About

Who are we?

The Fife RAYNET Group was formed in 1990 and are members of the UK Wide Radio Amateurs’ Emergency Network; RAYNET.

Presently the Fife group has 41 members.

The Fife RAYNET Group present committee is:-

Group Controler: Jim Burke GM4TNP
Dave Burke GM6SZJ
Michael Greig GM0MMN
Gerry Michie GM0IXO

Please download our document Information For Event Organisers

RAYNET - An introduction

RAYNET (The Radio Amateurs’ Emergency Network) is the UK’s national voluntary communications service provided for the community by licensed radio amateurs.

The organisation was formed in 1953 following the East Coast floods, when radio amateurs provided emergency communications.

What do we do?

RAYNET, The Radio Amateurs Emergency Network, is a voluntary organization whose members are willing to use their time and their radio equipment to provide emergency communications for the community in times of need. Most group members are Radio Amateurs and have passed a City & Guilds or equivalent examination to gain their licence.

RAYNET is only one facet of amateur radio. Radio licences and licence regulations are administered by OfCom. Our licence allows us to provide communications for the “User Services”. A full list of the “Users” can be found in the attached document. As well as attending at local incidents for the Council Emergency Planning Officer such as flooding, power cuts, severe weather, we also provide safety communications at many types of club and charity events. These include bike rides, marathons, hill climbs and air shows.

For RAYNET to attend your event a User Service must also be there. We have no objections to passing messages for event organizers that involve the welfare of participants or spectators.

The radio equipment we use is generally the personal property of the operator or may be owned by the group.

We do not provide radios for event organisers. Members have personal accident and third party liability insurance.

There is no charge for our attendance at any event, but, like most voluntary organizations we do have running costs and equipment to maintain. Accordingly, donations, our only source of income, are most welcome. Without them group activities would be severely curtailed.

Operators do not act as marshals. Your marshals should be fully briefed about your particular event. The RAYNET control operator should have easy access to an event organizer during the event so that any questions or problems from the marshals can be quickly addressed.

Information about your event required by us, date, map of route with marshal/radio points marked, start time, finish time and number of participants should be available at least two weeks before the event. This will allow us time to arrange the required number of operators and plan what equipment will be required. Please also provide contact details of the User Service.

It is always wise and courteous to inform the local Police and the Scottish Ambulance Service of any event,
particularly if a large number of people are involved or remote areas are to be traversed. This has proved verybeneficial at previous incidents.

Major incidents are very rare, and though we have never missed an event, please understand we could be called upon to attend a major incident at short notice.

How do you contact us?

Full contact details can be found on this page.