Tonight team member Steve Fletcher attended a meeting in Preston in his capacity as Equipment Officer (Communications & Lighting). The meeting was chaired by Mid-Pennine Search & Rescue Organisation (MPSRO) ICT officer Iain Nicholson.

The meeting was attended by representatives from Bolton MRT, Bowland Pennine MRT and Rossendale & Pendle MRT, with input from Chris Shuttleworth from the Lancashire Resilience Forum on the future of emergency services communications, Rob Brookes (not quite retired from Lake District mountain rescue) on digital mobile radio, and from Iain Nicholson on potential changes to the UK Search & Rescue radio bandplan.

The meeting generated some thoughtful discussion and served to guide us the future path of mountain rescue communications.  Despite a gathering of rough & tumble mountain rescue types who are not normally noted for their ICT proficiency, the beards in the room failed to spontaneously combust!

Thanks are expressed to Rob Brookes and Chris Shuttleworth for making the journey to give their presentations, to Iain Nicholson for chairing the meeting, and to Simon Harris (of Bowland Pennine MRT) for lending the use of his company premises for the evening.