Good communications is vital to every mountain rescue operation – whether between the team incident controller (be that the team leader or delegated personnel) and his or her team members, between the team members on the hill expediting a rescue, or between the team and the emergency services. Once at an incident or training exercise, teams use a two way VHF radio system to communicate.

The system allows all parties involved to talk to each other and to other resources such as ambulances and helicopters. Many teams – especially those with an extensive operational patch – have a designated 'Control' vehicle, kitted out with comms equipment, maps and GPS tracking facilities, which can be driven close to the scene of the incident and set up as a mobile resource.

Recent years have seen the development of GPS tracking, which enables rescue teams not only to manage their searches or plot the whereabouts of a casualty more efficiently, but to track the movements of their team members and the casualty party, on the hill and throughout the rescue.

To allow the team to provide an effective search and rescue services we are looking to replace some of our older radios with new ones fitted with GPS.

If you would like to contribute towards this replacement radio project, please contact us.