Aeroflex Inc. in Wichita, Kan., is offering a TETRA energy economy mode (EEM) option for the Aeroflex 3900 series analog and digital radio test sets. The new TETRA EEM option enables more flexible battery-life testing for developers, operators, and users of TETRA handheld mobile radios who need to prove their design and quantify or qualify battery-life performance claims. The new option will enable Aeroflex 3900 series users to configure battery test scenarios that simulate particular operational conditions. Additionally, it will provide the testing flexibility to characterize the expected battery life performance when the device is in use on the network. Even in idle mode, a TETRA mobile station must monitor the infrastructure to detect signaling information-such as a new incoming call-transmitted by the base station. This constant monitoring by the mobile radio uses energy and degrades the battery life, even though messages to the handset may occur infrequently. The EEM procedure is a method of conserving energy while in idle mode. EEM works by assigning the mobile radio to an energy economy group, which tells it how long it can “go to sleep” between times it must monitor the messages from the base station. By testing the energy economy mode, one can determine if the protocol has been implemented properly and also test the effect the economy mode has on power consumption and battery life. The testing parameters include the energy economy group and the quantity of signaling activity-for instance anything that causes the mobile station to temporarily suspend the sleeping cycles. Whenever the TETRA mobile station receives a signaling message, it will temporarily suspend its sleeping cycle until it sends its last signaling message. Therefore, the more signaling messages it receives, the more times its sleep is interrupted. For more information contact Aeroflex online at www.aeroflex.com.