Riding European air waves

, a Kansas-based global supplier of wireless solutions for industrial and commercial OEMs, announces its 868MHz spread spectrum transceiver for products delivered to

.

AeroComm is one of a few companies to gain approval for an RF solution that operates in this highly restricted European band. On the date of its release, more than twenty expectant manufacturers have already designed the AC4868 transceiver into their products.

Built to provide OEMs with license-free RF communications over distances up to 15 kilometres, AC4868 is said to be the affordable alternative to products operating in the saturated 433MHz band. AeroComm claims the solution is priced at hundreds of dollars less than competing solutions, and is the only 868MHz transceiver to deliver up to 250 milliwatts of output power (EIRP), the maximum allowed in Europe.

AeroComm's robust transparent protocol (RF232) has been embedded into AC4868s to support a host of communication architectures such as point-to-point, point-to-multipoint, or peer-to-peer. AC4868's dynamic serial firmware manages difficult over-the-air issues, such as error detection, multi-path concerns, link verification, and interference.

The AC4868 module will operate over the industrial temperature range of –40 degrees to +85 degrees C. Full "CE" approval lets OEMs to use the transceiver in mobile and fixed product applications without additional licensing. AC4868 will also accept a wide input voltage range of 3.3 to 5.5V. Flexible data rates reach 76,000 bits per second.

"AeroComm designed the AC4868 with the European OEM in mind," said Randy Macke, AeroComm's International Sales Manager. "The module is not only extremely low cost - making it a genuinely practical alternative to 433MHz radios - but it also simplifies the integration process by enabling wireless product development without further licensing requirements."

The transceiver modules are aimed at designers/manufacturers of industrial or commercial products that currently use alternative methods of communication, such as infrared, serial/wired, memory card download, or other less sophisticated wireless means.

AC4486s are suitable for a wide range of applications including vending, meter reading, gaming, signage, automotive, recreation, point of sale, fleet management, lighting control and security.

Pricing starts at under $85, with volume pricing as low as $60.