Spokane Valley-based contract manufacturer Servatron Inc. has been making products for other companies since 2000.

Now, the company's principals—Tod Byers, John Muskulin, and Keith Swenson—and three key employees have come up with a product of their own: ClearRF, a wireless-phone signal amplifier that's intended to provide a consistent signal and prevent dropped calls, especially in areas with unpredictable cell coverage.

Byers, president of Servatron, says the group has created a new company, ClearRF LLC, to commercialize the product. After 18 months in product development and pilot programs, the company received Federal Communications Commission approval of the device late last year. Servatron made the first 250 ClearRF units earlier this year, and the young company has begun marketing them for sale.

That additional work for Servatron is one of the primary reasons the company's owners wanted to develop a product they could sell themselves.

"It gives us another product to build," Byers says. "It lets us put our own gas in the tank."

Operating out of Servatron's 61,000-square-foot Spokane Valley facility, at 15520 E. Fairview, ClearRF currently doesn't have any dedicated employees. The six owners are splitting time between the new venture and their conventional duties at Servatron, Byers says. The goal, he says, is to sell 1,000 units this year and possibly to begin hiring dedicated staff in the first quarter of 2012.

Tom Vietri, vice president of sales for Servatron and a principal in ClearRF, says signal amplifiers are sold both to businesses and to consumers. A number of other signal-amplifier products already are on the market, he says.

In this early stage, the company has been successful in converting some of the participants in its pilot program into customers, Vietri says. Those first customers include Spokane-based Avista Corp., the Idaho Department of Transportation, and Idaho Power Co., of Boise.

Those customers all operate vehicle fleets that in many cases must work in remote areas where cell coverage is unstable, Vietri says, and the ClearRF device, also known as a range extender, allows them to receive a stronger signal in some of those remote areas. He notes, however, that the device doesn't provide cell service in areas where there's no signal at all.

A tad larger than an iPhone but small enough to fit in a grown man's hand, the ClearRF device has a power adapter that plugs into a standard in-car cigarette lighter and can be mounted on a dashboard or on a center console.

Byers says companies and public agencies that manage vehicle fleets are a potential customer base for ClearRF, especially those who work in rural areas. More frequently, Vietri says, such companies are relying on cell phones for communication and moving away from the CB radios that once were standard in many commercial vehicles.

Another business application for ClearRF is what Vietri refers to as the machine-to-machine market, in which machines use wireless communications to transmit information to one another. A common example, he says, is a home security system that uses wireless communication to alert the provider—and potentially local law enforcement agencies—when a security breach occurs. A signal amplifier can allow a security company to provide service to remote areas where they otherwise couldn't provide coverage due to unreliable cell service.

ClearRF also will be sold in retail stores for consumer use, either at home or in a vehicle. Byers says Aspen Sound has agreed to start carrying the ClearRF product, and the company is talking with other local retailers as well. The product also is currently being sold on ClearRF's website. The retail price is $349.99.

The RF in the ClearRF name stands for radio frequency, and Vietri says the founders decided to pursue development of this product because of Servatron's experience in manufacturing products that incorporate radio-frequency, or wireless communication, technology.

"There are nuances with RF manufacturing, and it's a niche Servatron is good at," he says.

Founded in 2000, Servatron is a spinoff of Itron Inc., the Liberty Lake-based maker of automated meter-reading technology. The contract manufacturer has diversified since the spinoff, Byers says, but Itron remains its largest customer. In addition to Itron, the company makes products for customers involved in energy, military, and emerging technologies.

Servatron is anticipating $25 million in sales this year, up slightly from $24 million last year. If its projections are realized, Byers says it will be the second year in a row the company's revenues have increased following a dramatic decline in 2009, when revenues fell to $21 million from a company record of $42 million in 2008.

Servatron currently employs 140 people. At its peak in 2008, it had about 200 employees.