Originally posted by crockett
I think the issues at hand, is the radios had repeatedly failed at close range. Had they worked at close range.. with the 100's of firemen on the sceen... I'm sure a good portion of those 121 that died in the 2nd building, would have received the command to evac.
I'm sure they would have been able to get the message even fireman to fireman to most of them if the radios worked properly.
And why I ask do you think they failed at close range?
My point is...it wouldn't have mattered what radio they had. Inside those buildings RF comms are going to suck no matter what. There was too many things causing interferance there. The one guy was talking about a fireman trapped in a basement and the guys up on the street couldn't hear him, but someone 2 miles away did. Seems pretty clear to me that the radio the fireman had was putting out just fine. Why didn't the guys up on the street hear him? There are tons of possibilities. Overhead power lines, too many other people up on the street using their radios at the same time, the engines on the fire trucks can cause interferance, who knows.
In 1993 they had the same problems with different radios. Gee I wonder why. Same location, same RF interferance problems because they were trying to use those things INSIDE a steel building.
RF comms is NOT an exact science. Too many things can cause you problems in close or at range and there is NO fix all to the problem. Here is anouther thing to think about. How many electrical outlets do you think were in the twin towers? Now ALL those outlets have a ground system, not to mention the lighting ground system. Those are DESIGNED to shunt any stray electrical energy to ground. Those guys were trying to use radios inside a giant lighting rod.
I know if one of my radios has a short to ground on the transmission side I don't talk to anyone. Also those type of radios operate in the VHF range. VHF requires a degree of line of sight to operate. You put a couple of tons of steel and concrete between 2 radios and they wont talk to each other. I've lost comms with a boat I could see 2 miles away because they were on the other side of the Hampton Roads Bridge/Tunnel. Once we cleared the bridge we could talk to them again.
Next time your on your cell phone and all of a sudden you loose signal, stop and take a look around you and see what sort of structures are nearby. See how many power lines are over head. Look for transmission towers of some sort.
Low power radios and stuff can't cut through that type of interferance. Inside those towers they would have needed a man packed radio putting out a hundred watts of power or better to get out, and like wise the guys outside would have needed the same type of power to get anything in. Handhelds only operate around 5 watts by FCC regulation. Vehicle type VHF rigs can go up to 25 watts.
Nothing G did or didn't do would have mattered in that situation.