Shopwatch Scores Major Success

Leek's Shopwatch scheme scored a major success last week as a suspected shoplifter was arrested after taking booze from the Co-op store on Portland Street, Leek.

Just before lunchtime on Monday, March 7, the Co-op reported a shoplifter who bolted with bottles and other goods.Using the Shopwatch radio, a Motorola GP340 handheld radio, the Co-op alerted the Police, gave out a full description of the offenders and car registration and two men were stopped in Cheddleton and in custody within 15 minutes on the incident.Leek Police inspector Amanda Davies praised the actions of PC Louise Hancock who arrested the men in connection with the thefts.

Town Centre Co-ordinator Mike Cozens said the incident was a victory for the shopwatch scheme."At the moment there are 23 retailers engaged in the scheme. The system has a Motorola Eurobase and 4 stack aerial in the town centre which gives coverage 2 to 3 miles outside the town boundary."

Cresta Critical Radio Communications Part 2

You run a few steps and then dive onto your toboggan. You are immediately in the kamakazi position and picking up speed. Before the first corner you move back on the toboggan so your feet and the knives at the rear of the runners can steer you around the corner. Three corners and you can go forward briefly past the clubhouse before the famous Shuttlecock corner.

This is where your ride can end early in the straw.If you havent raked off enough speed you leave the run like a pip out of a lemon.Once you are through Shuttlecock you can to a degree enjoy the rest of the run before you cross the three red lines at finish where you are at maximum speed some 70 mph 9 inches above the ice. Then it is scrub off speed time until you hit the mats at finish.

You might be quick enough with getting your helmet off to hear the arbeiter call over his Motorola radio, "Run clear". Safety is paramount and the walkie talkies ensure that a rider can be confident that he will not hurtle around a corner and find an obstruction whether that be another rider or as once happened Rudolph!

The Advantages of Walkie Talkies

A walkie-talkie is a hand-held portable, two-way radio transceiver. The first walkie-talkies were developed for military use during World War II, and spread to public safety and eventually commercial and jobsite work after the war. Major characteristics include a half-duplex channel (only one radio transmits at a time, though any number can listen) and a push-to-talk switch that starts transmission. Typical walkie-talkies resemble a telephone handset, possibly slightly larger but still a single unit, with an antenna sticking out of the top. Where a phone's earpiece is only loud enough to be heard by the user, a walkie-talkie's built-in speaker can be heard by the user and those in his immediate vicinity (ear peices are optional!)

If you enjoy outdoor activities, enjoy riding your motorbike at weekends, work at a college or school, perhaps you work in a pub, club? Are you at home caring for a child perhaps? if you answered yes to any of the above then you would find a walkie talkie a very useful gadget. You may also need a walkie talkie if you move around a lot in your job. The benefit over mobile phones is that they are license free and do not have any associated call charges.

Walkie-Talkies are useful for short term events as there are no license fee's required to operate them. They also work back to back so you don't need any fixed repeating equipment.

Maybe now is a good time to think about using Walkie-Talkies for your site wide communications.......?

Cresta Critical Radio Communications

Riding the famous Cresta Run in St Moritz is not where you would expect to find critical radio communications.

When you wait your turn to be called to the start box over the tannoy you have time to think about of speeds reaching 70 to 80 mph down an ice run on a skeleton toboggan head first 9 inches above the ice!Your name is called, you haul your 37kg toboggan to the area marked with a blue line and a wooden barrier in front.

Over the Motorola radio the arbeiter will call your name to Tower. The man before has disappeared down the run, You put your toboggan down and wait for a call over the radio of, "Run clear". Immediately you will hear a bell ding, the arbeiter lifts the barrier and you are ready to launch yourself down the run towards Shuttlecock corner and the end some 1,200 yards away.

Part 2 coming soon....

Walkie Talkies, Camera, Action!

Today's blog entry takes a slightly light hearted approach, but something that thought was highly relative in defining the importance of Walkie Talkie Communications in the film industry.

Back in 2005, filming on "Superman Returns" suffered a slight delay after thieves stole a batch of walkie talkies - and set about impersonating crew members. The mischievous jokers set about saying 'Cut!' and 'Action!' over the walkie talkies, forcing filming on the Bryan Singer-directed comic book adaptation, starring Brandon Routh, to be temporarily stopped.

The pranksters' fake orders were proving dangerous as the movie crew were shooting an action sequence involving a Mustang hurtling down some steps and landing between a gaggle of extras. When the sports car stopped in a dangerous position a couple of times following the shout of 'Cut!', movie bosses decided to stop shooting rather than risk serious injury.

Crew members on the Australian set then changed the radio frequency on their walkie talkies before recommencing the shoot. News of the robbery wasn't reported to police.

Hire vs Purchase

One of the most important questions when it comes to buying new communications equipment is the decision between hire and purchase.

The main benefits of Radio Hire are as follows:

• You get the latest technology
• There is no capital outlay - its a fixed manageable cost that you can stop at anytime
• Repairs are usually included in the price

Even more so, for short term events such as the London 2012 Olympics, the focus on hiring equipment becomes even stronger. On such a large scale event it is imperetive that radio communications ensure the smooth running of the day to day operations. With hire radios supplied by a recognised communications reseller you can be sure that, in the event of equipment failure, you radios will be replaced promptly.

Motorola Digital Radio Success

A well established client in the Construction Industry recently called us to revisit their site in the City of London where they had been hiring walkie-talkie radios for a couple of months. The problem was that over a period of the construction the radio coverage had degraded.

The solution that we tried was to exchange the analogue base station with a new Motorola Mototrbo digital base station keeping the exisiting aerial system and a pair of Motorola DP3400 UHF handheld radios.The coverage in the marginal areas was dramatically improved.

The digital equipment is more expensive but the client is happy to pay more and pleased that he had been hiring and able to upgrade without being left with redundant analogue radios that we have put back into our hire fleet.