Legacy System Support · Sacramento
Comtech Communications Model 10
Service & Replacement
Comtech Communications — the Sacramento-based fire station alerting manufacturer behind the Model 10 tone/voice alerting system and the Channel Marker accessory for Motorola CentraCom II Plus and Gold Elite radio consoles — has been out of business for years. Fireside Security still supports agencies running legacy Comtech gear and cuts stations over to a modern, CSFM-listed platform when parts run out.
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Tell us about the site — a specialist replies with pricing and a permit path within one business day.
Who was Comtech Communications?
Comtech Communications was a Sacramento, California manufacturer and integrator of fire station alerting systems and radio-console accessories. Their flagship Comtech Model 10 Fire Station Alerting System was deployed in fire stations across Northern California and the western U.S. from the late 1980s through the 2000s. They also produced the Channel Marker, a small circuit board that beeped over a trunked radio channel during special-event operations on Motorola CentraCom II Plus and Gold Elite dispatch consoles.
The company has been out of business for years. Manuals, spare cards, and factory support are effectively unavailable. If your agency still runs a Model 10, you are on borrowed time — and Fireside is one of the few California C-10 integrators still actively troubleshooting and replacing this equipment.
Legacy equipment we service
- Comtech Model 10 fire station alerting system
- Comtech tone / voice alerting encoders and decoders
- Comtech Channel Marker (CentraCom II Plus / Gold Elite)
- Legacy paging-tone dispatch to dorm and bay speakers
- House-lighting and bay-door contact interfaces
- Turnout timer and station-status displays
- Serial / dry-contact CAD interfaces to older PSAPs
- POTS / analog paging circuits scheduled for sunset
The Phoenix G2 replacement path
For agencies replacing a Comtech Model 10, our default recommendation is the Honeywell / US Digital Designs Phoenix G2 platform. Phoenix G2 is CSFM listed, NFPA 1221 aligned, and covers everything the Model 10 was originally installed to do — plus modern CAD integration (Motorola Flex/PremierOne, CentralSquare, Tyler New World, Hexagon), dorm ramp-up lighting, per-unit zoned voice, and remote health monitoring so IT and the chief see failures before the next call goes out.
We install the Phoenix G2 controller and endpoints in parallel with the existing Comtech gear, verify CAD, radio, and paging paths on the new platform, and cut the station over after-hours with the legacy system kept in place as a temporary fallback until acceptance testing is signed off. Stations stay in service the entire time.
Why Fireside
Fireside Security has operated in California since 1999, with offices in Santa Fe Springs, Hayward, San Mateo, and Sacramento. We are a C-10 licensed low-voltage contractor, UL Listed for central-station monitoring, and authorized integrator for the Phoenix G2 platform. If you inherited a Comtech Model 10 and don't know who to call — call us.
FAQ
Comtech legacy questions
- Is Comtech Communications still in business?
- No. Comtech Communications, the Sacramento-area fire station alerting manufacturer behind the Model 10 alerting system and the Channel Marker accessory for Motorola CentraCom II Plus and Gold Elite consoles, has been out of business for years. Fireside Security continues to service, troubleshoot, and replace legacy Comtech equipment across California.
- Can you still service my Comtech Model 10 fire station alerting system?
- Yes. We keep a working knowledge base of the Comtech Model 10 tone/voice alerting architecture and can diagnose station-side faults, replace failed cards where surplus parts exist, and plan a phased cutover to a supported platform when parts are no longer available.
- What do you replace Comtech Model 10 with?
- Our primary replacement is the Honeywell / US Digital Designs Phoenix G2 platform — a CSFM-listed, NFPA 1221-aligned IP alerting system with CAD integration, zoned tones and voice, dorm ramp-up lighting, and remote health monitoring. Phoenix G2 addresses the same problems the Model 10 was originally deployed to solve.
- How do you cut over from Comtech to Phoenix G2 without taking the station offline?
- We install the new controller and endpoints in parallel with the existing Comtech gear, verify CAD and paging paths on the new system, then cut the station over after-hours with the legacy system kept as a temporary fallback until acceptance testing is signed off.
- Do you support the Comtech Channel Marker on Motorola CentraCom II Plus / Gold Elite?
- Yes. We understand the Channel Marker's role signaling special-event radio traffic on trunked systems and can keep it running, integrate it into a modern console upgrade, or migrate the function into the replacement platform.
FAQ · Legacy Install & Troubleshooting
Model 10 & Channel Marker install questions
Real-world questions we get from chiefs, IT, and radio techs who inherited Comtech Communications equipment — manuals, wiring, common failures, and what to do when parts run out.
- Where can I find a Comtech Model 10 installation manual or wiring diagram?
- Comtech Communications shut down years ago and no factory manuals are publicly hosted. Fireside keeps field notes on Model 10 wiring — tone/voice cards, dorm speaker circuits, house-lighting and bay-door relay contacts, and the RS-232 CAD serial interface. If you send us a photo of the panel and the equipment room, we can usually tell you what you're looking at and what it's wired to.
- What are the common failure modes on a Comtech Model 10?
- The failures we see most often are: power-supply capacitors drying out, tone-generation cards drifting off frequency, relays sticking on the house-lighting and bay-door outputs, aging RS-232 CAD serial connections going intermittent, and dorm speakers cutting out due to corroded 25V/70V line taps. Any one of these can present as 'the station missed a call' — the root cause is almost always aging hardware.
- Can a Comtech Model 10 still be repaired?
- Sometimes. If the failure is a common part — power supply, relay, speaker line — we can usually repair in place. If a proprietary Comtech card has failed, repair depends on surplus availability, and we'll be honest about the odds. Once two cards are gone, replacement is almost always cheaper than chasing spares.
- How was the Comtech Model 10 typically installed in a fire station?
- The Model 10 was installed as a rack-mounted controller in the equipment or radio room, wired to: (1) the dispatch center via a leased circuit or radio-tone receiver, (2) house speakers on 25V or 70V distributed audio, (3) dorm and bay lighting through dry-contact relays, (4) bay-door and apparatus signaling, and (5) a serial or contact-closure interface to the local CAD. Fireside can trace and document any existing install before a cutover.
- Do you carry spare parts for Comtech Model 10 systems?
- We keep a limited stash of surplus Comtech cards, relays, and dorm-speaker components pulled from decommissioned stations. Availability changes constantly — call us with the card number or a photo and we'll tell you what we have on the shelf.
- How was the Channel Marker wired into a Motorola CentraCom II Plus or Gold Elite console?
- The Channel Marker board was tied into the console's audio path so a short beep played over the selected trunked channel during special-event operations, telling other units to keep the channel clear. Fireside can service the existing wiring, migrate the marker function into a newer console platform, or replicate the behavior on the Phoenix G2 alerting side.
- Our station is still on a leased tone/paging circuit for dispatch — is that a problem?
- Yes, increasingly. Carriers are sunsetting analog leased circuits and POTS lines statewide, which is what many Comtech Model 10 installs still ride on. If your dispatch path relies on a leased tone circuit, plan on migrating to IP dispatch (Phoenix G2 handles this natively) before the carrier forces the cutover.
- Does Fireside serve fire agencies outside Sacramento that inherited Comtech gear?
- Yes. Comtech Model 10 systems were installed in fire stations well beyond Sacramento — throughout Northern California and into other western states. Fireside has offices in Santa Fe Springs, Hayward, San Mateo, and Sacramento, and we service Comtech legacy equipment anywhere in California.
Ready to retire your Comtech Model 10?
Site walk, budgetary pricing, and a phased cutover plan — start with a 30-minute call.