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Zetron Model 284 Provides Maritime Mission Critical Communications The Vane Brothers Company of Baltimore, Maryland provides specialty services to the maritime community. A division of the company, Vane Line Bunkering, operates a fleet of tugboats and fuel barges which are used to transport petroleum products to the marine, power and manufacturing industries.
Mission Critical Communications: Transporting millions of gallons of petroleum products across environmentally sensitive stretches of water such as the Chesapeake Bay requires Mission Critical Communications. As part of its commitment to environmental stewardship, in 2004 the Vane Brothers Company engaged the services of Teltronic Inc., a two-way specialist company with branches in Baltimore, Kensington, and Columbia/Burtonsville to modernize and integrate their existing VHF radio communications system.
"Vane Brothers was using two CPI dual channel desktop tone remote controllers to dispatch and communicate with tug boats and fuel barges traveling the Chesapeake Bay," explains Brett Phennicie, Senior Communications Specialist with Teltronic. "The problem was that only a single person in Baltimore and a single person in Philadelphia could use the system. Vane Brothers needed multiple desk sets at each location. They also wanted to be able to monitor communications for all operations simultaneously."
Teltronic Inc. had to come up with a solution that satisfied the requirements of multiple users, while at the same time fulfilling a specific criterion identified by Vane Brother's chief technology officer that the system be small, state-of-the-art, and expandable.
"At first, we considered a full-blown console like the Integrator RD, but they needed something small," Phennicie says. "Our Chief Engineer here at Teltronic, Ted Weitcel, performed a needs assessment and suggested Zetron's Model 284 Multi-Tone Remote. This product allows the operator to control up to four base stations or repeaters from a single unit."
The Model 284: The Model 284 is a four-line, eight-frequency tone remote for use with popular brands of EIA-compatible base stations and repeaters. The Model 284 has four LINE keys to allow an operator to select between up to four base stations. On each base station, the operator can further select between up to eight frequencies (F1-F8). Each Model 284 includes features such as real time clock, VU meter and an LCD that identifies each base station A built-in paging encoder supports 2-tone, 5-tone, pulsed tone, DTMF, alert tones, stack paging, and scroll-through page-by-name database. The Model 284 includes features to support parallel operators on the same system, such as parallel status indication, parallel function tone muting, privacy, and intercom. All this in a unit the same size as a standard office telephone.
A system that can grow: Using VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) lines provided by Vane Brother's IT Department, Teltronic Inc. technicians installed the Model 284s and integrated the VHF radio systems in Philadelphia and Baltimore.
"Actually the system we put in ended up getting much better coverage than originally anticipated," Phennicie adds "We put an antenna on the roof of a 20-story grain tower in the harbor at Baltimore. Once we put up the new antenna, they were able to talk to Philadelphia from Baltimore."
Use of the Model 284s means that the system will be easily expandable. Up to 12 Model 284s can be connected in parallel, providing convenient access to the radio system wherever needed. Phennicie adds that he expects to add another Model 284 at another Vane Brothers' location in Norfolk in the near future. |
