What a fantastic day we had at the recent TCI company picnic, held for all TCI employees at Gilroy Gardens and Theme Park, CA. Many of us brought along our families and we spent quality time getting to know each other better and celebrating summer!
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Keeping One Step Ahead of the Next UAS Threat: Interview with Misho Tkalcevic, CTO at TCI
Please read the recent article published in European Security & Defence, featuring Misho Tkalcevic, Chief Technology Officer at TCI (part of SPX CommTech), speaking on emerging Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) threats and the specialized Radio Frequency (RF) technologies keeping defense teams one step ahead: Keeping one step ahead of the next UAS threat: Interview with Misho Tkalcevic, CTO at TCI – European Security & Defence (euro-SD.com)
USTTI Course – May 1-5, 2023
TCI International, Inc. is pleased to have hosted Practical Applications of Spectrum Management and Spectrum Monitoring May 1–5, 2023. TCI congratulates the several dozen industry and government professionals from around the world who attended this tuition-free training course offered by the United States Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI).
During this course, attendees learned about the practical implementation of spectrum management, spectrum monitoring, radio direction-finding, and signal measurement techniques as they relate to the international standards of the ITU and today’s signal environment.
Special sessions were held on new technology and techniques, including cellular monitoring with TCI’s new CellScan product, SHF and microwave monitoring options including drones, hand-held analyzers, mobile monitoring solutions, and data collection and visualization.
A popular session discussed how artificial intelligence (AI) is driving developments in automation and how products such as TCI’s Spectrum Surveyor® software supports managing monitoring systems and big data. Special guest speaker Eng. Sarmad Ali Sheikh shared CRA Qatar’s experience from their spectrum management and monitoring planning and execution for the 2022 World Cup event.
About TCI
TCI International, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of SPX Technologies. TCI provides turnkey solutions for spectrum management and monitoring, direction-finding, geolocation, and communications intelligence to civilian, government, military, and intelligence agencies as well as antennas for communications and high-power radio broadcasting. TCI is headquartered in Fremont, California, USA.
“Five Minutes With: Eric Kaled, President at SPX Technologies” Interview
Can technology defeat the increasing malicious drone threat?
From the use of purpose built and commercial drones in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to the delivery of contraband and weapons to prisons, to the inappropriate use of drones in public spaces, Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) threats are rising significantly, and will continue to do so in the coming years. Successfully defeating any threat posed by errant, illegal or malicious drone use is becoming ever more critical for an increasingly wide range of domestic and international military and security forces.
Radio Frequency (RF) inhibition technology is an ideal technique to mitigate UAS threats in complex environments. However, the challenges presented by new highly complex UAS waveforms, paired with the limitations of older DDS-based jamming solutions, have caused the most effective Counter-UAS RF inhibition systems to undergo a significant technology change. For instance, a change that has materialised in the adoption of techniques used in Software-Defined Radios (SDR).
Forward-thinking RF inhibition waveform designers, understanding the potentially advantageous nature of SDR source waveform generation, had already developed and proven as a next generation countermeasure waveform, but they weren’t implemented until the complex waveforms of the UAS domain appeared. Hence the deployment of SDR-based RF inhibition source waveform generation was triggered by the appearance of the new sophisticated waveform drone threat.
In this context, SDR-derived RF inhibition waveforms can be architected to counter a much wider range of threats which, when grouped together, don’t see their individual frequency effectiveness compromised as there is no interdependency between them. Most critical for defeating sophisticated drones, the countermeasure waveform is always present across the denied spectrum given that SDR techniques, designed appropriately, generate high instantaneous bandwidths.
The BLACKTALON solution, jointly developed by SPX CommTech’s TCI and ECS, has provided an effective way to integrate passive and active RF detect to locate, identify, track and defeat drones, allowing for flexibility in deployment in an ever changing and evolving threat environment. Proven in active conflict, its SDR source generation delivers an inhibition waveform best suited for Counter-UAS. High gain, directional antennas transmit the inhibition waveforms ensuring that the antennas illuminate the target. Furthermore, the antennas have a nominal 20° beamwidth providing the power density required at the target UAS, which allows for mitigation of collateral impact upon other systems and is, without a doubt, a key factor for using RF.
As solutions manufacturers, at SPX CommTech, our primary goal is focused on innovation and progress, but more broadly, we must continue to deliver technology that ensures a smarter, more secure future for us all.
Visit us this week during Security & Policing 2023, stand D61, to find out more about BLACKTALON, Radio Frequency Counter-UAS, COMINT, and Data Link solutions for defence and security teams.
USTTI Course 23-151
TCI International, Inc. (an SPX Technologies Company) is once again pleased to host industry and government professionals from around the world at a tuition-free training course offered by the United States Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI) at TCI corporate headquarters in Fremont, California:
USTTI Course 23-151
Practical Applications of Spectrum Management and Spectrum Monitoring
May 01–May 05, 2023
Fremont, California (Northern Silicon Valley)
Course description
The course focuses on the practical application of ITU-compliant spectrum management and monitoring techniques and the modern-day challenges associated with them. The course employs classroom and hands-on activities to provide students with an overview of spectrum management and a practical review of monitoring techniques and their interaction. Classroom time is used to instruct in the system planning and coverage analysis, operational principles of a monitoring station (fixed, mobile, and transportable), principles of signal measurements, radio direction-finding, and signal identification and recording. The hands-on portion of the course will demonstrate real time application of the principles taught in the classroom and include mission planning, operational set-up, running missions, and data analysis and management.
Learning Objectives
To learn practical implementation of spectrum management, spectrum monitoring, radio direction-finding, and signal measurement techniques as they relate to the international standards of the ITU and today’s signal environment. This includes:
- Monitoring coverage and planning tools.
- Radio direction-finding.
- Signal monitoring, identification, and correlation to the frequency management database.
- Spectrum occupancy observations and analysis as part of the frequency management function.
- Transmitter measurements as required to ensure compliance to the radio regulations.
- Management and monitoring trends, and big data management.
Focus
Managerial and high-level technical, with emphasis on hands-on demonstrations.
TCI’s longstanding commitment to spectrum monitoring includes advancing the state of technology and enhancing the expertise of users. This year’s seminar offers an unusual opportunity to acquire practical knowledge and technical insights from an exceptionally accomplished team of spectrum professionals.
Apply online for Course 23-151 at https://ustti.org/course/spectrum-monitoring-training-sequence/