IWCE 2026

[speedway_navigator]

Talked with Rae in the Tait booth, he showed us the new control head with a volume knob after getting lots of customer feedback.
I mentioned the mini UHF connector was in a hard place to reach below the heat sink, he said I was his 3rd comment on that today.

Had Anritsu, Keysight and Viavi (this week's name, who knows when corporate will change it again) in my class to demo equipment.
The CX200 is nice, includes 1 port VNA and can be run from a phone app.

Met some guys from Harris county TX who told us about RFI from Mexico caused by atmospheric ducting. We had a student in our RFI class fighting the same issue. They said this site has a high correlation to their RFI.

https://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html

 

[mmckenna]

Icom P25 handheld CONCEPT. Single band:

 

[mmckenna]

Icom MCX (Mission Critical X) LTE/WiFi radio CONCEPT:

 

[mmckenna]

And the Harris XL-300 multiband, WiFi, LTE/D2D Satellite

 

[speedway_navigator]

I heard there was a cute girl in a cat outfit in a booth but some tall guy from northern California kept getting in my, could not verify...

 

[mmckenna]

I heard there was a cute girl in a cat outfit in a booth but some tall guy from northern California kept getting in my, could not verify...

Didn't see the cat outfit, but the mermaid and the anime lady were a trip.

 

[mmckenna]

Kenwood has a nice new basic control head for the NX-5000/VM-5000 line. KCH-22V Real knobs (volume and channel/group) and front firing speaker.

 

[DeoVindice]

The KCH-19 ramp buttons work but I prefer the tactile clicks on the KCH-20, they're much easier to use while driving. A KCH-22 looks like it's going on the purchase list.

I didn't attend but one of our dealers is up there. Word is the ESchat broadband voice stuff is supposed to be released for all customers soon. We're now involved with a multi-county project that's starting from a clean slate on communications and this has me excited.

 

[mmckenna]

The KCH-19 ramp buttons work but I prefer the tactile clicks on the KCH-20, they're much easier to use while driving. A KCH-22 looks like it's going on the purchase list.

I like it. Well designed and a real nice feel. Kenwood seems to be upping their game pretty well.
Should be good to see what they replace the VP5000 with

I didn't attend but one of our dealers is up there. Word is the ESchat broadband voice stuff is supposed to be released for all customers soon. We're now involved with a multi-county project that's starting from a clean slate on communications and this has me excited.

April 1st is what I was told. ESchat and the NexEdge trunking on the VM/VP8000. I've got some big applications for the ESChat stuff. I talked to Siyata people about their product. Looks like we can get the S7 for free from Verizon. Since our new system will be EFJ, it should be pretty easy.

 

[KE4ZNR]

Icom P25 handheld CONCEPT. Single band:

Something tells me this demo unit is VHF
If they do go to market with this I might have to get some demo units in 700/800.
And @mmckenna Thanks for all of the great pics!

 

[mmckenna]

Something tells me this demo unit is VHF
If they do go to market with this I might have to get some demo units in 700/800.

I was secretly hoping for a tri-band to increase the competition. While I like Icom, they always seem to be about 10 years behind everyone else.

They did have a lot of the radios on display, including some ham, aviation and marine radios.

 

[RodStrong]

Very happy to see the new Kenwood & Tait control heads.

 

[12dbsinad]

Icom P25 handheld CONCEPT. Single band:

Single Band!?!?!?!? Come on Icom, get with the program!!!

 

[mmckenna]

Single Band!?!?!?!? Come on Icom, get with the program!!!

Release date: IWCE 2036. Just look how long it took them to get on the 7/800MHz wagon.

 

[RescueRandy]

Icom is an interesting one. They have some genuine forward thinking designs in some of their products like the ethernet/poe enabled Sat100m. But in other areas they seem to lag behind others in some pretty standard features.

I found two interesting notes while talking to them about over the horizon comms this week. There’s some new features coming soon from Iridium for their Sat PTT products. The one that caught my attention was the ability to have your TG coverage area follow the location of the device. Specifically targeting the aviation industry.
They also mentioned they were looking to end of life the FC-8101 HF radio, but a bunch of gov and critical infrastructure customers have renewed interest in HF comms recently.

Oh, and they decided to shelve the hybrid LMR / Iridium PTT radio concept they were working on last year.