Narrowband  |  2024-04-04

Entel Introduces Introducing a One-Shot Emergency Battery Pack for MED Fire Fighter Models

Source: The Critical Communications Review | Gert Jan Wolf editor

Since launching the Entel MED radios four years ago, the company received significant market demand for a primary one-shot emergency battery.

Fire onboard a vessel can be catastrophic, and firefighting teams require immediate, reliable communications to extinguish fires and protect crew. Entel's Fire Fighter radios are engineered specifically for these emergency situations.

Since launching the Entel MED (Marine Equipment Directive) narrowband radios four years ago, the company received significant market demand for a primary one-shot emergency battery. Although not mandated by MED standards, Entel developed a new primary battery in response to this demand, which will be available from May 2024.

Entel announced that compatibility with existing Fire Fighter radios presented a challenge. Therefore, to ensure functionality with the new one-shot battery, all IIB models previously sold MUST receive a firmware update.

Unfortunately, IIC models would require hardware changes that are impractical for radios already in use. To avoid potential confusion caused by two hardware versions in the field, the company will not support the one-shot battery on IIC radios (DT944FF & DT985FF).

The new one-shot primary battery will be bundled as standard with the DT844FF and DT885FF radio sets, together with the standard rechargeable battery, with minimal cost increase.