The miners weren't even worth $20 for the tracking devices.

[Ilsa]

I'm watching The News Hour. Those damned companies don't give a tinker's damn about what happens to their employees.

[democrank]

1. Only $20....

That is truly pitiful.

[SoCalDem]

2. of course the official I heard, said

they "probably" would not work that deep in the mine.. Probably?? Have they not even bothered to test devices to find some that WOULD work??

the sad fact about mining is that once you go deep into Mother Nature's belly, if you have a problem, it's often pure luck if you get brought out alive.

Mining is one of the most dangerous jobs around, and it's no accident that they are usually located in poor areas..chicken? egg? The young folks who have some means or who excel in school are likely to LEAVE that area and only return for visits. The poor ones get left behind to do the dirty work..

[spinbaby]

4. Ahem

Let go of the stereotypes. We are not poor, uneducated, and desperate here in coal country.

[spinbaby]

3. They wouldn't have helped these guys

They KNEW where they were and couldn't get there. What would be more helpful is a wireless communications system to communicate with them or an oxygen supply that lasts for more than an hour.

[RamboLiberal]

5. Harkin demonstrated what Australian miners use

At one point, Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, displayed a text message system that is worn by underground miners in Australia and J. Davitt McAteer, who is heading up West Virginia's own investigation into Sago, displayed a pager-sized transponder that gives a miner's position underground.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06023/643066.stm

Guess they work for the Australians. Wonder how deep they go?

[Democrats_win]

6. I think they somehow have intermediate receiving stations--it's undergroun

d. According to this Australian seller the individual tags that miners wear have a range of 328 ft. (100 m). It uses UHF radio waves which travel well in caves because they have short wavelengths. Still, i don't think they can go through the mine walls. So my understanding is that through a series of intermediate receiving stations, called beacons,and wires, they get the radio signal out of the mine.

A company that i worked for made the circuit boards for a Colorado company that made communication equipment for mines, so someone in the U.S. must make these too.

http://www.minesite.com.au/category/category.asp?categoryid=4&childid=9

Info about the beacons and how they get the data to a computer that tracks the locations of all the miners:

http://www.minesite.com.au/category/category.asp?categoryid=4&childid=9#beacons

Note this is different than the PED system which uses shorter wavelengths and thus can penetrate rock.

[seriousstan]

7. It should be noted, these PED units only receive text messages from the

surface. They are unable to transmit info from the miners because of power and antenna requirements. The transponder location systems are not as likely as an RFID system to record the location an sent it through hard wires to the surface.

http://www.minesite.com.au/category/category.asp?categoryid=1&childid=9

http://www.mining-technology.com/contractors/communications/mine/press2.html

As for the idea of O2 stashes, I would think that a major consideration would be the safety of having O2 cylinders stored in a location where they could contribute GREATLY to a fire if an accident occurred.

[ladjf]

8. compressed air as in SCUBA tanks is not as combustible as O2.