IWCE 2023, Las Vegas

MARCH 29-30, 2023 | LAS VEGAS, CA, USA

RipEX is a platform of radio modems that provide 24/7 reliable service for wireless data transfer in mission-critical applications such as SCADA and telemetry in critical infrastructure of power, water, gas and oil companies. Its performance has been proven in thousands of installations in more than 100 countries on every continent since 2011.

RipEX2e is based on and fully compatible with the RipEX2 radio modem. Both types can therefore be combined seamlessly in one network on one frequency. Its deployment is expected in less demanding installations that do not use all the features of RipEX2. With RipEX2e, the channel width is limited to a maximum of 50 kHz, modulation to a maximum of 64 QAM, and only two Ethernet and one serial interface are available. RipEX2e does not have an mPCI slot, so it cannot be expanded with GPS, additional serial interfaces or cellular interfaces.

We will continue to produce the first generation of RipEX, but we will not implement new features into it, because its HW capacity is not sufficient for that. We recommend to use it only to extend existing networks and to use RipEX2 and RipEX2e exclusively for new networks, among other reasons, because the physical protocol layers on the radio channel of RipEX and RipEX2/RipEX2e are not compatible.

There are no plans to discontinue production of RipEX at this time. We expect to be able to supply it to expand existing networks for several years, similar to how we are still able to supply the MR400, which was launched in 2005.

We believe that RipEX2e will find its place in the market and customers will appreciate the ability to combine RipEX2 and RipEX2e in one network according to the needs at each site.

Despite all the difficulties, we consider 2022 a successful year. The reality was even higher than the sales forecast presented by our sales team at the beginning of the year. Our sales were comparable to 2021, which was our most successful year ever. Since we did not pass on all the increased expenses to our customers, profit was logically lower.

We sold more Cellular routers compared to 2021, and sales were slightly lower for Radio modems and Microwave links. The reason for the slight decrease in radio modems was mainly due to customers postponing deliveries for large tenders already won, while in microwave links we had to partially reduce production at the end of the year due to a shortage of components.

The sales forecast for 2023 presented by our sales team is optimistic and slightly higher than the reality of 2022. We believe that, similar to the previous year, we will be able to exceed the forecast and continue to grow. The news from R&D presented by the product management at the meeting will certainly help to achieve this.

DISTRIBUTECH International 2023

FEBRUARY 7-9, 2023 | SAN DIEGO, CA, USA

RACOM has owned the land and the project to build a new facility for several years. Since everything indicates that the demand for our products will continue in the future and we have other products in development that the market is eagerly awaiting, we have decided to start construction of a new facility for mechanical production in January 2022.

The contract for the construction was signed on January 28, 2022, 4 weeks before the war in Ukraine started. Despite all the negative circumstances, we decided to start the construction and in March the first excavators went on site. We managed to complete the construction on a slightly increased budget and on schedule.

On October 24, 2022 we took over the finished building. Nowadays we consider it a small miracle that the construction, including the final work on the surrounding land, was completed within 7 months. In November we moved everything to the new premises and since December all mechanical production is running here.

We now have 1,600 m² of space available, so we have sufficient reserve for the future. The factory meets the most modern requirements. Among other things, there is an air conditioning system that keeps the internal temperature in the production area within the range of +/-3 ^oC. This allows us to produce microwave filters and duplexers with an accuracy of thousandths of mm.

The new building is only 1 km away from our headquarters, so there are no logistical problems either. The land on which our new production facility stands is large enough to allow us to expand further if necessary.

We believe that our investment of 2.8 million EUR makes a lot of sense and will soon be visible in the quality and availability of our products.

The M!DGE3 was introduced at the ‘RACOM Partner Meeting’ in Prague in September 2022 and is now officially launched. The firmware of this even more powerful router is based on the RipEX2 radio modem, so it has the same fully responsive web interface. The M!DGE3 provides more interfaces including SFP and only one HW model covers frequency bands worldwide.

M!DGE cellular routers have been on the market since 2012 (M!DGE2 since 2018) and have proven themselves in thousands of industrial installations in dozens of countries around the world. M!DGE together with RipEX radio modems offers an unrivalled solution for combining mobile and licensed UHF/VHF radio in one hybrid network.

M!DGE2 remains in our portfolio and it is up to customers which model they choose. We are confident that the M!DGE3 will be as successful as the previous generation and will soon find its place in the market. The first dozens of M!DGE3 units have already been successfully installed in EVN in Vietnam.

Since February this year, the war in Ukraine, with its associated energy crisis, has affected us. This is hitting the whole of Europe and driving up prices across the board. Inflation in the European Union exceeds 10% (18% in the Czech Republic). All material inputs and operating costs such as electricity, gas, etc. are tens of percent more expensive.

Another, much more serious problem that we have to overcome is the shortage of components of all kinds. Manufacturers are behaving in a completely unpredictable way. It is common for delivery dates that have been confirmed for more than a year to be extended by another year just before delivery, or simply to be announced that the specific part has been discontinued.

Component manufacturers often point to shortages of primary materials such as silicon, tantalum powder, etc. For these reasons, they limit the product range. Therefore, it happens that parts that are not in stock will not be available for a long time. Getting trustworthy information and firm delivery dates is almost impossible today.

There is no choice but to buy on the open market at the last minute with all the risks described in our news ‘Fake components’. Unfortunately, the situation on the open market has also gotten much worse. Manufacturers are hardly able to supply their direct customers, distributors’ warehouses are empty for a long time. A year ago, it was still possible to find parts in quantities of thousands, today it is difficult to find them in tens of pieces, regardless of price.

Thanks to RACOM’s in-house development and production, we can respond in part by replacing missing components where possible. This is usually not done without redesigning PCB boards and time-consuming testing. Since our products have superior technical parameters due to, among other things, the use of specific types of components and chips, replacement is often not possible.

Thanks to the experience and enormous efforts of our staff, we manage to keep our production running and deliver our products on acceptable dates at fair prices. We hope that we can continue to do so and that the situation will gradually improve.

We apologize in advance for any problems. However, you can see from the above examples that reputable manufacturers are not having an easy time of it today.

This year’s meeting was held in the beautiful refectory of the Dominican Monastery in Prague. After hearing a short organ concert in the adjacent St. Giles Church, we took a historic tram to the second part of the program in the Strahov Monastery brewery. After dinner, we enjoyed a walk along the Royal Route through Prague at night via Hradčany and Charles Bridge to Old Town Square, where the participants were accommodated.

During the official part of the program, in addition to news in all our product lines — Radio modems, Cellular routers and Microwave links, we introduced the new members of our management team who are participating in leading the company in the direction set by its founders in 1989.

Lunch was followed by presentations of our projects given in an unusual interview format. In a relaxed atmosphere, the participants learned how RACOM contributed to a wedding in Mexico, or how our partners from Norway were surprised that we refused to sell them one of our first radio modems in 1998 without training, even though they had personally come for it.

The afternoon and evening continued in an informal atmosphere, with partners exchanging experiences with each other and taking advantage of the presence of RACOM development staff to get information directly from our kitchen. The expert discussions continued during the Friday workshops.

On the occasion of the installation of the 10,000th RipEX radio modem in the CFE network in Mexico, our partner Solstand received an jubilee piece of RipEX in the form of a cake.

Most of the participants, especially who came from far away (New Zealand, Australia, Philippines, Colombia, Peru…), took advantage of our offer to attend the training and tour our production facilities, spending the whole week in the Czech Republic.

Many thanks to all our partners for their participation and we look forward to the next meeting.