The International Association of Fire Chiefs' digital project working group released its Interim Report and Recommendations: Fireground Noise and Digital Radio Transmissions. This report culminates a year’s work with public-safety organizations, manufacturers and the laboratory services of the federal government to determine the extent of radio transmission problems associated with fireground noise.

Two companion reports also are posted on the IAFC site: the IAFC Portable Radio Best Practices presentation; and the National Telecommunications & Information Administration Report, Intelligibility of Selected Radio Systems in the Presence of Fireground Noise: Test Plan and Results.

The intent of the interim report is to alert the fire service that noise on the fireground can interfere with intelligible radio communications. The report is organized into sections that provide background on the issue, the steps the digital project working group took to investigate the problem in an objective laboratory setting, the results of the testing and corresponding analysis and recommendations, and best operational practices.

The report includes conclusions based on nine months of laboratory testing conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and National Telecommunications and Information Administration. An important part of the report is the set of recommendations for the fire service, the federal government and industry; some of what those cover are:

• The development of standards and guidelines concerning public-safety communications intelligibility.
• Additional research, a broader review of standards and a gap analysis that addresses factors of communication systems, including but not limited to intelligibility, use practices, maintenance and alignment.
• Enhancing digital technologies to achieve the same or better level of the intelligibility quality of analog.
• Increased coordination and collaboration of government, public safety and industry.

The report also contains recommendations from the working group’s best practices task group, which has developed procedures and identified technical issues for consideration when radios are used in the field. The full report may be found at www.iafc.org/digitalproblem.

The digital project working group and its task groups will continue their work. The testing task group will engage in further testing to delineate the problem and investigate technical ways to resolve the identified problems. The best practices task group will focus on investigating the best practices and training available to mitigate the known issues.