Mining Disaster (lack of radios)

[onepocketfanatic]

I find that in this day of technology the miners trapped miles below only had "wired" communications with the surface. It appears (by today's paper) that the wire was destroyed in the explosion.
Any reasonable person would expect there to be a better means of communication between the surface, and those down below. They are now saying that had the miners had some form of communication, it might have been possible to guide the miners to an area where they might have survived.
I work for a small company that produces specialty chemicals, and we have radios to communicate. The radios are explosion proof (no chance of causing an explosion in an explosive atmosphere), and cost about $600 each. I find it incredible that these people did not have some form of communication other than a "wired" connection.
Something is horribly wrong with this picture. If my little company can afford a few radios, I am sure these huges one's can too. Unbelievable.

[SpiderMan]

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote onepocketfanatic:</font><hr> I find that in this day of technology the miners trapped miles below only had "wired" communications with the surface. It appears (by today's paper) that the wire was destroyed in the explosion.
Any reasonable person would expect there to be a better means of communication between the surface, and those down below. They are now saying that had the miners had some form of communication, it might have been possible to guide the miners to an area where they might have survived.
I work for a small company that produces specialty chemicals, and we have radios to communicate. The radios are explosion proof (no chance of causing an explosion in an explosive atmosphere), and cost about $600 each. I find it incredible that these people did not have some form of communication other than a "wired" connection.
Something is horribly wrong with this picture. If my little company can afford a few radios, I am sure these huges one's can too. Unbelievable. <hr /></blockquote>

I don't think the miners were trapped "miles" below, but still the handheld radios of which you are thinking will not work, even through just a few hundred feet of dirt. The frequency is too high for ground penetraton.

An operating frequency that would produce acceptable earth penetration would be so low that the antenna length (which is inversely proportional) would be incompatible with a mobile unit.

One analogy is the radios used by submarines. In order to penetrate through the water, the frequency must be so low that the antenna is actually a very long thin wire that must be trailed along behind the sub.

SpiderMan