Icom celebrate their 50th anniversary

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2014 is a very special year for the Icom family as it marks the 50th Anniversary of the founding of ICOM Inc.

Founded in 1954 by Tokuzo Inoue, the company has grown into a world renowned manufacturer of Business radio, Amateur radio, Marine radio, Aviation radio, Navigation products and Communications Receivers.

The company innovate and recently moved into digital Amateur radio products (D-STAR), digital two way radio products and systems including NXDN, dPMR and P25 products under its IDAS digital brand.

ICOM radios are tested to pass rigorous in-house tests as well as environmental tests to the US Military standard 810 specifications. Over 50 years of engineering and production excellence is built in to every ICOM product.

ICOM's Research & Development is renowned for developing ground breaking equipment. In recent years ICOM developed waterproof, buoyant radios for the marine market, advanced digital & HF radios for the Business and Amateur radio marketplaces. To show its commitment to design and innovation, just check out the touch screen IC-7100 HF radio or Icom’s new Licence-free WLAN radio system.

ICOM International Headquarters is located in Osaka, Japan and is a rare example of an electronics manufacturer who has not shifted production to lower cost countries, it has kept its production base 100% in Japan and that commitment to quality is one of the founding precepts of the brand. The Wakayama Icom plant has an advanced production system to produce the entire range of multi-mode wireless communication products. Design and manufacture processes are certified to ISO9001/ISO9002 quality and ISO14001 environmental procedures.

Today ICOM looks very different to what it was 50 years ago. ICOM Inc is now a publicly held Japanese corporation; its stock is traded on the Tokyo and Osaka Stock Exchanges. The company has an international sales and service network around the world, today selling in over 80 countries around the World Subsidiaries can be found in the US, Australia, Germany, Spain and China.

Despite their size and success ICOM’s founder Tokuzo Inoue is still a huge influence in the running of the company today.

Dave Stockley, Chairman of Icom UK said, ‘Our relationship with ICOM Inc. began in March. 1974 with us discussing ways that we could develop the brand and sales of the product range in the UK. Communication in those days was tricky there were only a few staff in Japan that could speak English. This became much less of a problem over the years as many more ICOM staff were able to speak English. Since then the relationship has been extremely successful and Icom UK are thought of as one of the most progressive companies in the ICOM family around the world. As for Mr Inoue, the founder, right from the beginning he has been a strong businessman, determined in the ways things should be done. However, right from the start, he has been a friend and inspiration and I am thankful for that.’

TIMELINE

1954 Tokuzo Inoue founded Inoue Seisakusyo in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan.
1964 INOUE COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENTS CORP. established with Tokuzo Inoue as President.
1976 Icom (Europe) GmbH, established in Dusseldorf, Germany.
1978 Name changed to Icom Incorporated.
1979 Icom America Inc. established in Bellevue, Washington, U.S.A.
1982 Icom (Australia) Pty., Ltd. established in Melbourne, Australia.
1986 Hirano Plant completed.
1987 Tokyo R&D Centre established.
1988 Wakayama Icom Inc. established in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan.
1990 Stock was listed on Osaka Securities Exchange.
1991 Material Centre completed.
1994 Narayama R&D Office completed.
1997 Icom Spain,S.L. established in Barcelona, Spain.
1998 Asia Icom Inc. established in Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C. Acquired ISO 9001 certification.
1999 Icom Information Products Inc. established in Osaka, Japan.
2001 Stock was listed on Tokyo Securities Exchange. Stock was listed on the 1st Section of Tokyo & Osaka Securities Exchanges.
2003 Acquired ISO 14001 Certification
2006 Mr. Tokuzo Inoue assumed the position of Chairman. Mr. Tsutomu Fukui assumed the position of President

Solar activity delays CubeSat launch

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High radiation levesl from recent solar eruptions has resulted in a planned launch of amateur radio CubeSats being postponed

“Early on Wednesday, January 8 the Antares launch team decided to scrub the launch attempt due to an unusually high level of space radiation that exceeded by a considerable margin the constraints imposed on the mission to ensure the rocket’s electronic systems are not impacted by a harsh radiation environment.”
— NASA's Wallops Flight Facility

The solar flux activity that occurred late yesterday afternoon has had the result of increasing the level of radiation beyond what the Antares engineering team was monitoring earlier in the day. Overnight, Orbital engineers who are experts in the field ran numerous models to ensure that all possibilities to preserve the launch were examined. However, due to significantly elevated flux levels, the Antares team decided to postpone the launch to spend the day further examining the potential effects of the space radiation on the rocket’s avionics suite.

During Wednesday, in consultation with NASA and outside experts in the field of “space weather,” Orbital will continue to monitor the levels of space radiation with a goal of setting a new launch date as soon as possible. If we are able to launch on Thursday, the launch targeted launch time would be 1:10 p.m. (EST), with Cygnus arriving at the ISS Sunday morning, January 12.

AMSAT-UK - http://amsat-uk.org/

Ulster Amateur Radio Foundation Course

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West Tyrone Amateur Radio Club will be holding a Foundation Course on Sat 15th and 22nd February 2014 with the exam being held on Monday 24th February 2014.

If anyone is interested they can contact us via email to info@wtarc.net or contact Paul on 07511411257.