Using dPMR puts the French Red Cross at the leading edge of technology without turning their back on their heritage of inclusion. Like the international structures of the Red Cross and Red Crescent the Red Cross takes great pride in its roots, in ground-up growth and training.

The French Red Cross operates, through its staff and volunteers, to bring humanity to those in need. All its areas of operation have a common mission to take charge of wounded victims of warfare, victims of poverty, sick people, children in danger, victims of natural disasters and more. The Red Cross uses high quality equipment to deliver aid through well trained operatives. Very often the French Red Cross will operate alongside public servants in the scope of a rescue plan, working on an as needed basis with emergency medical services and firemen for specific operations that require additional assistance and a fast and specialized response.

Using dPMR the French Red Cross radio system has 160 repeaters working in 62 counties; beyond that there are more counties working with simplex frequencies. There are over 1600 mobile and 3700 handheld radios.

The System

The decision to migrate to dPMR was taken knowing that the French Red Cross could make full use of the systems capabilities; GPS positioning, data transmission, improvement of audio etc. Historically the French Red Cross had invested heavily in analogue technology and it was important that these units and structures could be used in parallel for a time. Each county within France has the ability to make the transition to digital at different times; this phased migration will be carried out as part of a larger, planned project. Each unit operating within the umbrella organisation of the French Red Cross will have the ability to choose the functionality it requires from the units.

System Features

• The simplicity of phased migration from analogue to dPMR made possible by the parallel architecture of the new system.
• Flexibility; the system is scalable and can be extended and altered according to need. The capacity to schedule from a simple network up to very complicated systems with a lot of services.
• User friendly interface for the radios that makes it very easy and convenient for users.

Information kindly provided by Icom France S.A.S