The Customer

The Police in the Eastern Caribbean country of Grenada were left without communication when Hurricane Ivan brought 220kmh winds to the island in September 2004.

The Challenge

Two-thirds of Grenada residents were left homeless by the disaster and Police mobile communication was urgently required to co-ordinate emergency relief and enforce a dusk-to-dawn curfew to prevent looting. Virtually all power lines were down and all communication links destroyed.

Mobile & Marine (M&M) Systems, the Tait dealer in neighbouring Barbados, was urgently asked to provide temporary Police communications.

Within 24 hours M&M had programmed radios, flown a staff member to Grenada who liaised with the Police, and had a temporary system in place.

The Solution

A 25W Tait portable repeater was installed at the Police headquarters on a hill above the capital city. A Tait mobile was installed as a base radio at the main Grenada airport, and Police were issued with Tait portables.

The portable repeater operated on its built-in battery for more than 24 hours until a generator was found. Until power was restored the portable radio chargers were connected to 12V car batteries salvaged from vehicles destroyed by the hurricane. Placing a portable repeater on a high site is an effective way of quickly creating communications following an emergency.

"In emergency situations the Tait portable base station/repeater is a logical choice," says William Burton from M&M. "The base station is light, robust and water resistant, and the internal batteries make it a self contained unit. The Tait terminals also stood up well to use in a very demanding environment, and the power save function in the Tait portables maximised shift life for the batteries."

For more information

Tait P25 portables

Public Safety organisations around the world rely on Tait's P25 portables for critical communications.