If you want to keep your fleet of two-way radios in top condition, you need a Preventive Maintenance Plan. An effective Preventive Maintenance Plan can be developed for any combination of portable radios, mobile radios, and repeaters – whether they are analog or digital. Agreements are typically for a one-year term, but multi-year options are available as well. Maintenance can be performed annually or semi-annually, depending on conditions and system requirements. The 9 Key Services a client should look for include:

1. Testing, tuning, aligning, and restoring to factory specifications, within Industry Canada regulations — Many two-way radio users get overwhelmed by Industry Canada regulations or choose to ignore them. Neither option is a good one. Instead, a maintenance plan allows someone else to oversee these issues for you.
2. Confirming correct receiving and transmitting frequencies — Make sure the radios are doing what they were designed to do.
3. Measuring equipment deviation — Less deviation means that more channels can fit into the same amount of frequency spectrum.
4. Testing transmitting power — The plan ensures your equipment is always operating at peak performance, sending a signal as far as promised.
5. Measuring receiving sensitivity — Receiver sensitivity indicates how faint an input signal can be to be successfully received by the receiver. The lower power level, the better.
6. Checking reflected power in the antenna lines of mobile radios and repeaters — To optimize your radio, the antenna needs to work at its full potential.
7. Checking audio output levels — If you operate in a noisy and active environment, you want to make sure your radios are loud enough for people to hear other users.
8. Evaluating battery condition and service life — Rechargeable lithium batteries have been a terrific advance in technology. However, like all batteries, their performance can degrade over time.
9. Removing all dust and dirt inside and out— Dirt and dust are the enemies of any electronic device. A professional cleaning will extend the overall life of your communications hardware.

Westcan Advanced Communications Solutions offers industry leading Preventative Maintenance Plans completed to the highest manufacturer standards. As a Motorola Service Elite Specialist, Harris Authorized Service Centre, and Certified Service Centre, Westcan is the preferred maintenance specialist for mission critical systems in Alberta. In the event a piece of equipment fails an inspection, technicians will identify the problem and prepare a repair estimate. Maintenance can be completed in two ways. Equipment can be shipped or hand-delivered by the customer to the nearest Westcan ACS branch. Qualifying customers can also join the Westcan Bag Program. Technicians can also come to the customer’s location. All the customer needs to do is make the equipment available, along with the programming template needed to restore the equipment to its proper operating parameters. If you have any questions regarding Preventative Maintenance Plans, or how you can engage Westcan’s service department most effectively, feel free to contact me directly through the form below. I look forward to hearing from you.