Wireless in the wilderness

Nestled alongside Lake Rotoiti on New Zealand’s South Island’s Nelson Lakes National Park, the Rotoiti Lodge Outdoor Education Centre has challenged, developed and inspired school students for almost half a century.

The lodge hosts 1200–1400 school students per year, introducing them to many different physical and personal challenges in some of the country’s most stunning landscapes.

Coming largely from the upper South Island and Wellington regions, students get to experience such activities as high ropes courses, overnight camps, canoeing and high-altitude alpine camping.

A challenging landscape and large groups of students mean consistent levels of communications between lodge staff and teachers are required.

For the past 15 years the lodge has used reliable, robust and simple analog two-way radio handsets and base stations for communications — their functionality was well proven and they were simple for students and teachers to use.

However, lodge director Russell Ferens recognised how digital technology developments were providing greater capabilities than those possible with analog technology.

Groups and supervisors would benefit from having access to GPS tracking, text weather updates, private call ability and mapping data — all of which could provide valuable safety and planning information.

“We had dealt with Nelspecs in Nelson for over 10 years and we valued their advice on comms,” said Ferens. “We had considered a few options to pursue, including using technology like SPOT as a backup. However, the subscription fee was payable in US dollars and we wanted access to more information with radios.”

Satellite phones were also expensive to buy and make calls from. They offered limited use in heavy rainfall or snow storms, and require certain amounts of clear sky space to operate effectively.

“It soon became apparent to us the digital Hytera digital VHF radios … from Nelspecs had offered the best bang for our buck.”

The equipment settled upon comprised ten, 10 W Hytera VHF digital handhelds, one 25 W base station, one 25 W vehicle-installed mobile unit and a computer with Smart Dispatch software installed. Smart Dispatch records all conversations onto a 2 TB hard drive.

Safety first

The radios’ capabilities ticked all the boxes for the lodge’s safety and information requirements:

• GPS technology provides tracking, logging and location capability.
• Text capacity means weather information can be cut and pasted from the Met Service site and sent to all parties in the field; major shifts in the mountains’ weather patterns are not uncommon, so the ability to update groups quickly was a welcome feature.
• The Hytera’s ability to use side-channel capabilities to host one-to-one conversations between specific handsets without changing channels was also valuable for staff and teachers.

“We needed the ability to hold private conversations with individual leaders if there was a child in stress, or an incident,” said Ferens. “Isolating the conversation reduces the stress throughout the other groups and ensures we can just focus on getting the correct information and minimising misunderstandings across the entire group about the incident.”

Importantly, the ability of the Hytera system to accept bespoke software meant Nelspecs technicians were able to incorporate digitised mapping developed especially for the lodge’s needs. This in turn is overlaid onto Google Earth, enabling clear, precise logging data on group movements and locations.

“The mapping software, linked through GPS, means if there is an incident the base supervisor does not have to spend time trying to tie down locations,” said Ferens. “[The caller is] already clearly located, so the focus can be on the best way to get help in quickly, if required.”

An emergency call function on all handsets makes the lodge base station ring like a telephone, and if it goes unanswered the system starts calling preset mobile phones with an emergency message.

Ferens says after almost a year of use, visiting groups have had no problems using the technology.

“The majority of our users are visiting school students and staff, unfamiliar with two-way technology,” he said. “I admit I was a bit nervous at first, moving from a simple two-way to a handset with an integrated keypad. However, we can lock off the keypad if not needed, just keeping the keys we do need active.”

Positive feedback

Ferens notes greater confidence in the student guardians, knowing they have a very comprehensive information flow from base about weather and location, and the ability to communicate personally and directly.

“They also love the ‘chirp’ you get when the line is clear. You notice the communication flow is a lot smoother and comprehensive,” he said.

Being IP67 waterproof to 1 metre for 30 minutes is another valuable feature appreciated in the mountain environment, where activities often focus around the lake.

As lodge director, Ferens also has peace of mind when managing staff across the vast area.

“We can send someone out alone, and we require them to enter a code over a specified time so we know they have logged in as being okay,” he said.

Failure to do so activates an emergency call to the lodge base, and real-time GPS data will show exactly where the person is.

“Coverage is very good… helped by the wide open valleys we have, and our line of sight to where groups go,” said Ferens. “However, you could boost it even more with a digital repeater.”

The Hytera handsets also have an analog capability if groups go significantly further afield. Despite GPS not operating via analog, a longitude-latitude coordinate can still be generated.

A year after installation of 10 handsets, a base station and a mobile 25 W unit in the lodge 4WD, Ferens is happy that he has not needed to use the radio’s emergency capabilities.

“These have proven to be very versatile, robust and easy-to-use units,” he said. “They are not necessarily the cheapest, but the peace of mind they give me as director, for my team and for our teacher clients, is worth a lot in terms of less stress.”

Image courtesy Stephen Holdaway under CC