|
Server : Apache/2.4.62 System : FreeBSD fbsdweb2.web.rcn.net 14.1-RELEASE FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE releng/14.1-n267679-10e31f0946d8 GENERIC amd64 User : www ( 80) PHP Version : 8.3.8 Disable Function : NONE Directory : /domains/rboyellweb/Archive/ |
Upload File : |
<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0"> <meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document"> <title>THE HACKENSACK FIRE RADIO COMMUNICATION ISSUE</title> </head> <body stylesrc="index.htm" background="WB02074_.GIF"> <b><font SIZE="4"> <p ALIGN="CENTER">THE HACKENSACK FIRE RADIO COMMUNICATION ISSUE</p> </font></b> <p><font size="3">Roger L. Boyell (http://www.boyell.com) performs forensic consulting and provides court testimony in electronic devices and systems. This is his analysis of the radio communication circumstances associated with a major fire in a car dealership in Hackensack NJ.</font></p> <p><font size="3">Three firemen were trapped in an upstairs storeroom, calling by handheld radios to other firemen fighting the fire throughout the building. The other personnel on the scene were continually in contact with each other. But none of them responded to the repeated calls from the trapped firemen.</font></p> <p><font size="3">At the firehouse a mile away, the master tape recorder clearly recorded all the calls to and from every portable, mobile, and base radio involved, including every (unanswered) call made from radios carried by the trapped firemen. The tape bears all their push-to-talk transmissions, and even their backpacks "out-of-air" warning bells are audible in the later playback.</font></p> <p><font size="3">The firemen�s bodies were found after the fire. Their partially burned portable radios were examined by the manufacturer�s representative, with no conclusive results. Local and state investigators tried to attribute the communication failure to shielding, to interference, to human error, and to equipment malfunction. No satisfactory explanation was forthcoming.</font></p> <p><font size="3">Then a lawyer for one of the firemen�s families called Boyell. After extensive analysis he found incorrect channel-selection crystals in their portable radios.</font></p> <p><font size="3">Each hand-held radio and some mobile radios had capacity for four channels, of which only the first two were used by their department. When switched to F1 they operated on the general department frequency, and when switched to F2 they operated on the alternate frequency which was employed only by an on-scene crew for local firefighting coordination.</font></p> <p><font size="3">However, he found that the firemen�s hand-held radio F2 <u>transmit</u> crystals had been substituted by F1 crystals. Thus the trapped firemen <u>received</u> all the communications from the scene but, unknowingly, were transmitting on the general channel, to which the on-scene crew was not then listening. The error had not surfaced previously, because never before was every member of the department (except the master tape recorder) locked onto F2.</font></p> <font SIZE="4"> <p ALIGN="CENTER"> </p> <p ALIGN="CENTER"><a href="index.htm">Back to Main Page</a></p> </font> </body> </html>