Photos: RNLI floats new pager system

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is replacing the 7,500 pagers used to summon its volunteers to the UK's lifeboat stations.

David Forsham, a volunteer for the RNLI for 23 years, told silicon.com pagers have been used in Lytham St Anne since 1987 and are the quickest and most efficient way to contact the station's 50 volunteers.

Forsham added: "I've been carrying a pager for so long that if I don't have one with me I miss it."

Broadcast and communications company Arqiva signed the three-year contract with the RNLI to source, acquire, test, roll out and maintain the pagers for the 230 lifeboat stations in the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

Pictured is a 'Mersey' class of all-weather lifeboat, used at the Lytham St Annes lifeboat station on the North West coast of England.

The lifeboat is called Her Majesty The Queen, is 12 metres long and is capable of speeds up to 16 knots.

Photo credit: Gemma Simpson