Surf Life Saving rolling out digital radios

[crafty]

A story in our local paper about Surf Life Saving rolling out digital radios:
http://www.coffscoastadvocate.com.au/ne ... s/3086955/

SURF life saving clubs on the Coffs Coast will have improved capabilities in emergency callouts with new, state-of-the-art radios.
The 12 Hytera digital radios, worth $10,800, will be used on the Surf Life Saving NSW network.
Coffs-Clarence LAC crime manager, Detective Inspector Darren Jameson, applied for a grant to fund the new radios from the Minister of Police and Emergency Services, Troy Grant.
"It is important for surf life saving to continually improve their capabilities in search and rescue, and other emergency response incidents,” Det Insp Jameson said.
"The police are using surf life saving's emergency response system more and more, and these new digital radios provide stronger communications for surf life saving, which will enhance their capabilities to work alongside the NSW Police Force.”
Det Insp Jameson and Coffs Harbour MP Andrew Fraser presented the new radios to Surf Life Saving North Coast vice-president Paul Ninness today.
The three-to-five-watt radios are a big improvement from the previous one-watt devices used by local surf lifesavers.
Mr Ninness said the radios provided a stronger, more consistent signal and had built-in GPS tracking.
"This is a new generation for us to increase our capability of working with other emergency services as well as between ourselves,” he said.
"The one-watt radios very much operate in line of sight, so if you went around a headland or something like that, the signal could fall out, which in some circumstances could be catastrophic.
"With the support of the LAC and the NSW Government, we're able to do our job a lot more efficiently and safely.”
Mr Fraser said he was pleased to provide local surf lifesavers with a better communication strategy.
"Surf clubs on the North Coast do a fantastic job assisting the police in search and rescue, but they also do a great job on the beach when people are in danger,” Mr Fraser said.
"They're the ones who go out and save people from rips, they're the ones that do all the hard work, and they're pretty well unsung heroes who don't get a lot of assistance normally.”

Cheers Allison

[Bigfella237]

If they really wanted "to increase our capability of working with other emergency services" they would've gone to the GRN so they had interoperability with everybody else instead of wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars rolling-out their own network.

Andrew

[Garry]

keep in mind, GRN doesn't go any further north along the coast than southern Taree, (Cabbage Tree)

[cartman]

No GRN on the North Coast. Nothing past about Bulahdelah

[citabria]

How do digital radios help?

*confused*

[Bigfella237]

keep in mind, GRN doesn't go any further north along the coast than southern Taree, (Cabbage Tree)

Yeah sorry, I forgot about that. Even with that being the case, they would've been better spending the money on P25 gear that could liaise with the NSWPF and/or GRN when it does finally get up there?

Andrew

[cartman]

The police on the north coast are encrypted - nobody can liaise with them
P25 radios are three to four times more expensive than the DMR radios
They seem to be fit for purpose.
Who knows when the GRN is coming?

[Scotty]

The police on the north coast are encrypted - nobody can liaise with them
P25 radios are three to four times more expensive than the DMR radios
They seem to be fit for purpose.

I agree - why pay around $5000-$6000 per P25 portable radio when then can get 5-6 of these DMR radios for that same price and still meet their brief? Would seem a poor use of limited funds, especially when they wouldn't have access to the police P25 network and would get no to limited benefit from a wide area trunked network (such as the GRN) if that ever arrived.

I took their comments about 'increased capability' to refer to the extra coverage they now have, not that they will be using the radios to physically talk with other emergency services.

Im guessing the frequency range of the radios still gives them access to the simplex analog ESO AIR channel etc, which is likely all they need.

[cartman]

The Sydney region life saving digital network has been fast forwarded for commissioning to this month (November 2016). As many may know the NSW life saving organisation covers the Northern Beaches and the Sydney Life Saving covers the southern beaches. NSW has asked Sydney to bring it forward by 6 months.

http://surflifesavingsydney.com.au/wp-c ... pgrade.pdf

http://surflifesavingsydney.com.au/wp-c ... 6-2017.pdf

[Longreach]

Im guessing the frequency range of the radios still gives them access to the simplex analog ESO AIR channel etc, which is likely all they need.

I cannot fathom why they would ever need access to ESO channels anyway, If the situation arose that someone would be guiding a chopper in i'd say that would be the task of the senior NSWA person on scene.