St John Ambulance upgrades to Simoco P25

St John Ambulance in Australia is replacing its ageing UHF portable and mobile radios with a customised P25 solution from Simoco Group.

More than 200 P25-ready SRP9170 portables and SRM9030 mobile radios have already been installed, with another 500+ to be replaced as a result of the ACMA 400 MHz band review.

The radios are a critical part of the St John National Communications (Natcomms) Plan, a nationwide interoperable communications framework which supports volunteer first aid and health services at local events, mass gatherings and during emergencies.

The Natcomms Plan, which was established in 2008, includes a standard national radio-frequency allocation, call-sign structure and call-taking and dispatch system.

The Simoco P25 portables, designed specifically to address St John Ambulance requirements, feature customised St John Ambulance branding, custom asset engraving and a continuous rotating knob for simplified channel selection.

Importantly, the TU frequency band (400-480 MHz) in both the SRP9170 and SRM9030 radios cover the full range of St John Natcomms UHF channels. More than 10,000 St John volunteer first aiders, nurses, paramedics and doctors across Australia will benefit from using the terminals.

“After field trialling Simoco’s portable radios, it was evident the technology would be the most suitable replacement for our redundant UHF portable radios,” said Peter Mill, a senior St John volunteer and network architect for Natcomms .

“Simoco successfully met our technical specification and operating requirements, including frequency range, channel capacity and provision of a fully rotating channel switch, plus custom artwork and engraving,” added Mill.

“Now fully operational, we are confident that our thousands of volunteers are well equipped to deliver a first-class first aid service.”

Active for over 130 years, St John Ambulance in Australia is a self-funding, charitable organisation active in all states and territories. It is the country’s largest provider of first aid services, training and equipment. Last year alone, the organisation’s first aiders and health professionals provided more than 4 million hours of services at events and during emergencies around Australia.

The Simoco radios run on the St John networks in each state, with the capability to operate on government radio networks which operate through interlinked sites for government and public services such as police, ambulance and fire and enable statewide trunked radio communication.

The SRP9170 portable radios are supplied with remote speaker microphones and SRM9030 mobile radios are installed in fleet vehicles, many combining a dual UHF-VHF transceiver through the DMAP Option Board to a single head.

“The charitable organisation is regularly relied upon to provide efficient first aid and health services in a range of scenarios,” said Robert Meachem, general manager at Simoco Australasia. “With Simoco’s P25 radios, St John volunteers now have better communications tools to provide these life-saving services.”