Today
Custom design for a particular customer is a thing of the past. Modern mobile radio equipment is "feature rich". A mobile radio may have 100 or more channels, be microprocessor controlled and have built-in options such as unit ID. A computer and software is typically required to program the features and channels of the mobile radio. Menus of options may be several levels deep and offer a complicated array of possibilities. Some mobile radios have alphanumeric displays that translate channel numbers (F1, F2) to a phrase more meaningful to the user, such as "Providence Base", "Boston Base", etc. Radios are now designed with a myriad of features to preclude the need for custom design.
Examples of US microprocessor-controlled mobile radios:
- Motorola Astro Digital Spectra W9
- Kenwood TK-690
As use of mobile radio equipment has virtually exploded, channel spacing has had to be narrowed again to 12.5-15 kHz with modulation deviation dropping to plus-or-minus 2.5 kilohertz. In order to fit into smaller, more economical vehicles, today's radios are trending toward radically smaller sizes than their tube-type ancestors.
Read more about this topic: Mobile Radio
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