The Mogyoród Aquaréna Water Amusement Park has recently purchased a fleet of Motorola Talkabout T92 H2O waterproof walkie talkies. We talked to them about their experiences using the walkie-talkies.
Why did you buy walkie-talkies?
The complex is on an 11-hectare (about 110,000 m2 or 27.18 acres) site. This includes the campsite and we felt it necessary to replace mobile phones with walkie-talkies for faster communication. That's why your newsletter came in handy. Our attention was caught by the Motorola T92 H2O handsets, especially because of their waterproof design, which is a basic requirement for us to be able to operate the devices in water and wet environments.
Exactly how many devices were purchased for the water park?
We bought 20 transceivers, 13 of which are used daily. The radios are distributed to the appropriate staff in the morning and are returned to the office in the evening. This way we can charge the radios overnight.
Was the range of the radios adequate for the park area?
Yes, the radios work perfectly. We tested the radios immediately after purchase from four different locations. We initiated calls from the entrance to the four most remote areas of the park and everyone was able to communicate with everyone else as expected. Not only from the highest point, but also from ground level. It should be noted that there is a 20-50 metre difference in level within the park, but there is no problem in bridging the distances. From the campsite and the children's pool area, colleagues were able to talk to the entrance, so we could actually cover the whole aquapark.
How does the staff like using transceivers instead of mobile phones?
There were no problems with the changeover. Everyone was actually very happy with the new devices, as we can pass on information much faster. There's no waiting for the other party to pick up the phone because everyone can hear everyone else, so it's much easier and quicker to communicate.
Who exactly is using the transceivers in the park and how?
From the ticket office to security staff, lifeguards and pool masters, as well as medical staff, all use the walkie talkies. It was very important to ensure that if staff had a quick message, it got to the right person immediately and that they could respond to the question or task that had caused the radio traffic as quickly as possible.
It was this speed that was difficult to achieve with mobile phone communication and the fact that only one person could be alerted or called at a time.
As we are a slide park, minor injuries do occur here, and medical alerting is one of the main considerations for using the radio. Of course, all lifeguards are trained in first aid, but safety is the main thing, so they can alert medical staff immediately in case of an accident.
Other communication within the park, such as informing guests visiting the park or answering their questions are also much easier for us if we don't have to call everyone individually, but we can immediately ask a question or request help with certain tasks.
You've been using the transceivers for almost a week now, what's the experience been like, how do the radios cope with the all-day operation?
Yes, we've been using them for a week now and they are fully up to factory specification. From start-up in the morning to shutdown in the evening, the battery is one unit deep. We put the radios on a charger every evening and in the morning the staff get fully charged units. We have tested a couple of radios: if we do not charge them in the evening and then hand them out to work the next morning, it is about noon the next day that the devices signal being discharged. So they would last up to a day and a half without charging, given our usage. You have to know that there is no continuous communication here. The devices are more in standby mode, the amount of voice traffic is not that significant.
Was there any disruption in the use of the radios at start? Not far away from you is Hungaroring, where similar PMR446 radios are used. Is there any information about this?
Yes, during the installation of the radios, we checked the channels to see where there was no continuous traffic and we set the noise squelch code accordingly. So we are able to communicate in the park area in peace. We were able to do this simply and easily, we had no problem setting up the radios for our needs.
