Our story
RACOM was founded before the Czech Velvet Revolution in 1989 by four radio amateurs with a vision to sell ham equipment they had designed themselves to other radio amateurs. The original Rádio cooperative was transformed into RACOM in 1990. As the company grew, the radio amateur market became too small for it, so in 1991 it plunged into wireless data communications which has turned out to be an excellent strategic decision.
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This was the year when two young Czech radio-amateurs met: Jiří Hruška, OK2MMW and Martin Lácha, OK2DFW. In the years that followed they pursued their shared hobby together. In socialist Czechoslovakia it was almost impossible to buy professionally made equipment, so as electrical engineering students they made their radios themselves. This taught them not only to understand RF technologies, but to cope with every problem, since at that time if you wanted anything you had to rely on the good-old ‘make-do and mend’ approach.
Thanks to their hard work and enthusiasm they were soon ably competing in the discipline at the highest levels, representing Czechoslovakia in radio-amateur competitions abroad and, together with other friends, placing among the winners in HF contests.
The Rádio Cooperative
In 1989 Czechoslovakia opened up to allowing small businesses outside the state-owned enterprises, so it was now feasible to make devices for radio-amateurs on a ‘business’ basis. Jiří and Martin and their two colleagues founded a production cooperative Rádio in May 1989 and started making their bespoke R2CW 144 MHz transceiver, which they later started daringly selling to ‘capitalist’ countries abroad. Incidentally, the R2CW is still being used among radio-amateurs today and RACOM does provide maintenance for it if needed.
Just as some state-bureaucratic clouds began to gather over the Rádio Cooperative, threatening its future, the November Velvet Revolution uprising came, changing everything.
RACOM
After the change of regime, establishing ‘standard’ types of companies became an option, so it was no longer necessary to keep going under the unsatisfactory socialist-style cooperative ownership model. Jiří and Martin and their key colleagues from the Rádio Cooperative founded RACOM a.s. in 1990, later transformed into RACOM s.r.o.
The radio-amateur market was soon too small for RACOM, and the company started producing radio devices for professional use. The crucial moment was the decision to specialize in wireless data transmission and launching the first radio modem on the market in 1991.
30 years on
Radio modems for SCADA networks have proven to be the right way forward. Jiří and Martin gathered together a team of equally enthusiastic colleagues, jointly developing and producing more and more progressive generations of radio modems, winning ever bigger orders; these became their stepping stones on a business quest out into the wide world.
Today, our team proudly features among market leaders and trend-setters and our radio modems are used in more than 130 countries worldwide.
In response to the advent of mobile networks for similar applications in 2005, we added mobile routers to our radio modems.
In 2009, we expanded into another radio data transmission domain – microwave links. Despite the tough competition, we are steadily becoming a major global player in this market.
2024
RACOM is still a family business at heart, with in-house development and production. We strive for maximum self-sufficiency, with our own production lines for assembling printed circuit boards, and our own mechanical manufacturing. We comprise some 150 people, with annual turnover of around EUR 10 million.
RACOM has never been loss-making in its entire existence and profits are invested in further growth, especially in our own new-product development. The company’s stability is further underlined by the fact that its key private owners have stayed true and not changed since its founding.
As of April 1, 2024, Jiří and Martin handed over their competences in the management of the company to the new generation and believe that their successors will lead RACOM to further success.
