2 PRODUCT OVERVIEW
2.1 GENERAL
The state-of-the-art URT500 telemetry radios have been specifically produced for the UK Utility
market following significant demand for a product which has both analogue and digital interfaces to
allow it to be used in legacy systems having a mixture of internal and external modems.
The radios can accept RS232 data inputs directly, but have auxiliary 600 ohm audio interfaces to allow
use with an external modem if required. While using the internal modem, the over-air data rate can be
set to a range of values between 150 baud and 9,600 baud. If high speeds are not required, the modem
can be set to a slower over-air rate to take advantage of the associated improvement to the receiver
threshold.
The URT500 is available with a variety of mounting plates to ensure mechanical compatibility with as
broad a range of existing installations as possible.
Although backwardly compatible with a number of other manufacturer’s products, the new URT500 is
an advanced, state-of-the-art radio incorporating many enhanced features such as: band reversal
capability, outstanding radio performance, over-air data rates up to 9,600bps in a 12.5kHz channel,
support for 1800/1200Hz FFSK data for compatibility with CML modem based products, extremely
low power consumption, new Windows 95, 98, 2000 and XP programming software, advanced
management features (including over-air re-configuration), and the possibility of future firmware
upgrades without the need for expensive hardware replacement.
The URT500 is a derivative of our tried and tested SRT470 & ART400 radio modems and has been
designed with as near an open architecture as possible, to allow it to inter-work with many legacy
products still operating in the field today and to provide an easy upgrade path, from audio to digital, to
networked systems. The large flash memory enables future upgrades to be easily implemented in the
existing hardware.
The URT500 meets licence-exempt ETS300-220, licensed ETS300-113 and the VNS2111 (MPT1411)
specifications at all internal modem data rates up to and including 9,600 baud.
Through the use of advanced DSP technology, the radios have been designed to have extremely
sensitive receivers, combined with exceptionally low power consumption. When running at the full
9,600 baud rate, an optional Forward Error Corrector can be switched in to further enhance the receiver
performance at very low receive signal levels.
2.2 TRANSMITTER
The transmitter frequency can be user programmed anywhere within it’s pre-aligned bandwidth, which
is sufficiently wide to allow operation on both the old and the new UK MPT1411/VNS2111 bandplans
without re-alignment.
The transmit power can be set accurately within the range 50mW to 5W under software control.
2.3 RECEIVER
The receiver is a very low current double conversion superheterodyne with an active balanced mixer for
very good intermodulation performance. Careful attention to spurious response, adjacent channel and
blocking performance, makes the product ideal for crowded telemetry channels.
To achieve high performance, the programmable bandwidth of the receiver has been limited to 12MHz
(+ 6MHz from centre frequency), full details are in the technical specification section. This is
sufficient to allow operation on both the old and the new UK MPT1411/VNS2111 bandplans without
re-alignment.
URT500 Manual
Page 5 of 42
Rev. C – 6 August 2008