2 Way Radio communication for Outdoor Events and Education can be challenging given the remoteness of the events. With Nationwide PTT Radios from iPTT we can help with that too.

If you’re wanting to complete the three lakes challenge, you need to be able to communicate with the base, amongst the team and track the progress. The three lakes challenge is 43 miles canoe challenge – you can read more by clicking here.

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DMR Radios and License Free (446) Radios can provide the back to back communication capability, but won’t be able to give you communication back to base nor live GPS tracking (without a very expensive system).

So Environmental Therapy went searching for the right solution.

License Free (446) Radios only have a range of approx. 1 mile (on a good day), so that won’t work. For DMR hand portable radios to be able to communicate back to base (and provide live GPS tracking), would require repeaters being installed across the entire route (plus various software). The cost of DMR infrastructure is therefore prohibitive (before considering installation, providing power to a repeater on the top of a hill etc.).

Satellite Phones was another option, but satellite phone handsets are very expensive and the cost of calls is £1 per minute. However, satellite phones need clear line of sight to the sky, which would prove a problem in valleys and forests. Finally, there’s no GPS tracking available for satellite phones, leaving base in the dark as to the whereabouts of a group, should an incident occur.

 

Which solution covers 97% of the UK at affordable prices?

After vigorous testing Environment Therapy decided on iPTT PTT over Cellular radios, which provide the coverage required for the outdoor activity teams as well as communication between the teams in the field and the control room. Furthermore, the Control Room can see the whereabouts of each team, given the live GPS capability of iPTT’s Nationwide PTT Radios.

We solved the communication part of that challenge but we left the Environmental Therapy team to complete the challenge. You can read the full story by clicking here.

If you’re interested in more information about how PTT over cellular from iPTT and our partners help various organisations with long range communication, please call iPTT, email iPTT or get in touch