On Sunday, some of us were mulling over the advice circulated a while back (by the BMC??) about how to contact the Mountain Rescue Service in a situation where mobile phone coverage is limited. Of course, we were hazy about it. As it happens, the current newsletter from the Mountain Bothies Association has a page devoted to this very matter. So, for those like me with limited memory span, here are a few excerpts from the piece:
“You may have seen some reports recently suggesting that when using a mobile phone to call Mountain Rescue, it is better to use the European emergency number, 112, rather than 999. This is not the case: in the UK both numbers work exactly the same. So it doesn’t matter at all which you use. Both can be accessed by any mobile phone if a signal on any network is available.”
“In areas of poor reception … you may still be able to send and receive text messages. For this reason it may be worth signing up with the emergency SMS service … visit http://www.emergencysms.org.uk and follow the instructions to register your phone.”
“for more information visit http://www.mountainsafety.co.uk
http://www.mountainrescue.org.uk
http://www.mountainrescuescotland.org”
Hope this is helpful. And my very best wishes to the unwitting generator of the conversation!
Chris