Blasting Zones and two way radios?

[Dr. Zuki 1]

Saw a sign at a contruction site in downtown Yonkers asking for two way radios to be turned off.

How do area Fire, Police and EMT's handle this ?

Was told that two way radios are used to detonate the blasting and other radio transmissions may set off the dynamie being used.

Thanks.

[mikeinet 37]

I see this in a lot of construction zones... my question is who actually pays attention to them? Do people actually turn off their cell phones for a quarter mile of road???

[JohnnyOV 2]

I see this in a lot of construction zones... my question is who actually pays attention to them? Do people actually turn off their cell phones for a quarter mile of road???

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HA, thats like getting people to pull to the right and yield to us.

[CAM502 6]

Not 100% sure, but those signs should be pretty much obsolete. The older radio systems were more likely to receive the interference from other Freq. Nowadays they should be good to go...but I would guess they still put up the signs to cover their rears.

[IzzyEng4 427]

Two way radios can set of the device used to activate the blasting caps. This was more so true with the older high powered two way radios. Its not receiving but the transmit side, obviously. Just rembember radio waves are technicly electricity. However with new technologies, the Mhz rates in the detonator devices are similar to the rates used in radio transmissions as well. Its the electrical current created from transmissions that set off a detonator, which are electric current creators / contacts.

If you have ever seen a burn from someone who touched a anntenna while it was transmitting, it is treated like an electrical burn (FFI and EMT Basic knowledge base). Its better to err in caution. I attended a class a few years back and this was the answer given.

[Geppetto 31]

The reason you are supposed to turn-off the two-way radio is because if you transmit close enough to an "unsecured" blasting cap, you can detonate it. The leads that run from the cap can actually act as an antenna. Every radio antenna operates by creating a current which the receiver interprets as sound. Transmit close enough and BANG. So the issue for responders would be essentially not to transmit in the blasting area; relatively high power (like on apparatus) in a short distance could be a big problem. Curiously, with the proliferation of Nextel phones (which are always transmitting and receiving data); I am not sure how the industry is coping with these.