Comms Lost During Concert Disaster

[georgel]

Most of you have probably heard about the recent rapper concert where 8 people were trampled and died due to a rush for the stage. Many more were injured. (BTW, a crowd crush is one of the scariest things I've ever experienced.) But, the side note that I found curious was this...


New accounts of the doomed concert indicated fire officials lost contact with emergency medics as the gravity of the situation overwhelmed first responders.

Houston fire department officials were unable to reach on-site medics because their cell phones went unanswered amid the chaos, USA Today reported.
Meantime, one EMT who worked the event said his two-way radio stopped functioning as emergency teams split up to help victims.

?

 

[noway2]

Hmm. Wonder if they were using something like viper radio and everyone keyed down at once? Response: Red light and a Bonk sound. Either that or they were using analog FM radios and experienced what hams call doubling.

Most of you have probably heard about the recent rapper concert

surely you jest.

 

[Zbizzle911]

Hmm. Wonder if they were using something like viper radio and everyone keyed down at once? Response: Red light and a Bonk sound. Either that or they were using analog FM radios and experienced what hams call doubling.

surely you jest.

Looks like they’re on a TDMA digital system. In other words yes it’s kind of like the viper system except it’s a phase 2 Motorola system, which is what the viper system is moving towards in the next few years.


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[georgel]

Hmm. Wonder if they were using something like viper radio and everyone keyed down at once? Response: Red light and a Bonk sound. Either that or they were using analog FM radios and experienced what hams call doubling.

surely you jest.

No, I'm not and stop calling me Shirley. 😜

 

[JBoyette]

Comm's always fail when you need them.

ITs been true is the dawn of communication where caveman bill could not light his fire.

Never, ever, ever base any plan on communications and peoples memory

 

[HMP]

I cant speak to the radios, but Ive seen phones not working in huge crowds.
Couple years back...eh, 7 or 8, I guess, I was drag racing at Rockingham the same weekend as a big music fest was going on at the speedway. Knew some folks over there that werent getting signal, and, truth be told, ours at the dragway was slow when it was working. I dont know if it has to do with so many people trying to access at once or what.

 

[CZfool68]

Most of you have probably heard about the recent rapper concert where 8 people were trampled and died due to a rush for the stage. Many more were injured. (BTW, a crowd crush is one of the scariest things I've ever experienced.) But, the side note that I found curious was this...


New accounts of the doomed concert indicated fire officials lost contact with emergency medics as the gravity of the situation overwhelmed first responders.

Houston fire department officials were unable to reach on-site medics because their cell phones went unanswered amid the chaos, USA Today reported.
Meantime, one EMT who worked the event said his two-way radio stopped functioning as emergency teams split up to help victims.

?

I’ve seen videos. They didn’t show people being trampled in a rush towards the stage. They showed people collapsing in sparse crowds. Where are those autopsy reports? 😁

Vegas all over again maybe?

 

[noway2]

I cant speak to the radios, but Ive seen phones not working in huge crowds.
Couple years back...eh, 7 or 8, I guess, I was drag racing at Rockingham the same weekend as a big music fest was going on at the speedway. Knew some folks over there that werent getting signal, and, truth be told, ours at the dragway was slow when it was working. I dont know if it has to do with so many people trying to access at once or what.

Sounds plausible. There are only a few carriers with a limited number of towers in a particular area working on a shared range of frequency. If multiple phones are all trying to communicate with the towers at the same time you're going to get radio traffic interference and have more latency as the system tries to deal with the increased traffic.