NIOSH Firefighter Radio Communications 

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CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 

The project was divided into two primary tasks: to identify fire service communication 

problems and solutions and to research and analyze the potential solutions to the 

technical RF issues involved in resolving and improving these communications problems. 

From the outset, the project was further refined to focus on communications problems 

within as well as to and from structures, to include high-rise buildings, tunnels, 

basements, underground parking garages, and subway systems. 

Determination of Critical Areas of Interest 

To begin the project, the team members compiled a comprehensive set of 

communications issues that affect radio communications in the fire service from several 

sources – an initial literature survey, knowledge of the project team members, and 

discussions with fire service leaders, NIOSH project team, engineers, and others. Team 

members refined this comprehensive set of issues with NIOSH project personnel to 

identify critical issues that could be addressed by improvements in radio 

communications. A prioritized list of communication and personnel location problem 

areas was developed. In general, the primary focus was clarified to be the identification, 

status, and research recommendations for technologies that could improve 

communications or provide firefighter location within structures. The list of the high 

priority topics is shown in Table 3 below. The full list of ranked topics is attached as 

Appendix A with ‘10’ being a highly ranked problem and ‘1’ the lowest. 

TABLE 3: PRIORITY TECHNICAL AREAS AND RELATED TOPICS ADDRESSED IN STUDY

Ranking Area Example Issues 

10 

Accountability (Integrating 

Personal Accountability 

Systems (PAS) with 

Communications) 

• Integrating PAS with communications 

• Electronic accountability 

• Automatic vehicle location 

• Electronic command boards 

10 Communication Planning and 

Coordination 

• Through building (into/out of) 

• Underground 

• In building 

10 Monitoring Firefighter Welfare 

and Location On-Scene 

• Role/responsibility of dispatchers. 

• Use of field communications units and 

communications coordinators 

• Remote monitoring 

• Vital signs 

• Location 

10 Reliability 

• Line-of-sight limitations 

• Underground (subways, parking garages) 

• Confined space rescue 

• Communication into and out of buildings 

(especially high rises) 

• Intermittence 

• Communication coverage/dead spots 
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Ranking Area Example Issues 

10 Interference 

• Building construction and materials (such 

as concrete, metal, and Lexan) 

• Radio propagation through fire, heat, and 

smoke 

• Cell phone towers (e.g., Nextel) 

• Terrain 

10 Unsuitable Equipment • Frequency band unsuitable for 

structure/ground penetration 

Information on and about grants to pursue these technology areas was originally ranked 

as one of the priority issues. Because grants are not within the scope of the technical 

nature of this project, this topic was not pursued. Grants, however, are available through 

the United States Fire Administration (USFA), National Institute of Standards and 

Technology (NIST), and other sources as well. The USFA, through its Assistance to 

Firefighters Grant Program, has awarded funds to many fire departments to purchase 

communications systems and other equipment. Money is also available from NIST for 

research and development. 

Literature Review 

Based on this prioritized set of topics, the study team conducted a comprehensive 

literature review to research the radio communication technology in use by firefighters, 

what problems exist with communications, and on relevant research/evaluations of 

existing or proposed technology. The team searched a variety of bibliographic databases 

including the following: 

Engineering Index – The Engineering Index contains abstracted information from 

the worldwide significant engineering and technological literature. It covers 

approximately 4,100 journals and selected government reports and books from 1970 

to the present. Over 480,000 records of significant published proceedings of 

engineering and technical information are also included. 

INSPEC – INSPEC is a database containing bibliographic citations to items in 

Physics Abstracts, Electrical and Electronic Abstracts, and Computing and Control 

Abstracts. Over 4,100 journals and serials are scanned from 1969 to the present. 

Included are papers, journal articles, conference proceedings, books, reports, and 

dissertations. 

PubMed – PubMed is the National Library of Medicine's (NLM) search service that 

provides access to over 11 million citations in MEDLINE, PreMEDLINE, and other 

related sources journals. MEDLINE is NLM’s premier bibliographic database and 

contains over 12 million citations from the mid 1960s to the present. PreMEDLINE 

is the in-process database for MEDLINE, containing details of very recently 

published articles. The journals primarily fall within the general science and 

chemistry field. MEDLINE contains bibliographic citations and author abstracts 
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from more than 4,600 biomedical journals published in the United States and 70 

other countries. 

Nerac –Nerac began operating in 1966 as the New England Research Application 

Center, an experimental collaboration between the University of Connecticut and 

the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Nerac provides peerreviewed literature from a collection of over 250 million abstracts, citations and 

full-text articles. Nerac locates published articles from international resources to 

bring information that is typically unavailable through Web-based search engines. 

Its databases include information on journal articles, patents, conference papers, 

theses, business and financial reports, manuscripts, and government regulations. 

Nerac searches can be applied to 128 separate databases of which 57 are in the 

engineering fields. The databases that were accessed most heavily for this project 

were: 

• Aerospace Database 

• DTIC – Defense Technical Information 

• Inspec – Electronics and Physics 

• Dissertation Abstracts 

• Inside Conferences 

• Conference Papers Index 

• U.S. Patent Applications 

CiteSeer (Research Index) – CiteSeer is a scientific literature digital library that 

indexes Postscript and PDF research articles on the Web. Developed by NEC 

(formerly Nippon Electric Company), it allows the user to quickly track how 

research has been used and what recent developments have occurred in the research 

area. The automated indexing system not only indexes research articles by crawling 

journal websites on a regular basis, but will also index each article's citations, which 

can be viewed in the context of the article. This context enables the reader to judge 

the links between studies and the citations noted in the research. 

National Technical Information Service(NTIS) – NTIS is a database of the U.S. 

government agencies containing only unclassified literature, some state and local 

governments, and some non-U.S. governments. Coverage is from 1964 to the 

present; included are reports, bibliographies, conferences, symposia, government 

documents, journal articles, patents, standards, and translations. 

Firedoc – Database of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s 

Building and Fire Research Laboratory (BFRL). It contains publications from the 

BFRL staff, its contractors and grantees from the early 20th century. Over 60,000 

bibliographic records and indexing are in English from the BFRL staff and for fire 

research and fire engineering organizations and fire departments worldwide 

regardless of language. Reports, journal articles, conference proceedings, contractor 

and grantee reports, and audio-visual materials are included. 
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USFA/FEMA Online Catalog – This online catalogue is a database of the U.S. Fire 

Administration/ Federal Emergency Management Agency. It contains bibliographic 

citations (and abstracts Executive Management Institute’s papers) to over 100,000 

books, reports, periodicals, and audio-visual materials on their collection. 

InfoTrac OneFile – InfoTrac OneFile provides access to periodical and news 

information on a diverse set of topics, including humanities, education, business, 

science, current events, art, politics, economics, social science, law, health care, 

computers, technology, environmental issues, and general interest topics. InfoTrac 

OneFile has access to nearly 32 million articles in a wide variety of periodicals. 

In addition, the team searched for information from other federal agencies, such as the 

National Aeronautical and Space Administration and the Federal Communications 

Commission. Private industry sources were also explored, from the National Fire 

Protection Association to the Association of Public-Safety Communications 

Professionals, among others. The Internet was used to access current trends and products. 

The results of the literature review included a variety of published materials, including 

technical reports, trade journals, academic research papers, CD-ROM collections, 

government reports, open-source material available on the Internet, media reports, 

international studies/reports, and manufacturer/vendor literature. 

Fire Department Communication Issues Review 

Once the technical literature review was well underway, the study team gathered and 

reviewed fire service communications literature and studies. The information was 

gathered from a variety of sources: much of the information comes from fire department 

management studies previously undertaken by TriData Corporation. Some information 

comes from individual fire department annual reports, websites, or other fire department 

literature. Wherever possible, the information from these studies was verified with the 

fire department to ensure that the most current data was reflected in this report. The 

reviews focused on actual communications problems experienced by various jurisdictions 

and the solutions implemented to mitigate them. 

The technical literature review yielded a number of promising technology areas. During 

the course of this research, the study team contacted experts in these areas to determine 

whether the new products and research had potential to improve firefighter 

communications. These contacts were conducted primarily by telephone and email. 

Knowledge Gaps Analysis 

Based on the information collected through the literature search and discussions, a review 

was conducted of the available knowledge and research related to radio communication 

systems. We identified the gaps between what current technology yields for firefighter 

radio communication and what would be necessary to address the firefighter location 

issues and more effective communications within structures. We also determined what 

technologies and solutions are available bridge these gaps; and addressed future 
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technologies or products that could improve overall firefighter communication and 

safety. 

The analysis approached the knowledge gap problem from three angles. First, we 

examined the gap between the current technical knowledge of the problems and current 

proposed solutions. Second, we assessed the gap between available published material 

and the material actually needed to fully address the issue. Finally, we considered the gap 

between the available technology and the implementation of that technology in the fire 

service. 

Recommendations 

The final step in the study process was to develop a series of recommendations for areas 

of future research to improve firefighter communications. Where possible, specific 

vendors, agencies, and other resources are identified as avenues to complete this research.