If you told someone you had registered for an Ourea Event, you would then have to explain that you were off to one of the remotest parts of the country, traversing some of the harshest mountain terrain over the course of several days.
Taking part is one thing. The orchestration and supervision of endurance races in isolated regions is quite another, but reason enough for Race Director, Shane Ohly, to feel the need for a set of ICOM SAT100 Push-To-Talk (PTT) Radios, supplied by Global Telesat Communications.
The Challenge | Guaranteed Communications for Safety
“As the organiser of some of the world’s toughest and most complex mountain running events,” says Shane, “I needed a guaranteed communications solution to talk with remotely-deployed safety teams.”
The SAT100 PTT radios run on the Iridium satellite network meaning they offer high-quality levels of communication in areas where coverage is limited or does not exist. So in places like the Welsh mountains, these devices were ideal.
At the push of a button, low-latency communication is achieved in real-time. Each device comes with a built-in emergency button that lets the carrier transmit an important alert to a group of pre-configured users.
The Solution | Global PTT Functionality
According to Shane, the ICOM SAT100 radios “filled the gaps we had in our communications plan” by connecting their safety teams to race control hub. In the event of a competitor suffering an injury, the situation can be transmitted back to race headquarters once the safety team are on location.
The SAT100 opened up communication opportunities to even the most off-grid regions, and the PTT functionality from one-to-many individuals was one of the features that Shane praised.
Due to their ruggedised housing, the SAT100 radios are made for outdoor, unpredictable environments. They’re dust-tight and waterproof which means they are even more at home at an Ourea Event.
