© Jazztech Solutions Ltd 1998-2011 All Rights Reserved Registered in England: 3626557 VAT No. 716 6271 34 TETRA Land Mobile Technical Sales Training Needs Projects e-learning Contact About Training Putting ourselves in your position We are often asked about coverage. It’s a big concern for police officers and rescuers, whose lives can depend on their radios – especially if they work in remote, rural areas. They need to know about any patchy coverage, and how to use fallback procedures if they can’t get a signal. RF teams can predict conditions where radios will normally work, but it’s the abnormal conditions that preoccupy us. We like to be absolutely sure, because emergencies always happen wherever you least wish they would. Recently, for a course in Ireland, we needed to know the coverage at the top of a mountain. No one could tell us, because no one had been able to find out; there wasn’t even a proper road. Our project manager decided that there was only one way to be sure. He’d brought his trusty Land Rover with him for the project, and, luckily, had a Land Rover certificate in advanced driving. (He was going to need it). His map showed a “P” at the summit, so he reckoned that if you could park there, just how hard could it be? And, let’s not forget. He’d once seen Jeremy Clarkson do a similar thing on “Top Gear”. When he let the local station know he was going up the mountain, the sergeant didn’t stop laughing for quite a long time. The course delegates were of the same opinion: it was too funny for words, it couldn’t be done - there was “absolutely no way”. Perhaps for the craic they dared him a little bit, and wished him luck, and said they’d like to see the photos. We think the pictures speak volumes. We can't say the drive was easy. And we can’t say it should be undertaken lightly. You need proper training, and total command of an all- terrain vehicle. And you shouldn’t do it anyway, unless you have a very good reason. What we can say for certain is this: there IS sufficient radio coverage at the top of MacGillycuddy’s Reeks. (We can also say that the "P" on the map turned out to be a picnic area, not parking.) We like to go further for our clients, in view of the jobs they do. We leave as little as possible to chance, and make sure we tell it the way it really is, not the way it might seem from the brochure. Emergency training is pointless unless it’s realistic and accurate. At the top of a mountain your radio is not just a radio any more. It’s everything. Don’t worry. As they say in American football: “We’ve got your back”. +44 (0)1522 789960