APX6000 Xtreme: trial by fire

[MTS2000des]

This story amazed me, surprised this much is left of this APX6000XE, this fire caused 7 injuries, two critical, to firefighters in Prince George County MD this past weekend. A scorched APX still looks surprisingly recognizable after being broiled. Looks like the RSM is gone. Wonder if it would still power up with a housing change?

On the downside, two firefighters are still in the hospital, one with burns on 40 percent of his body, and will be in for months and years of painful rehab. And to think some douche nozzle set this fire.

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=740&sid=2767386

[MTS2000des]

One of many news stories, including a shot of the scorched APX carried by one of the injured firefighters.

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/02/ri ... 73044.html

We have a similar problem in Atlanta with some losers lighting up abandoned homes. No major firefighter injuries or toasted radios though.

[radioeng462]

What is the point of this post?. The firefighters were seriously hurt, who cares what the radio looks like. My prayers are for the injured firemen.

[FireCpt809]

The point is Mr 10 posts. Is the durability and reliablity of the APX6000 radio under real life conditons.

[nrembis]

The Firefighters shouldnt have even been in that building... Risk A Little To Save a Little, Risk Alot To Save Alot!

they said it was an unoccupied building, no entrapment, why risk it? Fight it from the outside, go defensive. Sad Firefighters got hurt, but couldnt been prevented.....just sayin!

Besides, the radio didnt survive, it was ruined, nothing against Motorola, no radio woulda survived that, so durability and survivability flew out the window on that one!

[FireCpt809]

Im not going to armchair quarterback a call I wasnt on. They had their reasons for going in. I have been on both sides of the topic, I can have some insite being involved in the fire service and radios for over 25 yrs. The topic has to do with the APX. if it was exposed to that kind of heat it would be a liabitiy to put back in service no one in their right mind would. It would be intresting to recase it and see if it still would operate normally and to spec.

[MTS2000des]

The point is Mr 10 posts. Is the durability and reliablity of the APX6000 radio under real life conditons.

stole the words right from me.

this is after all a MOTOROLA radio discussion board, and I found it interesting the agency displayed the radio showing how intense the fire conditions were. I was amazed it is as intact as it is. FireCpt809, you're right I would NEVER advocate placing the unit back into service, nor any gear pushed beyond design limits, but I am curious as well if the electronics survived. I've gotten radios on my bench that fell out of turnout coats and were crispy critters or laid in 6" of sooty mud and a housing change and came to life and worked perfectly. In fact, I have an HT1000 that suffered such a fate and is in my collection. For the record no firefighters or civilians were harmed, just radio plastic.

On another note, in the NIST tests conducted a couple of years back, they exposed three different radios, all high end digital portables, to a simulator for class I-III. They placed the radios both inside a simulated pocket of a turnout coat and outside directly in the heated airflow. The results were interesting. RSM's were also tested. The RSM's seem to be a weak point. None the less, it the results were interesting. They did not mention the names or models of the units, but all were current market product high end digital portables.

http://www.fire.nist.gov/bfrlpubs/NIST_TN_1477.pdf

NIST also has a continuing project to test all firefighter gear including PASS alarms and radios they started last October:

http://www.nist.gov/el/fire_research/fi ... pequip.cfm

[bezking]

IDK but the battery on that scorched radio actually looks salvageable...

[MTS2000des]

you can see the Motorola logo clearly on the battery. the control top looks like it took the majority of the heat, the RSM was obviously completely destroyed beyond recognition as only the charred wiring remains, looks like the UC is melted and fused to the radio body itself.

[resqguy911]

More information about the survival of this particular radio is sure to come out after the investigation. We may be surprised by what actually remains under the camouflage of soot. San Francisco just published a report that includes radio data. Even the venerable XTS5000 is a pretty tough radio under fire. The common failure in both seems to be the rubber coated RSM cable. Fortunately, we have smart people working on this issue similar to the digital noise problem. http://statter911.com/files/2012/02/Saf ... ntable.pdf

[MTS2000des]

read the SFFD LODD report, and the radio testing showed both an XTS5K and 3K, and they worked fine and had no internal damage. It also mentioned Lion Apparel was working to design a protective sleeve for turnout coats that would protect RSM cabling. I can see this as a good thing, but also might restrict where a firefighter carries his/her radio, and how they wear the RSM. Of course said sleeve would not protect the RSM head itself, so it would still have to be hardened as well, I would say the industry needs to step up and at least make a ruggedized RSM that can survive short term class III exposures with no damage or functional degradation.

[FireCpt809]

That exact reason is why I carry my XTS5000 on a FDNY style strap and holster under my bunker coat. The radio is protected by the bottom of my coat. The only thing exposed is the Commander II mic, and even that is more or less protected just under the bottom of my mask. I can control the volume and channel selector without even taking the radio out. The mic cord is safe under my coat.

[Winger2002]

With the strap tho your compromising the positioning, the signal is more susceptible to to absorbed by the body and your also covering the antenna with a metalized fabric. Not saying it doesnt solve the heat issue and not trying to bash (I sometimes use a strap), I just think theres gotta be a solution out there.

[FireCpt809]

What metalized fabric? Its PBI Nomex. Its on VHF I have never had a problem with TX or RX on the dispatch repeater or simplex Fireground.