Vehicles and mobiles
In-vehicle and base-station units for gatehouses and patrol vehicles.
Security and guarding
Radios for a security and guarding operation — what the configuration changes
A guarding operation buys for people who were trained this morning and may not be here next month. That changes the specification before any model is named, and it changes what the fleet actually costs to run.
In a guarding contract the equipment is not the hard part. The hard part is that the fleet is staffed by a rotating population: a post is filled by whoever is on shift, the person on shift may have started this week, and the radio is the only channel that has to work regardless. The configuration logic that follows is narrower than an industrial one and, on the energy side, considerably simpler — one format rather than several.
What this note does not do
This note explains how the decision is made. It does not quote a guard strength, a coverage result or an encryption entitlement for a specific site, because the site does not hold one it can evidence. Anything shown as unconfirmed on the catalogue pages is unconfirmed here too.
Confirm the position with your regulator, your site authority or your freight forwarder before you commit to an order.How to use this note
- Settle the coverage question first: does the patrol route stay inside the building footprint? That one answer changes the radio type.
- Then count posts rather than people. A roster produces the fleet size; a headcount figure produces a number that cannot be ordered against.
- Send the post structure and the shift pattern. Charging discipline and battery format follow from those two.
Rotation, not headcount, is the specification
A construction site keeps the same people in the same roles for the life of a project. A guarding contract does not: it keeps the same posts filled and rotates the people through them. That inverts two decisions. The control layout is chosen for someone who has never seen the radio before rather than for someone who will learn it over a year, and the energy items are chosen so that every post can be served from one stock rather than from a format per role.
A device that needs training is a device that will be misused on a first night shift
Where the operator population changes constantly, the cost of a more capable handset is not the handset. It is the training that has to be repeated, and — where the client audits — the incident that follows a channel selected in error. Adding capability to a build operated by a rotating population is a decision with a running cost, not a one-off one.
Confirm what the client requires an operator to be able to do before adding capability to the build.By post: what the structure produces
| Post | What the job does to a radio | What to confirm |
|---|---|---|
| Gatehouse or lobby, fixed | One position, continuous traffic, mains power usually available. | Whether a fixed supply and a base unit are in scope rather than a portable sitting on a charger. |
| Patrol inside the footprint | A walking route, frequently alone, often with one hand already occupied. | Whether an earpiece is required by the client's presentation, and whether the device has to be discreet. |
| Patrol leaving the footprint | The route crosses ground the building did not shape, and possibly a boundary where a different restriction applies. | Whether coverage holds at the perimeter and beyond it. That is a survey question, not a catalogue one. |
| Control room and dispatch | Traffic has to be logged or acted on rather than merely heard. | Whether individual call, text or location is required beyond plain voice. |
| Event and temporary cover | Staff are engaged for days rather than years, and the location may not be a permanent licensed site. | Whether units are hired for the duration, and who holds the spectrum permission for that period. |
| Client-audited equipment | Every unit is recorded against a post or a person, and the client may inspect that record. | Whether identifiers have to be recorded per unit and reported per batch. |
One battery format is the whole energy programme
The configuration logic for this environment is unusually specific on one point: a single battery format across the fleet. It is the clearest cost lever in a guarding contract, and it is a decision taken at specification time rather than during operation — once two formats are in service, every charging point, every spare and every replacement part number has to exist twice.
What a single format buys, and what it costs
- One part number to hold, quote and replace, which matters most where turnover is highest.
- One charger type per post, so a unit can be swapped between posts without a second charging arrangement.
- One set of spares sized to the shift pattern rather than to the role.
- The cost is a constraint on handset choice: the format has to be one the whole fleet can share, which narrows the models that qualify.
Where the client asks for more than plain voice
A licensed feature is not a delivered feature
Where an encryption level, a recording function or a system capability is sold as a licensable feature, the radio in the box may not have it enabled. The client's requirement may also be a documentary one rather than a technical one — a condition in a guarding contract that the equipment supports a capability, whether or not it is switched on at delivery.
Confirm the entitlement on the quotation line rather than from the family name, and confirm which party is expected to hold it.Not covered here
- Guard strength, post counts or a fleet size for your contract.
- Coverage across a perimeter, a car park or an adjoining road.
- Whether your client will accept a particular build, and what their audit requires.
- Any certification or approval a site authority may ask to see.
What to put in the first message
Every one of these removes a round trip. The enquiry page composes a brief containing them; you send it from your own mail or messaging app.
- Destination country — this decides the approved variant and the marking.
- The frequency range you are licensed to use, in MHz.
- Quantity per site, and whether spares are included in that number.
- Operating environment, if it is classified (hazardous area, mine, tunnel).
- Whether the units must arrive programmed, and if so the channel plan.
- The post structure — how many fixed posts, how many patrol, and whether patrols leave the footprint.
- The shift pattern, and where energy items will be charged.
- Whether the client audits equipment per unit, and in what form they expect the record.
- Whether any capability beyond plain voice is a contract condition rather than a preference.
Questions this note answers
Only where the models share the format, which is a question about the recorded energy items rather than about the series the handsets belong to. The catalogue lists every energy item against the handsets its fit list names, so the format question can be checked before the fleet is fixed.
That depends on the route rather than on the job title. A patrol that stays inside a building and one that walks a perimeter in rain are different exposures. Ingress protection is recorded per identifier on this site and is not uniform, so read it against the route rather than against the industry.
Fleet size and coverage are separate questions. A large fleet inside one building can work on a direct channel, and a small patrol beyond a building cannot. The repeater decision follows from the coverage question, which is why that is the first thing to settle here.
Send the client's exact requirement — the model identifier, the capability condition, or the wording in the contract — rather than a description of it. The three fields that remove most of the first reply round-trips are the identifier, the band and the destination country.
Where to go from here
Portables
Recorded band, channel capacity and ingress protection for each identifier.
Checking a battery part number
How to read a fit list, and what an absent pairing does not mean.
Buyer notes are written from the catalogue and the published reference pages. They carry no parameter the site cannot evidence, and an unconfirmed value stays unconfirmed here too. BaltiGo is a trading and distribution company supplying Motorola two-way radio hardware into markets worldwide, and does not claim to be a Motorola authorised dealer or official distributor.
Enquiry
Send the configuration, not just the model name
Band, destination and quantity decide whether a quotation is usable in one round or three. Compose the brief and it carries all three.