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Bomb technician and wireless


pvanstry

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Starting a new project involving search and rescue of unexploded military ordinance. Will be following the crews in the field and filming them looking and finding the stuff. Now we received there wireless regulation and it states that we can be anywhere closer then 5 meters with a transmitters in our power output/ frequency range.

As anyone done a show like this? Any tricks? Any advices? Special RF system?

Thanks

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The first thing that comes to mind is why someone would feel it necessary to put a bodypack wireless on someone who is doing this kind of risk to life & limb work?

I mean, you really don't expect to be standing next to them in the field, right? ::)

Secondly, there is certainly a com system that a bomb squad coordinator uses to talk with the team. Couldn't you just tap into this com system and run double-sytem sound with no rf link?

I mean, why take a chance? You might bring new meaning to the term "BOOM Mic!"

--

Brent

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The first thing that comes to mind is why someone would feel it necessary to put a bodypack wireless on someone who is doing this kind of risk to life & limb work?

I mean, you really don't expect to be standing next to them in the field, right? ::)

Surely that's why you need to put a TX on them?

I've done quite a bit of this, and with advice from the guys on the ground, either coordinated frequencies with them, or failing that, used the Zax recording TX's

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It might be excessive, but if you really want to ensure no stray RF ruins the party, consider the mic Sennheiser specifies for these types of applications:

IAS MO 2000 Set

Optical microphone for outdoor and potentially explosive areas

http://www.sennheiserusa.com/professional-industry-microphones-acoustic-monitoring_502184

IASMO2000Set_ProductPro.jpg

The head and cable is metal free to prevent dangerous interference. The microphone electronics (and therefore stray RF) are located at the end of the fiber run.

-Robert

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It might be excessive, but if you really want to ensure no stray RF ruins the party, consider the mic Sennheiser specifies for these types of applications:

IAS MO 2000 Set

Optical microphone for outdoor and potentially explosive areas

http://www.sennheise...nitoring_502184

IASMO2000Set_ProductPro.jpg

The head and cable is metal free to prevent dangerous interference. The microphone electronics (and therefore stray RF) are located at the end of the fiber run.

-Robert

That Sennheiser system is $7,000 MSRP.

Eric

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Thus my first sentence stating "It might be excessive", but I expect the real pricetag is closer to $4668.95 from a Sennheiser Systems Integration dealer. That is with a 9.9ft cable, so you'd need to customize somewhat. Still, ~$5000 is not a crazy pricetag for such a specialized effort.

I would defer to the bomb technician who is risking his life on this one. Even a ZFR puts off RF as it is a powered electronic device. It's PROBABLY insignificant and won't result in detonating a makeshift explosive, but that is for the person risking their life to decide. They have the training to know whether they will be safer if they have a microphone that has no electrical signals or not.

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Sorry, but exactly WHAT is to be recorded?

* talk between the bomb disposal guy and the base station guys? - Ok... Possible by tapping into their wireless. That ZFR thing may work or not (considering hazard as you mentioned) - BUT - one CAN cover talk by tapping into their wireless.

* general Atmos/Amb of the scene of disposal??? - is this where Rob, your suggestion will apply? Maybe this can be recorded from a distance, even in stereo, and even recreated in post?

Your suggestion of the Sennheiser IAS MO 2000 Set, and your further justification of its price is inappropriate. period.

-vin

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" we can be anywhere closer then 5 meters "

of course a translation/typo: we can not be anywhere closer then 5 meters

" The head and cable is metal free to prevent dangerous interference. The microphone electronics (and therefore stray RF) are located at the end of the fiber run. "

it is metal free to eliminate static electricity, the microphone electronics do not create RF, but may create a magnetic field, and or static electricity; and the fibre optic connection carries only light, not electricity, or electricity's brother, magnetism

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A couple of years ago I did an instructional dvd for our Army on the safe disposal of unexploded ordinance..they call them Blinds...

I was able to wire the sergeant in charge of the search for unexploded shells as the blinds were lying all over a large shelled area used for 20 years as a target practice range. He was instructing them on where the safe cleared areas were, on what sort of ordinance was dangerous and the difference between dummy shells and the real thing. I felt right out of my comfort zone on this as we were in an area that had live unexploded ordinance lying around on the top of the ground and much semi buried as well. The Army Bomb Disposal experts were with us all the time and we had cleared paths to walk on..but the bombs were close by and we needed to be very careful...some of the triggers can be lethal in unstable shells so movement over the ground was always gentle.

Once they had sorted out which were the dangerous ones in a small area they placed explosives beside the shell..never touching them...then ran wires to a base station..

We retreated out of the area to about 1000 yards away and filmed from there behind heavily reinforced concrete bunkers..

I only used the wire on the sergeant while they were searching the area and in set ups for the instructions to the people being trained.

We had finished filming only 3 weeks when an Air Force sergeant who had just returned from Afghanistan...a very experienced bomb disposal expert was killed instantly when some of these blinds exploded in an area very close to where we had been filming only a few weeks before. He made a mistake which cost him his life. No one is immune from this.

The dvd will be made available for all new recruits to our Army as a matter of course...it will save many lives...and this was why I did this particular job....

BVS

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We can dream, right Vin? I'm a technology enthusiast and am happy to contribute any possible alternatives, especially if they are interesting/novel. If the price were $100,000 (like some of the cheapest technology the specialized military personnel rely on) then I would put it outside the realm of possibility, but in the land of a sound mixer where a the popular wireless system costs ~$4,000 (and many have over a dozen of them), I don't think I'm out of line. If you could find a place to rent the microphone it could get very affordable very quickly.

I'm not a bomb expert and don't know whether it's necessary or appropriate and I don't know the setup or how I would deploy the mic. Perhaps you could attach it to his tool-chest so you have a close plant mic right near the action. I find it interesting and worth a quick thought by the group whether it's right for this application or not.

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