Home Office Scientific Development Exhibition

Communication Specialists and CommVert will be attending the Home Office Scientific Devlopment Exhibition on the 16th - 19th March in Farnborough. We will be on Stand U28 if you want to come and pay us a visit :)

Background Information
The HOSDB 2010 exhibition is the UK's only secure event for displaying the latest security equipment for law enforcement and public security. It focuses on the four key Home Office business areas:
Crime and Policing
Security and Counter Terrorism
Identity Management and Border Security

To meet the demand from exhibitors and visitors HOSDB 2010 is moving to Farnborough in Hampshire - just over half an hour away from central London by train and from Heathrow airport by road. The new venue offers a secure facility with ample on-site parking and local hotel accomodation.

In 2009 visitors from 44 countries attended, with 230 exhibitors. This year HOSDB and the organisers, A|D|S have joined forces with UK Trade and Investment Defence and Security Organisation (UKTI DSO) to invite senior policing and government security representatives from around the world. They will be hosted on a formal government-to-government basis.

There will be around 3,000 security products in over 150 different categories on show with products ranging from microchips to body armour.

Senior government officials will be running a series of one hour workshops to provide briefing on key areas of government programmes - open to all exhibitors at the event.

In recognition of the increased level of formal overseas delegations the event will run for three days.

Because of the specialist nature of this exhibition, entry criteria is strict. Visitors must be employees or agents of the police service, government security and law enforcement agencies - plus military and some select providers of Critical National Infrastructure.

For more information on visiting or exhibiting contact Ruediger Kanne of CommVert or call him on +44(0)1256 766 600.

Visitors may also register online for the HOSDB exhibition

Milipol Paris 2009

The Milipol exhibition commences on the 17th November and completes 20th November, 2009. For the first time Communication Specialists Ltd will be attending the Milipol exhibition, presenting our new product range in the security sector. We will also be showcasing our two way radio product range that supports the needs of the Military, Police, MOD, businesses and the end user.

Come and visit us on our SESP Stand Number 13C004 and MIB Electronics stand Number 11.L.089 - see you there!

What is Milipol Paris?
At the end of the 70s, various French manufacturers supplying police equipment were worried that they had limited commercial contacts at international level. Contrary to the Aeronautics and Defence sectors, the Interior Security sector did not have any promotion and communications platform that matched its importance in France. As a result, the idea of organising a specific international exhibition took hold. EXPOL (EXposition POLice), the first private initiative, showed the way.

In 1984, the International Milipol Committee came to life as an association whose goal was the promotion of security techniques and equipment.

That same year, the first international Milipol Show was organised in Paris as the privileged information and public-relations tool, open widely to professionals in the field of security, including manufacturers, end-users, buyers and exhibitors of all nationalities. The quasi-confidential field of police, civil and military security equipment, virtually unknown to the general public until that time, was thus brought to light.

While the subsiding cold war still held centre stage, security services were already at work in the wings, fighting against such growing menaces as criminality, drugs, organised crime, terrorism, industrial and economic espionage. They expressed their latest requirements and needs for equipment, while investigating all the techniques available.

The Milipol Show evolved within this climate of expectation and demand. It broadened out to include the field of security which encompasses private and public communities, that of industry and businesses, the protection of populations, and internal State security.

Held annually during the 80s, the Milipol Paris Show found its cruising speed as of 1991, the year in which the biennial scheduling was adopted.

In 1995, it acquired new dimensions of considerable importance.

As it was now held under the aegis of the French Ministry of the Interior, the Milipol Paris Show became an official event, along the same lines as the international Eurosatory exhibitions for land armament, Euronaval for naval equipment and the Paris-Le Bourget Aeronautics-Aerospace Exibition.

Today, the international Milipol Trade Show compels recognition as a result of its professionalism and the quality of its exhibitors and visitors attending from around the world, all genuinely linked to the various security sectors.

The Milipol brand is owned by a group of companies - COFREXPORT, PROTECOP, THALES, VISIOM and CIVI.POL Conseil, a consultancy and service company of the French Ministry of the Interior.

The exhibition is organised by EDS Milipol.

Secure Communications

Today we use quiet a lot of two way radio communication mediums to share personal and business details. Are you sure this data or information shared is secure? Who can guarantee the security of the systems we use in our day to day lives? How can we secure our communication systems from possible hackers or virtual thieves? The answers to these questions depends upon the type of communication system we use, its purpose in our lives and the role it plays to help us do the work we intent to do using them.

Communication is imperative among humans and so it is among other living beings too. So man developed a language through which he started sharing his thoughts. Initially it was commuted through hand signals or actions. Then words, sentences and finally a proper fully fledged language were formed for communication purpose. This differed from region to region and from country to country. Still a limitation was existent as all people couldn't understand other languages and only the people nearby were able to commute. This started off the fire of communication which later evolved and is finally in a state today where even the remotest person living in Antarctica can call Japan in few seconds.

Coming back to secured two way radio communication, the more man depended on communication the need for its security also became imperative. When two people shared something important they expect their messages to be private and safe. So they started using security devices to safeguard the communication systems from being hacked by third parties. Normal everyday communication has some security and we do trust that no one is tapping our calls. When communication is done for more serious matters then special care should be taken to increase the security mode of the device that we use. Mostly commercial and military operations need secured two way radio communication systems. In recent years we hear so much about top secret messages from government or military sources being intercepted by terrorists. The same happens the other way too wherein the military or police intercept the enemy connections.

During the Second World War a highly effective secured communication was used between Winston Churchill and US President Roosevelt. This secured communication was called Green Hornet. Initially they were talking through radio phones which were easily overheard by the Nazis. It was then that the Green Hornet was introduced. Whoever tried to intercept would just hear white voices. The clear original message was heard only by the two users. Different types of security are, coded, encryption, steganography etc. other security threats include Trojan horses, spy ware and viruses. These can be easily taken care of by antivirus software, registry checkers and firewalls. These are generally termed as computer security. A well protected two way radio communication is stress free and the large institution and research centers can relax due to their safe communication network. Today virus attacks are common even in mobile phones. They are transmitted through Bluetooth file transfer facilities. Secure communication is no doubt imperative for all communication needs.

Two Way Radios: Message Encryption

Basically when we hear Message Encryption we automatically think that it is about how to encrypt messages to send to other party. Well, it is literally correct but looking to it in a more technical way, Message Encryption is something far more important than just a simple encryption of messages in letters. In the techie side of it, Message Encryption it is the process of encoding data in an encryption to prevent unauthorised access from the outside and to have more security on the data that you are trying to send or keep. It basically keeps the message from being read by converting the content into cipher or scrambled letters or characters so that the privacy of the message can be kept. Message Encryption is a method in which the only one who can read the message is the recipient (Other than the sender). In which the encrypted or ciphered message will be deciphered by the recipient.

Any other attachments to the encrypted message are also ciphered but do not worry there is a way to decipher it or there are instructions for it to be deciphered. Message Encryption is one of the most used methods to continue and to preserve the security and privacy of the message being sent to the other party. In technology, especially in information technology, Message Encryption is being often used from the very basic emails to more complicated software encryptions. But it is more commonly used to pass messages and to send and hide important information or data in a server. Message Encryption can be commonly seen in websites that promotes security or to messages that has private content to it.

In a more vivid way, Message Encryption is used by administrators of websites in which codes the messages that they are trying to preserve, especially in shopping networks or websites, the use Message Encryption on credit card information or delicate user information and even website security as well. It is one of the safest ways to preserve the content of a website or in simpler occasion the messages itself. If you want to know and learn more about Message Encryption it is actually not hard at all, all you need to do is research more about Message Encryption and from there you can find basic ways and even downloadable software that allows you to encrypt and decrypt a message with no hassle.

Message Encryption is a very nice option for people who loves their privacy and for people who wants to have an exclusive way of sending messages to private people that they are doing businesses or just having private conversations with. To dig more on Message Encryption you can easily go to any search engines and type the keywords “Message Encryption” and from there you’ll see various information about Message Encryption that can thoroughly help you on your way to understand and learn more about Message Encryption, it is really a good thing to learn more about it and if you want to be in the know on these kinds of things, I suggest you get on your research hat and start getting valuable info about it.

Walkie Talkies for Schools

Children of all ages are sent for their education to schools and thus they spend a lot of time inside the school campus. The safety and security of these kids should thus be the highest priority for the institutions, which in all ways is responsible for their safety inside the campus. Communication and co –ordination between the various staff and teachers is thus very imperative.

It is impossible to personally send or receive messages, especially when the school is big and covers many buildings or dormitories. At the same time fixing a telephone in each block or even in each class is time and cost consuming task.

Moreover, there is no surety that the lines will always work. The best form of communication in terms of time and cost is the Walkie talkie. Walkie talkies are hand held radio receiver, which can be carried by all within the vicinity of the school campus.

To help you decide what type of two way radio would be suitable for your school you have to take into consideration the distances involved as to which radio can be used. If the campus is not too large, then any license free radio will do, i.e., Kenwood TK-3201, Motorola XTNi (business type license free) or the smaller, cheaper “consumer” radios, such as Motorola XTR446, TLKR T3 or TLKR T7.

Normally we would advise the Kenwood TK-3201 or XTNi as these are very robust.

Alternatively, if the area is larger the school would need to obtain a radio license. Then it would be any number of radios, Motorola CP040, Motorola GP340, Motorola GP344 and so on.

Read more about the importance of walkie talkie for schools on our website

Codan Radios: Manpacks

With communications becoming much easier and simple, organisations always strive for lower operational cost and flexibility in their communication systems. Codan Manpack transceiver is the ideal solution for all your portable and remote communication needs. A portable Codan Manpack will enable the portable transceivers to communicate with a central base station or any other transceiver.

What would you do when you are in a dire need of communicating in an environment which is accessible only by foot and isolated from any vehicles or power? The best possible answer would be to opt for a Manpack Radio. When you think about Manpack Radios, Think Codan. Codan has a variety of offerings which is suitable for any remote and portable communication need. Codan Manpacks come in both military and non-military versions.

Need to know more about Codan Radios? Visit our Codan section on the website or get in touch and let us tell you what you need!

What is a Two Way Radio?

Two-way radios, more commonly known as walkie-talkies, were originally developed for the Canadian government during the Second World War by Canadian Donald L. Hings. Similar designs were created for other armed forces, and after the war, two-way radios spread to public safety and eventually commercial and jobsite work.

Major characteristics include a half-duplex channel, where only one radio transmits at a time, though any number can listen, and a push-to-talk switch that starts transmission. Typical two-way radios resemble a telephone handset, possibly slightly larger but still a single unit, with an antenna sticking out of the top. Where a phone's earpiece is only loud enough to be heard by the user, a two-way radio’s built-in speaker can be heard by the user and those in his immediate vicinity. Hand-held transceivers may be used to communicate between each other, or to vehicle-mounted or base stations.

Finish reading this article on two way radios on our website

What is HF SSB?

Do you require Long Range Communications?

HF SSB is the answer

HF means High Frequency whereas SSB means Single Sideband

HF & SSB radios are capable of providing communication over hundreds to thousands of Kilometres.

Buy our high frequency Codan Products at Comm Spec

HF provides communication beyond the range that is possible with conventional VHF/UHF systems, which rely on the line-of sight between communicating parties. HF on the other hand, achieves long distance communication by bouncing its signal off the ionosphere (sky waves) as shown in the Diagram below. Until recently there had always been a dead space of roughly 70 -220 Km between the point where the ground wave terminated and the point where the first sky wave returned to earth.

Standard Base Station Antenna Propagation

This operational shortcoming is unacceptable and a solution has been found by using the NVIS System. Under this system, the antenna radiates a signal near vertically up to bounce down off the ionosphere, thus providing an uninterrupted footprint from ground "0" to a radius of 6,000 Km or more.

NVIS Base Station Antenna Propagation

This operational shortcoming is unacceptable and a solution has been found by using the NVIS System. Under this system, the antenna radiates a signal near vertically up to bounce down off the ionosphere, thus providing an uninterrupted footprint from ground "0" to a radius of 6,000 Km or more.

Good brands of Walkie Talkie?

We keep being asked "What are the best brands of Walkie Talkie" - so we decided to talk about that and list the best Walkie Talkie brands on the market today.

On our website we list our walkie talkie manufacturers in the order of preference to our clients, this list is not what we 'think' is the best but what our customers think is the best.

Top Ten Walkie Talkies by preference

• Motorola
  Motorola radios are world leaders in two way radio Communications. Legendary quality and reliability. USA manufacturer.



• Kenwood
  Total solutions in the Commercial and Amateur Radio Communications markets. Manufactured in Japan.



• Icom
  A major Manufacturer of Radio Communications in the Marine, Avionics and Land Mobile Radio Industries. The equipment is manufactured in Japan.



• Vertex Standard
  Offering total solutions to the worlds commerical and public safety Radio Communications markets. Manufactured in Japan.



• HYT



• Tait
  Very high quality Radio Communications and data equipment from this New
  Zealand based manufacturer.



• Entel
  Professional radio communications equipment for land based, marine and radio telemetry applications.



• Barrett
  Barrett Communications is an international, leading manufacturer of long distance high frequency communications equipment.


Codan
Designs and builds High Frequency (HF) Radio, Satellite, and Microwave Links products.


• Otto
  A highly specialised Manufacturer based in the United States of America designing audio accessories specifically for the two-way radio market.

Two Way Radios and Cars

Mobile radios fitted in cars require little maintenance if the radio and antenna are permanently installed. However our engineers find that in lots of cases when the radio is fitted in hire cars the radio/antenna has to be easily removable. This results in the use of magnetic mounted antenna and the radio fitted under one of the front seats. Because the wiring is not fixed it is likely to get damage and become unreliable.

The two main areas that cause the most problems are that aerial cable and the microphone cable. Damage to the aerial cable will reduce the coverage area, put excessive strain on the electronics of the radio and area of radio coverage becomes unreliable. If the cable is not repaired or replaced expensive repairs to the mobile may be also required. Unfortunately as the aerial cable is coaxial it is not simply a case of a visual inspection but needs to tested with calibrated test equipment.

Damage to the microphone cable is also hard to detect as the cable is made up of very thin flexible wire, if it is damaged it will result is intermittent communication until it fails completely.

Some customers have obtained magnetic antennas that have a small magnetic base and very thin aerial cable (coax) believing that this will solve problems with the area of coverage - wrong! an antenna that is used for two way communication needs to be adjusted to operate on the required frequency efficiently.

The magnetic base is too small to keep the antenna on the roof of cars when passing under such things height restriction bars in car parks. Two-way radios and base stations should be checked at lest once a year to ensure that the equipment is operating within manufactures specifications and licensing requirements.

Struggling to choose your two way radio?

Many people would like to use two way radios in their business, to help cut the cost of mobile phone chargers. But, selecting the right radio can be difficult and choosing the wrong radio could become an expensive problem!

Communication Specialists have established several levels of professional support to help current and potential two way radio users get the proper radios for their situations, with 34 years of two way radio experience under their belt they can help you choose the right radio for your business or pleasure!

We can advise you which two way radios will serve you better in some of the following situations:

Family Use
Camping
Boating
Shopping
Parks
Skiing
Travelling - Motorbikes, Cars, Golf

Associations
Clubs
Churches
Theatres

Business Use
Restaurant
Hotel
School
Car Dealership
Farm
Warehouse

Industrial Use
Large buildings
Construction
Military
Air Force
Navy

For more personalised, detailed information and instruction, visit our communications website and talk to a technician on our live chat. Our experts will answer specific questions and will make specific recommendations as to which communication tools will work best in a variety of applications.

We will also come out to your site of choice and give you a free review - book with online chat now!

Tour of Britain Images

A selection of images of the vehicles that were used to support the Tour of Britain.

We supplied a selection of two way radios and walkie talkies

Tour of Britain cars

Tour of Britain Vauxhalls

Comm Spec engineer working on vehicle

Tour of Britain Vauxhall

Tour of Britain Vauxhall

Tour of Britain Vauxhall

Tour of Britain Convertible

Tour of Britain

Communication Specialists provide two way radio for the Tour of Britain

The Tour of Britain is a blue riband cycling event that returned to the British cycling calendar in 2004 after an absence of five years. Cycling is a hugely popular sport and British cyclists are among the best in the world, winning five gold medals in the 2004 Olympics and Paralympics.

The Tour of Britain has formerly been known as the Milk Race, the Kellogg's Tour and the Pru Tour of Britain. The aspiration of the Tour of Britain was to re-launch the event along the lines of the Tour de France, which has no title sponsor but a spectrum of public and private sector support.

The Tour of Britain has placed itself on a global platform alongside major races such as The Tour de France and Giro d'Italia by attracting a combination of national and international teams. Teams which are attracted to racing the Tour of Britain include Pro Tour Teams such as T-Mobile, Quickstep, Phonak and CSC.

The world governing body the UCI (the Union Cyclisme Internationale) granted the 2004Tour of Britain world championship ranking status. The Tour of Britain is determined in the future to become part of the UCI's elite Pro Tour calendar.

The Tour of Britain has four founding directors: Chief Executive, Hugh Roberts who also heads sporting marketing and events company Sweetspot Tony Doyle MBE, twice world pursuit champion Mick Bennett, double Olympic medallist Peter Moore OBE, former Managing Director of Center Parc.

The Tour of Britain is a not for profit organisation governed by a Board of Trustees with representatives from the sport of cycling, trade and industry and politics.

Communication Specialists are sponsors of the Tour of Britain and installed their radio equipment, their engineers Slawosz Uznanski, Raymoond Brooks and Maciej Korneluk were there that day to help install the required equipment on Thursday 6 September 2007.

For the Tour of Britain Communication Specialists supplied the following equipment:

• 60 + 6 car/mobile Motorola GM900 and CM140 radio units complete with fist mics, power leads and UHF 3dB collinear mag mounting antennas, installed in over 20 brand new 2007
• Vauxhall Astra and Vectra cars
• 4 mobile units GM950 for motorcycles with autocom headset systems
• 80 + 30 hand portable Motorola radios with spare batteries and chargers

All systems work with 2 independent repeaters, located in the organisers cars, one in front of the cyclists group other one in the middle, to provide maximum coverage for all radio users.

All equipment was prepared in our workshop (programming, testing, charging batteries) one week before installation. Installation of car/mobile units was made on Thursday 6 September and Friday 7 September (motorcycles on Saturday). Giving out all hand portable radio equipment to the users was made on Saturday and Sunday.

Instructions on how to operate channels was given to all users.

So far all equipment and system works well. Comm-spec Team (Kervin Labrosse, Raymond Brooks and Slawosz Uznanski) is following the race in Tour Of Britain as a technical support for two way radio equipment and all communication system.

Stage 1: Reading to Southampton - Monday 10 September
Stage 2: Yeovilton to Taunton - Tuesday 11 September
Stage 3: Worcester to Wolverhampton - Wednesday 12 September
Stage 4: Rother Valley Country Park to Bradford - Thursday 13 September
Stage 5: Liverpool to Kendall - Friday 14 September
Stage 6: Dumfries to Glasgow - Saturday 15 September