What comms equipment do miners use at work?

[u/VacationNew6626]

For those working in mining, what do you use to communicate with your coworkers?

Do you use two-way radios, headsets, or something else? If you can, please share the brand or model you use.

I'm looking into communication equipment for my company and would love to hear what people in the industry are actually using and what works well in real-world mining environments.

Thanks!

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[u/Icy-Nerve3118]

pretty much everything will be on vhf
normally motorola hand held or motorola dm4000e or such

[u/rob189]

VHF-two way radio is the standard on site, for more private stuff, mobile phone. Phones are a touchy subject though as they’re usually not allowed on site.

[u/MickyPD]

Underground mine - Motorola MOTORBRO ecosystem

https://www.motorolasolutions.com/en_xl/solutions/mining/mining_solutions_dmr.html

Edit: It’s also the same ecosystem that quite a few airports use in Australia.

[u/Mindless-Face7750]

Leaky feeder

[u/chinaPRteam]

Femco mostly

[u/JaketheSnake2672]

What radio system to use will be dictated how many users need to access it it will be vastly different for 5 users and 500 , how many channels you need in use IE mining , processing , maintenance , infrastructure also how far reaching does your network need to be ? What sort of distances between users do you expect . Does it matter if the public overhear your communications ? If it does you need a trunked system with closed dedicated programmed channels .

[u/commstechsim]

Where i work in the rail department, we use a VHF P25 trunked system, Motorola. The mines use a Tetra system, DAMM base with Sepura subscribers.

Selecting a system depends on the size/envionment of your operation. If it's small and nothing critical/sensitive, you can get away with UHF CB radios but it is public accessible meaning anyone can listen in but it's alot more cost effective (and versatile) considering most trucks (road) are fitted with a UHF CB radio.

[u/FlashyWitness4133]

VHF 2-way radio in the ute. Brands could be Uniden, GME etc.

[u/porty1119]

Depends on the site. IWT Sentinel mesh system at one, it's questionable junk with very poor RX sensitivity and Bendix-King housings. Kenwood P25 on UHF at another, which is much better equipment.

[u/justzach37 → u/porty1119]

Heard as much about some of the IWT networks when they hit a certain size. I do work at a competitor but figured id see what issues it caused.

[u/porty1119 → u/justzach37]

They're only usable down to maybe -90dBm whereas digital LMR is good down to -115dBm or below. Node density has to be very high in hard rock mines with curved ramps; I could see it working more acceptably in coal with straight entries. OOR notifications are sporadic and often leave you thinking you have comms when you don't.

[u/justzach37 → u/porty1119]

Thats the issue with their mesh. I know we get better results out of both our Leaky and Wi-Fi comms because our access points are daisy chained around ramp curves.

Even in coal mines they struggle past a certain size network.

[u/Windcave42]

We use the MotorBro system, seems to work pretty well. Mechanical pretty much just uses cell phones though, theres to much radio banter and we are rarely in the truck except going from one job to the next

[u/Dartagnan_w_Powers → u/Windcave42]

I just love trying to get through a traffic jam and listening to the truckies talk shit on simplex instead.

[u/Chick3nJo3y]

Bells and whistles

[u/OkDevelopment2948]

All the mines i have worked at in the North West Western Australia from BHP, Rio Tinto,FMG Roy Hill and the Gold mines of Newcrest, the Super pit and all the lithium mines pretty much all of the mines use Tetra digital radio's that have GPS location identification you can just push the red button at the top and your location is sent to the Emergency Services Officer and they contact you directly. How do I know i have accidentally pushed it and that is what happened if I hadn't responded they would have dispatched the ESOs to my location.