For years, the RVT (Radio Voice Transmitter) has been standard issue on virtually every Quick Deploy portable RAWS we’ve sold. The reason is simple: having up-to-the-minute weather conditions is critical to insuring the safety of fire crews and the public during prescribed burns and when fighting wildfires. The ability for every crew member to have access to all weather conditions being measured at the RAWS, while continuing to be completely mobile (meaning not actually in front of the RAWS interacting with the touchscreen) is just as valuable.

So, our customers loved the RVT, but told us they wanted the voice louder and clearer. We also observed that customers would usually never customize the factory settings because it was too complex, and that meant hauling a cable and a laptop to the station.

AirTalk is an FTS short-range communications technology that is now integrated into the Axiom datalogger. It’s the successor to, and the replacement for the RVT, and offers several improvements over it, including louder and clearer voice and a graphical user interface for configuring it. It continues to work with the same radio systems as the RVT. AirTalk provides on-demand access to current weather conditions observed at a remote weather station, and automatically broadcasts alerts to crews when weather conditions change.

Our first design goal was to improve the clarity of the voice messages. To do so, we went to the extreme and incorporated voice technology developed by STR-SpeechTech Ltd., a leading supplier of text-to-speech systems for mission-critical broadcasting applications. Their systems are deployed throughout the world at air traffic control towers and flight service stations, where the ability to generate clear and consistent aviation information broadcasts is a key component of operational efficiency and safety. Read More...

Tags: AirTalk, Axiom, RVT, Prescribed burning, emergency response, P25, Alerts, DTMF codes

The Axiom F6 datalogger is widely recognized as the most rugged and simple to work with datalogger available. It was the first datalogger to offer an industrial grade, daylight-readable, color, integrated touchscreen. With the software embedded right into the datalogger, so there is no need for a laptop. To date, we have shipped over 700 Axiom F6 dataloggers and there are no signs of it slowing down!

We spoke to Flint Cheney from the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service, and he shared his personal experience of upgrading his network to the Axiom. Read More...

Tags: upgrade, F6, Flint Cheney, NIFC

Did you know that virtually any sensor in existence can be connected to the Axiom datalogger? It surprises many people to learn this fact. Most people know that the Axiom is adept at working with SDI-12 sensors, thanks to its two dedicated SDI-12 ports (but did you know that you could actually connect up to 61 digital sensors to those ports?).

However, many more are not aware that, despite the unique military-style bayonet connectors, the Axiom can actually connect to any other analog sensor, even if it doesn’t have an FTS bayonet connector. The key is a unique product called the SDI-AM analog module. Read More...

Tags: sensors, SDI-AM