Filtronic plc announced the launch of a range of tower top amplifier (TTA) systems designed for use in two-way radio networks, particularly for public safety systems such as P25.

Filtronic’s “SGG” Series TTA systems operate in the 700 MHz and 800 MHz public safety bands. The SAC Tower Amplifiers combined with the SEG Control Units (CU) provide a high performance, lightweight, integrated tower top system solution for mission-critical radio networks. A key feature is smart redundancy, which continuously monitors the health of the balanced quadrature-coupled amplifiers—in the case of a failure in one of the amplifiers, the system can continue to operate using the redundant amplifier. If both amplifiers are compromised, the system can operate in a fallback-mode.

The TTA system features gain flatness across the band typically less than 0.5 dB, a third order intermodulation of greater than +13 dBm and a noise figure of typically less than 2.5 dB. This gives radio system operators the confidence knowing their mission-critical networks will reliably operate with resilient connections and higher quality audio, especially in congested environments."

“These new Filtronic TTA systems are among the few tower top amplifiers on the market that are fully compliant with the most stringent public safety RF specifications,” said Walter Magiera, chief commercial officer of Filtronic. “The amplifiers have excellent system flatness across the passband and low system noise figure, while retaining linearity and out-of-band rejection. This provides optimum inbound coverage and dependable performance in mission-critical applications.”

The compact TTA units measure approximately 9 x 6.8 x 2 in. (229 x 173 x 51 mm) and weigh less than 3.6 kg (8 lb). The 19” 1 RU rack-mounted SEG units are available in a multicoupler model with eight output ports, expandable to either 16 or 32 ports using optional expansion kits.