Yes, we are spending more of the cash that you have so generously donated.  As part of the 2009 equipment upgrade programme, personal lighting was the next item on the agenda and not wanting to keep you in the dark, I thought I would focus on the subject.

Since man discovered fire, lighting and torches have moved on somewhat, or at least that’s what we have been trying to tell our Equipment Officer for some time now.    Our museum of rescue equipment at the team base has a broad selection of lamps and torches that we have used over the years.  Some are even homemade with wires and crocodile clips leading to various batteries held together with insulation tape.  The problems have always been the same; the weight and size of battery, the fragile bulb and the limited time of use on the hillside.   However, technological developments in recent years means that the old tungsten filament bulb has finally blown and it has been replaced with Light Emitting Diodes (or LEDs as it says on the box).   LEDs are much brighter than an old fashioned bulb, stand a bit of bashing and use much less battery power.  If stone-age man had had the gumption to discover these instead of fire, think where we might be today!  – Yes, but at least we would be able to see each other shivering.

In the search for the perfect torch much midnight oil was burned until finally the research group emerged from their cell with beaming faces.  Their bright idea?   Torches manufactured by Ledco Ltd.  The P14 model was chosen giving upto 264 hours of use on just 4 AA batteries.  With 180 lumens and adjustable focus upto 960 feet it is suprisingly lightweight at just 384 gramms. 

The team has bought eighty of the units to provide every operational member with one each and to keep the remainder on the response vehicles.   The cost: £2,500.