The Netcon PDR 300 is Netcontrol’s next-generation VHF/UHF digital radio for remote monitoring and control applications over large areas.

Transceiver performance and flexibility

Thanks to its outstanding receiver sensitivity and a repeating technology that allows as many as seven hops from radio to radio, the PDR 300 can communicate over very long distances.

The PDR 300 has a wide tuning range and comes into main band options VHF 135…175 MHz and UHF 400…470 MHz. The power output can be set anywhere between 1 mW and 5 W.

The radio offers over-the-air data rates of 4800/9600 bps at 12.5 kHz channel spacing and 19200 bps at 25 kHz. With compression, the effective data rate can be much higher.

Security & reliability

The PDR 300 offers 128 bit XTEA encryption, which makes it much harder for outsiders to listen to or tamper with the radio network. The radio also features forward error correction with bit interleaving to bolster its immunity to interference. This enables it to recover data packets with up to 30% corruption.

Versatile interface and configuration options

The remote IED or RTU can connect to the PDR 300 data radio using either a serial RS-232/RS-485 port or via an Ethernet port.

PDR 121 software

The PDR 121 software makes the Netcon PDR 300 a transparent serial data radio. It routes messages in a given protocol according to the protocol-specific addresses embedded in the messages.

The software supports a wide variety of standard serial protocols: DNP3, IEC 60870-5-101, RP570, COMLI, Modbus, Cooper/PG&E 2179, Telegyr 8979, DCSI, Hunt, Exoline, Cactus, PRIP, Aquacom. It can be configured to route proprietary protocols as well.

Running this software, the PDR 300 is backward-compatible with the PDR 121 v2 and PDR 121 radios.

The PDR 121 software supports up to 6 repeaters, or 8 radios in all, along one radio path.

Software for System NM

The remaining software options are for use in System NM networks and make the Netcon PDR 300 compatible with previous RNI 12, RNO 401 and RNO 501 radios.

System NM consists of a central radio network concentrator, the NM-CCU, usually having an RNI 12 radio, and a number of remote RNO radios, integrated into remote switches, reclosers or circuit breakers. What makes the system efficient is event driven communications.

The System NM software options below support up to 4 repeaters (6 radios) per path.

RNI 12: pure System NM radio – This software speaks System NM, with no protocol conversions. It is therefore used in the central NM-CCU, which can itself convert protocols to talk with the SCADA, or in legacy System NM remote devices (those with the “T1” or “T20” panel).

RNO 501: System NM/DNP3 radio – This software is designed for connecting a DNP3-protocol RTU/IED to a System NM network.

RNO 401: System NM with tunnelled DNP3 – A radio with the RNO 401 software can be used in the NM CCU to embed messages from the SCADA in System NM messages and then to send them to the addressed remote radios, also running RNO 401, via any configured repeaters.