It’s time to run – the pager’s gone off, calling the dedicated volunteer fromtheir work or bed. Mairéad Dwane discovers the technology behind the drama

RNLI crew members, shore helpers, launching authorities, medical advisers and even some press offi cers carry pagers to alert them to an emergency. This communications nervous system connects lifeboat stations to the waistbands of more than 4,000 volunteers, and the heart of Yorkshire to your computer desktop.

The RNLI has used pagers to alert its people for more than 20 years, using a wide variety of systems run by different operators in diverse locations. In 1998 the charity decided that a single, RNLI-dedicated paging system was required for consistency and reliability. The main contractor was ntl, now called Arqiva. It worked with Hampshire-based Multitone, which had had great success with similar systems for the fi re service, to develop the project. After an unexpected delay caused by the disastrous foot and mouth epidemic, and the all-too-expected delays of planning applications, the system was fi nally set up for an initial cost of £10M, and that same system is still in use today.

Launch request

At the first sign of someone in trouble on the water, the Coastguard sends a message to the appropriate station’s lifeboat operations manager (LOM) or deputy launching authority (DLA) requesting assistance. The LOM or DLA phones back to discuss the situation and, if a lifeboat launch is required, pages the crew. He or she can do this by entering a two-digit code over the telephone or from a computer, or by pressing a button on the system’s base unit if they happen to be at the lifeboat station. The station’s transmitter broadcasts to its general area, where it is picked up by a more powerful transmitter on a ‘hilltop’ site. This is not necessarily actually on a hill – Kilkeel’s site is on the roof of a bakery, while Poole’s is atop the RNLI’s Headquarters building.

The signal from the hilltop site will be picked up by pager bearers all over the lifeboat station’s catchment area. Depending on what code their LOM or DLA has keyed in, they will see on the display: ‘LAUNCH ALB’, ‘LAUNCH ILB’, or ‘ASSEMBLE AT STATION’, accompanied by an urgent, high-pitched tone. Guaranteed to catch a crew member’s attention this also lets their colleagues know why they are legging it out of work without a time-consuming explanation! (Crews can also be sent less urgent messages, such as the cancellation of a training session, through their pagers, accompanied by a deeper, less demanding tone in the newest model.)

Some locations need an extra boost to their transmissions to ensure everyone gets the message. Topography, geology and building materials play a part – the system hates granite. Repeaters (transmitters about the size of a box fi le that can be plugged into a regular socket) are used to target such black spots. Particularly diffi cult terrain in the Exmouth area requires two repeaters – one on the Royal Marines’ rifl e range and one at the local croquet club. RNLI kit can also be found on a golf course in Tobermory, in a castle in Glamorgan (pictured), and at a nursing home in Lyme Regis