One multi-purpose radio tester for all your military radio testing needs

Rohde & Schwarz Australia National Sales Manager Richard Popple explains the changing landscape of public safety radio communications and standards and the incumbent need for exhaustive testing in both development and production but also maintenance.

Radio Qualification

The public safety radio market has faced a tremendous evolution over the past 20 years after the introduction of new standards released by ETSI. These standards were initially rapidly adapted by public agencies such as law enforcement and public safety, and the standards have prevailed for decades. A good example of it is the MPT 1327 standard, predominant with 1980s law enforcement agencies. The standard can still be found on a smaller scale in a few police or firefighting forces around the globe. Standards that are predominant today like APCO P25 or TETRA were introduced in the mid-1990s, while more recent ones such as DMR and dPMR have become increasingly popular in the market since their introduction in 2005 and 2008, respectively.

Radio manufacturers have been updating their products to comply with the new requirements. This is why software-defined radios have been so convenient and popular platforms in this segment. Qualifying specific hardware and firmware on a given standard requires exhaustive testing in development and production, as well as in maintenance, in order to ensure that the parameters of the radios are within the limits required by the standard.

Many professional users of classic analogue and noncellular digital radio rely on the R&S^®CMA180 (NATO stock number NSN: 6625-12- 397-3866) to verify the performance of portable soldier radios, on-board tactical radios or public safety APCO P-25 or TETRA radios. This performant radio test set can be used during the software-defined radios engineering phase, during qualification testing or even for repair and maintenance.

The R&S CMA180 is a radiocommunications tester for radio systems operating in the 100 kHz to 3 GHz range and 20 MHz bandwidth in the single radio testing configuration. However, its frequency range can be increased up to 6 GHz and 160 MHz bandwidth with the R&S CMA-XRT100 option for production, with up to eight parallel radio testing at once. With a technology based fully on digital signal processing and advanced computing, and featuring intuitive operation and efficient measurement capabilities, the R&S CMA180 is an indispensable tool for performing radio measurements. This complete and versatile radio test set can perform all relevant measurements without additional tools and has a small form factor that makes it portable.

The R&S CMA180 radio test set enables, on the one hand, the automation of the complete testing and running of the qualification test sequences. On the other hand, it automates the autotuning for radios manufactured by Harris XL and XG or JVC Kenwood, among others.

New radios may include LTE, Bluetooth^®, Wi-Fi, NFC and other commercially available standards. Consequently, new military communications radios are intended to comply with more than just a single commercial or secure standard.

This is the environment where instruments from Rohde & Schwarz such the R&S CMA-XRT100 and the R&S CMW500 can provide you with the most value. With the R&S CMW500, compliance with other commercially available standards such Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or 5G can be verified.

R&S CMA180 Radio Test Set

The R&S CMA180 radio test equipment demodulates and modulates all common analogue RF signals, making it ideal for testing transmitters and receivers. For receiver tests, audio signals from the internal generators or from external sources can be modulated onto the RF carrier. The audio signals demodulated by the device under test (DUT) are fed into the R&S CMA180 via analogue or digital inputs and then analysed. For transmitter tests, the solution demodulates the received signal and measures the demodulated audio signal and the RF signal.

The test set also incorporates a digital signal generator and an analyser; both can be used in combination to carry out digital receiver and transmitter measurements. The R&S CMA180 can be powered by batteries, making it independent and portable. Results are displayed in a straightforward manner, and the graphical user interface is easy to operate.

Using the ARB generator, users can play back nearly any type of signal. These signals can be generated with MATLAB^® or R&S WinIQSIM2™ simulation software, including proprietary waveforms from software-defined radios (SDR), and then loaded into the R&S CMA180 and replayed. The advanced and efficient user interface makes it easy to learn to use the solution. Users can quickly reach all settings and easily perform measurements. Measurement results are clearly and conveniently displayed.

At Comms Connect 2022 we’ll be showcasing the R&S CMA180 and our range of solutions to: develop the next generation of Public Safety Radios; confirm wireless network performance in the industrial, mining and transport domains where cellular based communications solutions are becoming the norm; and ensure safe and effective installation of antenna systems. Please drop by our stand 113 to see a demonstration of public safety radio testing solutions.