Technisonic Industries has announced enhancements to its TDFM-9000 and TDFM-9300 designed to support aerial firefighting missions. The company said its ‘forestry mode’ addresses the space and installation challenges in the cockpit and antennas associated with updated United States Forestry Service (USFS) communications requirements.
Developed to meet the USFS communications requirements of multiple Main/Guard radios, Forestry Mode is an advanced software/hardware interface combination which allows the TDFM-9000 or TDFM-9300 to operate as either two or three forestry compliant radios. Main and Guard capability is addressed via software-defined VHF-FM module grouping on the radio’s front panel. The ASU-9000 hardware switch sums each main and guard combination of Antenna, Mic, Audio and PTT ports to a single position, thereby requiring only two or three antennas and audio positions depending on radio configuration. The result is significant cockpit panel, antenna space and weight savings.
“With the introduction of the USFS’s new radio requirements, operators found themselves in a space crunch both inside the cockpit and on the airframe itself,” said Technisonic’s Director of Business Development Jim Huddock. “Cockpit real estate, audio system capacity and antenna placements all became issues. Forestry Mode addresses these by utilising the already compliant TDFM-9000 series radio and our new ASU-9000 antenna/audio switch to provide up to three fully compliant USFS radios in just 4.5 inches of panel space, where traditional radio setups would require up to nine inches. Additionally, by utilising our fully compliant P25 modules, channel capacity is now 3000 per module, and Front Panel Programming is much simpler and more intuitive than ever.”
