AP NEWSBREAK: Feds approve new wireless mine tech

Mercury News (AP) ^ | 07/20/2011 | DYLAN LOVAN

[CharlesWayneCT]

Federal regulators have approved a new wireless technology developed to help underground coal mines meet safety standards set after a fatal 2006 blast in West Virginia.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration said Wednesday it had approved the MagneLink technology from Lockheed Martin. It uses magnetic waves to overcome underground barriers to wireless signals that have left mines reliant on wired systems that can be damaged in a disaster.

...

Mine safety officials said in April that nearly two-thirds of the nation's 529 underground mines had not yet fully installed the required equipment [to meet a new mine safety law].

[CharlesWayneCT]

Something off my usual political focus; thought this was a cool technological breakthrough.

[CharlesWayneCT]

In college (which for me was back in the late 1970s), the hardest problem I remember having to work was a final exam question about wave propagation through solid rock.

So this has always fascinated me; I wish I could think of cool ideas like this, or Facebook. Using magnetic waves to communicate through solid rock.

Here's another link with only slightly more information: Emergency Communication System Reaches Mines

[null and void]

Good. This should be more reliable.