I was asked today by a student why it was we still used handheld radios, in a time when mobile phones are everywhere.
It got me thinking, here I am with the latest mobile technology in my pocket, I can check my email, Facebook, Ebay and all other sites with the flick of a pointer finger. I can call, with crystal clarity to one of my colleagues on speed dial, and likewise, summon assistance from the Ambulance, Fire and Police if needed. I have an Ap that acts as a metronome for CPR (I use it for training), and of course, the good old British Red Cross First Aid Ap is there too.
But, there are still parts of the UK with no mobile coverage - I should know, one such place is my living room!
Our training exercises for Emergencies often simulate a crashed car, or downed aircraft in remote places, or perhaps a missing person in the hills of Wales... again, like my living room, there's little or no signal.
This is because the signal isn't strong enough, we're too far away from the antenna, or the geography is blocking the line of sight, it's frustrating.
But similar outages occur during major incidents too - the mobile networks become blocked as the closest antenna has to deal with thousands upon thousands of instantaneous requests to connect.
A power failure results in Mobile Repeater stations going onto their generator setup if it has one, and then falling onto battery UPS, and when that runs flat, all coverage drops. You can expect during a major incident, the local authority will authorise the closure of communications, bar those essential for emergency communication - to which, we are not privy.
So, we have handheld radios. They are secure, with ability to encrypt the signal on some obscure frequency, and have a pretty decent range. The communication is often quicker, and more direct, and of course, all parties can get a message as oppose to just the person your calling.
But we also maintain a pretty cool communications system that we've had for some time, and that's satellite phones.
In our Emergency box, we can instantly find the communications satellite from the portable dish, and connect via satellite, calling around the globe in real time. Sat phone to Sat phone is ultra reliable, taking its power source from its own battery, or vehicle hook up, or even from Solar if things are real bad, and the satellites, which are self powering, are mostly unaffected by worldly events.
It is plausible to imagine a time though where even this form of communication can go down, either by choice, or circumstance, and this again is where our trusty handheld radios come into play.
So, why do we still use handheld radios? See above!
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