Search and Rescue Digital Radio Case Studies

Fast deployable communication solutions that underpin successful search and rescue

Search and Rescue (SAR) teams are on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They have a clear mission which is to swiftly recover injured, sick, missing or vulnerable life or even property. When lives are at stake, air, sea and land search and rescue teams need high quality, robust and reliable mission critical communications to enable them to coordinate their activities efficiently and to carry out their missions effectively.

Better Efficiency

Search and rescue operations usually take place in remote rural or coastal areas with patchy mobile phone coverage. Private PMR systems provide reliable communications to support more effective search and recovery operations.

Better Coordination

Two-way communications enable team leaders to better coordinate searches when team members are spread out over a wide area in harsh terrain and challenging weather conditions.

Direct mode operations

Direct mode can be used by search and rescue teams within range of each other if they are in a coverage black spot or beyond main network range.

Improved Audio

Hytera terminals offer advanced noise cancelling technology to provide clear, instant communications in noisy environments, so search and rescue teams can hear each other in bad weather.

Text Messaging

DMR and PoC devices support text messaging, which can be useful for accurate transmission of information such as map coordinates, which might get mis-heard over the voice network.

Enhanced Worker Safety

Radios double-up as an extremely effective safety device to aid search and rescue teams operating in remote locations. If someone gets into trouble, the radios support several potentially lifesaving applications in addition to emergency voice calling.

Instant communications

Instant push-to-talk communications ensure transmissions get through fast to enable a swift response. Time is of the essence when searching for missing or injured persons.

Emergency button

Radios come with an emergency ‘panic’ button, which can be programmed to send an alarm to the command centre and to other radios, along with the person’s ID.

Man Down and Lone Worker

The Man Down alarm is triggered if a user has fallen over and the radio is horizontal. The Lone Worker alarm is sent if the radio is inactive beyond a set time.

GPS location services

The GPS location application in the radio is a key feature as it allows rescue coordinators to see where each team member is located across the search area.

Improved Connectivity

Digital two-way radios solutions provide better connectivity especially at the edge of the cell than analogue solutions, along with the ability to create ad hoc networks in remote areas.

Resilient Communications

Some mountain rescue organisations install a PMR network to provide reliable coverage across their search area. Vehicle-mounted mobile radios/repeaters can be deployed to provide additional capacity and infill coverage.

Mobile Networks

Mobile PMR can be deployed using a Hytera RD965 man-portable outdoor repeater or man-portable E-packs can be used to create an ad hoc mesh network in signal black spots.

Security

Radios support several levels of encryption, which may be needed especially when conducting searches of a sensitive nature, such as for missing persons.

Robust Devices

Hytera offers military grade PMR and PoC terminals capable of operating in harsh environments. Devices are able to withstand drops, shock, vibration, extreme temperatures, dust, dirt and water ingress.