One of the repeaters is located near Cadair Idris. Photo: Aberdyfi SRT

The Snowdonia Rescue Team is introducing a new radio system, hoping to improve communication during large-scale calls.

Members of the Aberdyfi search and rescue team took part in a test of the digital VHF system on Cadair Idris earlier this month, a site where rescuers regularly call.

Chris Dunn, a team volunteer who has been leading the implementation of the new system, said: "On a very simple level, the tasks performed by the new digital mobile phone are roughly the same as our old analog radio.

"However, once you introduce a repeater network, the real magic of the system will begin to appear. Analog VHF phones work on a line-of-sight basis, and their range may be greatly restricted in mountainous areas.

"Digital signals can be transmitted through the Internet, so if a digital mobile phone can contact a repeater that supports the Internet, then it can communicate with any other mobile phone that is connected to any other repeater. Effectively, we should be able to achieve Full communication from side to side will be a huge boost when we are doing large-scale operations on the mountain."

The team stated that a lot of work was done behind the scenes to calculate the position of the repeater to maximize the radio coverage, while trying to keep the number of expensive repeater sites to a minimum. During the test, the members used some temporary repeater masts and a large number of people scattered on the mountain to test the coverage theory.

It said that the final figures are still being processed, but Mr. Dunn said he was very encouraged by the experiment. "The coverage forecast seems to be correct, which is great. If anything, it is better than expected; we reported on some very notorious VHF black spots on the mountain.

"We should mention again that these large-scale improvements in our communications would not have been possible without the generous donations of charitable funds related to Tywyn Co-op and HF Holidays, and we are very grateful for their support."

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