Hepkie HCL100. Designed to be used in cases where the subject is outside GSM network coverage or where mobile operator cooperation is not possible. Typically this can be a missing person at sea or in the wilderness. Or a disaster situation where the mobile network is down.

Finally!

Our development project has just passed an important milestone. We have assembled all components of our first release product and started our field trials.

Latest results from the trials:

• finding phone in cooperation with mobile operator; Check!
• finding foreign phone in cooperation with local mobile operator; Check!
• Phones can manually find and connect to our internal radio base station, the CapLink; Check!
• Phones outside network coverage automatically checks into the CapLink; Check!
• Short distance search scenario (<2km) inside network coverage verified; Check!

The next step is verifying long range search scenarios, as well as doing Live User Tests together with a selected customer. In progress…

I do look forward to that first real rescue where we find a missing person with our technology. Comming soon…

Cheers,

Andreas

Helicopter in action with antennas mounted

The helicopter search tests performed on April 30 in Östersund, Sweden, gave very positive results. Using our portable search unit we managed to find a telephone, carried by a man pretending to be lost in the forest, at a distance of 20 km. The search took approximately 15 minutes from starting up the helicopter to a visual identification of the man on the ground.

We used prototype full-size helicopter antennas, to correlate the direction of the helicopter with the direction of the phone. Also, with the bigger antennas we get better search performance due to increased sensitivity and accuracy, which means we can “hear” the telephone at a longer distance.

We are very greatful to Osterman Helicopter in Östersund for letting us use one of their helicopters.

”We were happy to contribute with our time and equipment for these tests. The Hepkie system is a very interesting concept and can be a good tool in helicopter based Search and Rescue missions in the near future. We are often hired by the Police and Mountain rescue service and see that this system has incredible potential when people are missing“, says Stefan Larsson, Market manager at Osterman Helicopter.

www.ostermanhelicopter.se

So far all the tests have been performed on the ground. The results are very promising! During performance tests at long distances Fredrik pinpointed me at a distance of 21 km. Tests in January in minus 24 degrees Celsius in Bydalen, with the Swedish Mountain Rescue Team, gave the results we hoped for. They found the cellphones, buried 1,5 meters in the snow, in less than 3  minutes, without any training (!), when starting the search more than a hundred meters away. Very good for a prototype I must say!

Andreas