PRESS RELEASE
January 11, 1995
Simplified operation of remote radios from control towers

Operators twirling dials to monitor airport radios are old hat - pointing and clicking with a PC's mouse now does the trick. Norway's Jotron Electronics is staking a claim in the control tower systems business with its new ground-to-air radio series announced in November. The growing trend of locating radio equipment remote from towers has prompted major rethinking of equipment design.

"We've looked at all the implications of radio equipment being located far from towers," says Ole-Steinar Nordhaug, Jotron's export manager. "That includes maintenance, expansion, local communication requirements and not least human engineering. For instance, why should air traffic controllers have to know what a radio panel looks like to change a frequency or check on equipment performance?"
The secret of the company's new 7000 system lies in the "intelligent" computer processors built into every new transmitter and receiver. Each of these can communicate with the tower, allowing them to be controlled by a personal computer running standard MicroSoft Windows software. A specialist in tailoring, the company will adapt its communication interfaces to each country's telecommunication systems, whether the link-up is by




physical cable or satellite.
After having succeeded with a strategy of flexibility and adaptation to different national standards, Jotron now provides total turn-key packages for ground-to-air communication. Its radios operate in the common 118-144 MHz band with standard channel space of 25, 12.5 or 8.33 kHz. The company's customers already include airports from Norway - all 53 of them - to Hong Kong, installed in 1978. Spending 15-20 per cent of its revenues on R&D, Jotron ranks among its country's top 25 companies in financial performance.
A radical departure from tradition lies in the way communication gear is viewed from the central PC. Not merely duplicating radio panels on the screen, Jotron's developers have re-thought the human interface and made full use of the visual techniques of today's modern computer systems. No radio operator know-how is needed to select alternatives from menus, display local maps or call for statistics to be shown by graphs.
Maintenance has been a problem in the growing remote location trend, as well as upgrades and additions. "We can add new units and make repairs where the equipment is located without disrupting operation," explains Mr Nordhaug. "Remote diagnostics can save service calls, and displaying statistics can provide vital information. For instance, if output power declines over time, this could be a sign of deteriorating antenna efficiency."
Adding new receivers or transmitters typically require extra expansion gear when exceeding eight or 16 units. The 7000 system allows 255 radios to be added for each telecommunication line. The new units mount into the same 19 inch standard racks as the existing 5000 series, but




take less space. In the future, the system will also allow functionality to be extended by software upgrades - an advantage that comes from using standard components in both software and hardware.

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For further information contact:
Ole-Steinar Nordhaug or Finn Moe
Jotron Electronics a.s
P. O. Box 85
N-3280 Tjodalyng
Norway
Phone: +47 33 12 45 77
Telex: 21715 TRON N
Fax: +47 33 12 67 80