For the fourth year in a row, a team of Sixth Formers from HMSG has worked with engineers from Alcatel-Lucent in the Engineering Education Scheme Wales (Engineering Education Scheme Wales).  This year’s project is well under way and its aim is to improve radio communications in the Wye Valley for SARA (Severn Area Rescue Association), the Inshore Rescue boat and Land Search organisation covering the Severn Estuary and the surrounding area.  SARA makes use of VHF Radio Communications for both Marine and Land Search and Rescue operations.  Radio Communications using VHF is predominately ‘line of sight’ so suffers when used in areas such as the Wye river valley.  Cell phone coverage does not provide an alternative.  SARA has had an aspiration for some time to install a radio repeater to provide coverage of the Wye Valley.  The girls’ brief is to turn this aspiration into a reality by project managing the planning, design, deployment and, on completion, the testing of the coverage throughout the valley.

The solution is in the shape of a strategically placed "repeater" station which accepts weak radio signals and then relays them back to the Beachley station at another frequency.  A recent test showed that a repeater sited at Pelham Hall (http://www.penallt.org.uk/) could successfully relay signals from Tintern back to Beachley, something which was previously impossible.  Soon after Christmas it is the girls’ intention to organise the installation of an antenna on the side of the village hall, so that there will be time to write up the project before the EESW Awards and Presentation Day at Celtic Manor Hotel, Newport, in April.

The photos show the team members, Sarah, Jess, Steph and Hannah, with project engineers, Steve and Chris, at Pelham Hall, Penallt, during a site-visit last week, where decisions were made on the positioning of the aerial and its control box.