—136-174 MHz for the F70 VHF radios and 400-470/450-520 MHz for the F80 UHF radios—and large 256-memory-channel capacity with 32 memory zones that allow users to divide and store a variety of channels from local to wide-area. The F70/F80 Series features built-in CTCSS, DTCS, 2-tone and 5-tone signaling, allowing users to establish talk groups and activate quiet stand-by when others are talking. The radios can also be set for selective calls to individuals or to control a repeater.

Up to 10 2-tone and eight 5-tone codes can be decoded on a single memory channel, which is especially effective for professionals who require multiple-district paging on a single channel. The radios’ stun/kill functions enable operators to disable a lost or stolen radio over the air, eliminating security threats from undesired listeners. And the power-on password feature prevents operation of the radios by unauthorized users.

The radios also include a tactical group function allowing users to copy memory channels to the tactical zone and dynamically regroup memory channels. Using the optional zone copy cable, memory channels in the tactical zone can be transferred from a master radio to other radios.

Other features of the F70/F80 Series include a built-in audio compander; eight DTMF autodial memories; normal and priority scans; a two-step power saver; busy, repeater lockout functions; and wide (25-kHz) and narrow (12.5 kHz) channel spacing, which is programmable per channel.

Icom’s F70/F80 Series is a smart choice for any public safety agency. Whether they are looking for P25 digital capability out of the box, or choose to wait and migrate to digital in the future, the F70/F80 portable transceivers give operators the option to customize the radio according to their specific needs.

“This flexibility is a very important feature for public safety,” says Aksala’s Law. “Agencies can buy this product now without paying the full price for P25 equipment. Either way they choose, they are getting a high-end radio at an affordable price.”