Software Radio for School Safety

• NCJ Number: 213895
• Author(s): Andrew Beard
• Date Published: 2005
• Length: 3 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2001-RD-CX-K003
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Best Practice/State-of-the-Art Review

Annotation

This report summarizes the development of a widely-turnable, handheld radio frequency (RF) system for use by school safety personnel.

Abstract

Using a handheld transceiver designed with multiple waveforms in the UHF and VHF bands and an easily configured user interface as a base, this project attempted to modify the device with two way radio waveforms, both analog and digital, and mobile-side implementations of cellular waveforms with bandwidths low enough to be processed on a low power handheld TDMA and AMPS processor. Testing showed that the transceiver did not operate in the cell bands, limiting the usefulness of the device for school personnel who had hoped to use it to incorporate both civilian and public safety communication methods. Processing hardware for the device included an iPAQ consumer handheld, which was based on a StrongARM 206 MHz RISC processor. Future handheld projects should focus on the rising bandwidth of modern cell waveforms and the problem of moving data at higher sample rates between the RF transceiver and a standard consumer handheld.