Over the past month, we have lost several bids on P25 radios. This is always distressing to a vendor who has done their best to make sure that potential customers get the best value for their money. What is more distressing is when a competitor offers an inferior product to win the sale based on price alone.
We take great pride in providing all the facts to allow prospective customers to make the best purchasing decision possible. This blog addresses such an issue. One of the considerations for determining suitability for a product performing a specified function is the use of standards based evaluation.
For example, the National Interagency Incident Command Division (NIICD) is a partnership between the USDA Forest Service and the Department of the Interior's agencies. NIICD's mission is to provide portable emergency communications for emergency use. Some might find it interesting to note that neither Kenwood, Motorola, or Vertex are approved for NIICD’s mission critical applications. A list of approved vendors is available by clicking here. Maybe that’s not important to you, but it is to those who truly understand the need for reliable mission critical communications.
Another standard for interoperability is the Project 25 Compliance Assessment Program (P25 CAP) which formally recognizes test laboratories to conduct a predetermined set of tests on P25 products. The tests demonstrate product compliance with a select group of requirements within the suite of P25 standards. Suffice it to say that the economical Vertex products (Motorola’s bargain basement) are not listed. For a listing of approved products, click here.
By the way – if are unfamiliar with the source of the aforementioned information, we strongly recommend a review of the FEMA Responder Knowledge Base at https://www.rkb.us. This is an excellent resource for first responders!
Before you purchase P25 radios, make sure you are getting not only the best price, but the best radios with support by a manufacturer and distribution partner (that’s us) committed not to just making a sale, but serving YOU! If you want all the P25 facts without fiction, give us a call at 205.854.2611 or email sales@falcondirect.com.
