Suez Canal Trades Up to Entel HT640
Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority (SCA) has just announced the purchase of almost 300 Entel HT640 VHF marine portables, to help manage this strategic trade route of international importance.
The SCA is responsible for the management, operation and maintenance of this waterway, along its entire 193 kilometre length and acquired the submersible HT640s via a locally-based Entel representative. The canal, which was first excavated by the French engineer, Ferdinand de Lesseps, 140 years ago, allows international shipping to pass from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean, without the need to sail around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope, cutting the cost of goods and materials worldwide.
With more than 18,000 vessels passing through the canal annually, co-ordination is the key to vessel safety and operational efficiency. Three convoys of ships pass through the canal each day, so the Suez Canal Authority rightly demands radio communications it can rely on, day in, day out, in all conditions.
The specification laid down by the SCA’s communications office insisted that this was no job for a lightweight leisure marine VHF radio, of the kind that saturate the market but fail and corrode quickly in the tougher, more demanding, commercial environment.
With its proven track record, the submersible Entel HT640, rather like the Suez Canal itself, is a feat of engineering that has stood the test of time. With its robust, commercial grade design, as well as its Lithium-Ion batteries delivering a 14 hour duty cycle, communications between vessels and their escorts need never fail, no matter how remote the location. Little wonder, then, that the HT640 has become the SCA’s portable radio of choice over the years, culminating in this latest order. We think Ferdinand de Lesseps would approve too.
