High tech, high complexity communications and systems provide great performance and many benefits, however many field operatives are loathe to use them due to reliability concerns.
With older, cruder communications system it was possible to repair them in the field, or drop back to more basic features. With the complex systems employed in modern operations, and even more so with Rescue Global, the risk of failure that can’t be fixed is a major concern.
To mitigate some of these concerns, they use PACE – standing for
Primary
Alternate
Contingency
Emergency
For the operation in Arizona, the primary comms is UHF radio, alternate is a radio link to aeroplanes and helicopters, and joint contingency/emergency are satellite phones and cellular phones. An explanatory quotation from a path finder is “One is None” – if you don’t have a backup, you might as well not have anything.
A lesson we at ORCHID can learn from this is the importance of reliability over features, at least for people using technology in the field.