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Data Radio Modems

Wireless modems are used to send data between two or more locations. Raveon’s long range VHF data radios and UHF data radios are capable of communicating up to 100 miles, with typical distance in the 10-40 mile range. Raveon’s License Free Modems in 900MHz band can go almost 1/2 that long range.

The data that the Raveon modem communicates may be telemetry signals from a transducer, remote control signals, computer communications, GPS position, or a host of other digital messages.

Various Input/Output connectors are available including USB, RS232, RS485, RS422, and GPIO digital logic levels. The Tech Series Enclosure has a myriad of IO options on the data radio modem. And a Waterproof Enclosure is available.

Raveon designs its data radio modems with modern smart ARM 32-bit micro-processors enabling these products with more features and capabilities than most any other radio modem.  VHF and UHF Data Radio Modems have been used for M2M communication for over 50 years, and this proven technology offers outstanding performance, communication range, and reliability. They have hundreds of programmable features, so as your system grows in complexity, Raveon data radio modems will continue to provide reliable communications.

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The Myriad of Features all Raveon Data Radio Modems Have

Long Range (Achieved through high-performance RF and base-band design)

  • Raveon products are designed to commercial, industrial, and military standards.
  • 10000X the coverage of WiFI and 100X the coverage of LTE.
  • Consumer-grade components or reference-designs are never used in Raveon data radio modems. These are Unique.
  • 100% of the design work is done by Raveon Technologies here in the USA.
  • Raveon designs the RF circuits so that they excel in RF performance, and will work reliably in the presence of interfering signals and strong nearby carriers.
  • Our DSP modem is optimized to recover data in the presence of noise, which greatly increases the reliability in the fringe reception areas.

Easy to Use (Achieved through user-friendly interface and very powerful commands)

  • Configured via command-line interface or using free RadioManager software.
  • Front Panel status LEDs allow users to monitor operations at a glance.
  • CRC, ID codes, and packet-protocol make using it plug-and-play.
  • Basic setup: Serial data goes in one modem. Same serial data comes out the other modem.
  • Advanced setup: Users may configure radio IDs, repeater function, serial port timing, I/O parameters.
  • Large buffers allow over-the-air data rates to be independent of serial-port rates.
  • Raveon will gladly pre-configure your radio modems for your specific system.

Easy to Install and Maintain (Achieved through built-in and remote diagnostics)

  • 100+ features added to the radios to meet the needs of many customers. Many are on, and any others you can turn on.
  • Small size. OEM module version are also available for use inside your products.
  • Built-in USB, RS232, RS485, or RS422 I/O connections.
  • Over the air diagnostics, ping, and system monitoring.
  • Able to read the Radio Signal Strength (RSSI) over-the-air for remote diagnostics.
  • Wide DC input operational voltage range.

Reliable (Achieved through design excellence and quality manufacturing)

  • Private channels using data radio modems are ideal secure and reliable M2M data links for the Internet of Things.
  • Single-board construction. Less connectors and higher performance.
  • Conservative commercial/industrial design.
  • Bullet-proof firmware. Never will a modem “lock-up”, freeze, or stop running.
  • No internal components are ever operated near their limit.
  • Efficient green design. Low DC power consumption using modern-efficient CPUs
  • Low overall power consumption keeps the unit running cool.

Many Unique and Reliable Features  (Raveon invented many, and some customers had Raveon add them)

  • An easy to use Command Mode to setup and feature and/or adjust parameters.
  • Sleep mode digital inputs and sleep mode commend to save power consumptions.
  • Configurable baud rates on the serial ports. 1200, 2.4k, 4.8k, 9.6k, 19.2k, 38.4k, 57.6k, or 115200
  • POCSAG decoder mode option to operate at 512, 1200, and 2400 baud
  • 2-level and 4-level FM modulation and demodulation over the air from 500 baud to 19.2K bps on narrow-band channels.
  • Audio pass-through mode
  • Programmable over-the-air data rates for long-range or high-speed
  • Internal Boot Loader firmware to enable the radio to update software to new versions if you want.
  • Reliable EEPROM storage of all features, parameters, channel frequencies, and whatever else.
  • CPU has a external Watchdog hardware to monitor CPU performance. Automatic reboot if needed so you never have to re-start the radio to make it work.
  • Wide DC voltage input. Most radios can have DC inputs of 10-28V DC in to operate properly, and even at 8-9V, it will not fail.
  •  Good internal power supply filter, so if the DC input has noise on it, the radio will keep working OK.
  •  Optional heatsinks to run 100& duty cycle.  The PA is efficient and can run at any duty cycle.
  • In Command Mode, read any parameter, and a command can be set to out all major parameters.
  • Inside is a “Config Button”.  If you improperly setup the serial port and can’t talk to it, press the Config Button to reset to ALL default modes that work for you.
  • All modems have over the air (OTA) packets with CRC and dozens of packet header features to make reliable communications.
  • If a packet is RF distorted and has bad data, then the radio will not output bad data, so your system does not receive bad data.
  • Streaming Mode.  Narrow band data radio modems can send packets or in “Streaming Mode” stream bytes out over the air very quick.
  • Automatic EXIT. If a user forgets to exit the command mode. The radio will automatically exit and work great.
  • Wireless Message Exchange (WMX) option. This serial port protocol allows your system to have great communication with the radio and radio commands.
  • GPS tracking options. All radios have TDMA and GNSS Tracking features to GPS track very fast and reliable.
  • ACK mode. The radio can be told to send and ACK message, and resend data if no ACK came back.
  • MIMIC mode.  Take a digital input, send it and miles away, and the modem’s output will MIMIC it and send status back.
  • AES Encryption. You can enable AES128 encryption on all your modems with you unique security code. No other modems can then receive or transmit to yours.
  • CD output. Carrier Detect (CD) output pin can trigger on a reception or RF detection.
  • 6 Channels. You can set any frequency you want, and assign it to a Channel number. Change channels instead of retyping frequencies makes it easy to manage.
  • Disable LEDs. You can disable the LED outputs, to save a few mA and stop flashing LEDs if your system should not flash. Military used is common not to flash LEDs.
  • When inbound data stops, then the packet is sent out. The number of mS to detect “End of data” time in mS is configurable in all modems.
  • Setup the TX power the way you want.  All modems have adjustable TX power so you can set them as you want.
  • All radios are Quality Control tested at Raveon, before they are shipped to you.  Most all parameters and features are stored, and you can have Raveon preset things you want.
  • All can be set to very SLOW TOA data rates, so when a radio is 8 times slower, it is 4-8 time longer range. 100+ miles is usable on most all Raveon Data Radio modems.
  • Product Temperature measured. Internally is a Temp. sensor, you can read, and if the temperature is terribly high, the TX power will turn down so it is safe.
  • Many different RF frequency bands. See the data radio info for the band list, and if you want a custom RF band, please contact Raveon’s sale team. We do many custom bands.
  • Electronic Serial Number(ESN).  Every radio has a unique ESN that can be read by your system. We also monitor it before it ships out to you.
  • Busy Channel Lock Out can be setup, so a modem does not transmit when the channel is busy by another modem transmitting.
  • Safe software and unsayable. To be safe, no one can add scamming software to your radio, and no radio can be copied.
  • 16bit radio ID addressing code and 16 bit ID mask.  Communications can be setup as you want to talk uniquely on-to-one, one-to-hundreds, or group to group, or all-to-all. Whatever you want.
  • Store-Forward-Repeater.  Any radio can be put in the SFR repeater mode to repeat data packets into remote areas. SFR can be configured for certain ID codes to be repeated.
  • MODBUS processing.  Many radios can have the MODBUS protocol enabled within it read and control their General Purpose IO pins (GPIO) with MODBUS commands.
  • All radios can Send and Receive Raw Data. 8 bit bytes are sent, and they can be raw data, not just text messages.
  • RS-232 is the popular interface, but we have RS-485, RS-422, and USB interfaces available with all data radio modems Raveon supplies.
  • All are available in a rugged aluminum enclosure. If you need an OEM module version, these are available also with any or all of these featured described above.

Data vs Voice

Traditional two-way radios are analog, and were designed for voice communications. Early data radio modems were voice radios integrated with a telephone-modem to create a digital radio link. These were very slow and expensive, and some data radios today say they are data radio modems, but are still built with this old analog approach.

Raveon’s data radio modems are designed from the ground-up as data radio modems. They have a UHF or VHF radio transceiver in them, which is optimized for data. They contain a DSP based modem processor that encodes and decodes data using high-speed modulation techniques, and an intelligent microcontroller that gives the product a rich set of features.

What is a Data Radio Modem?

So what makes a radio a “Data Radio Modem”? There are a few very important features to look for:

  1. High speed. High speed RF synthesizers. High speed data rates. High speed serial ports.
  2. Digital Processing. Digital signal processing allows the product to store-and-forward repeat; error correct, automatically key on data, buffer messages, check CRC codes, and identify radios.
  3. Flexible Radio IDs. Data radios must work in conjunction with dozens if not hundreds of other radios. 16 bit IDs, group codes, repeater routing tables, and address masks allow a user to create sophisticated radio networks.

Can’t I Make My Own Radio Modem?

The short answer. No. In the USA, the FCC does not allow data communications using a voice radio. The only exception to this would be to connect an external modem to the microphone input of a voice radio. This may be allowed, but you would soon find that the system performance using of this type of approach would be terrible.

Can you connect a modem to the AUX input or a radio module? No. Some voice and low-cost radios provide inputs and outputs that could be connected to an external modem and make a reasonable data radio combination. But, this will violate the FCC certification of the product. A radio modem is certified by the FCC, IC, or for CE compliance as a complete system. There is no provision for changing any portion or using an external modem on the AUX input. The fines for violating FCC regulations can be severe, and the liability of installing a complete data radio system based upon un-authorized radio configurations can be substantial.

Don’t try to take short cuts. They will cost you more in the long run. Raveon’s data radio modems are the most economical data radios on the market. Our complete integrated solutions will cost you less and work better than trying to patch together a radio system using brand X radio and brand Y modem.

Learn more about Raveon’s UHF Data Radios.

Data Radio Modems

Wireless modems are used to send data between two or more locations. Raveon’s long range VHF data radios and UHF data radios are capable of communicating up to 100 miles, with typical distance in the 10-40 mile range.

The data the Raveon modem communicates may be telemetry signals from a transducer, remote control signals, computer communications, GPS position, or a host of other digital messages.

Various Input/Output connectors are available including USB, RS232, RS485, RS422, and digital logic levels.

Raveon designs its data radio modems with modern ARM 32-bit micro-processors enabling these products with more features and capabilities than most any other radio modem.  VHF and UHF Data Radio Modems have been used for M2M communication for over 50 years, and this proven technology offers outstanding performance, communication range, and reliability. They have hundreds of programmable features, so as your system grows in complexity, Raveon data radio modems will continue to provide reliable communications.

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