Handheld portable radios are one of the critical electronic devices that firefighters and other first responders use during emergency response. These radios must operate in severe environmental conditions while maintaining acceptable radio communication.
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This paper focuses on the thermal environment that radios would be expected to withstand while being used in building fire fighting operations. The thermal classes for electronic equipment defined in an earlier paper (Donnelly, et al, 2006) are applied to investigate the performance of emergency responder radios.
Current National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards for radios are reviewed and recommendations for establishing performance standards are presented. The need for providing additional protection from the thermal environment is documented.
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