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The external solution assumes that all equipment
including the Airwave terminal will be in contact with the contaminant
agent, and therefore will remain inside the inner cordon for the
duration of the incident. It is designed to be as simple as possible
with the minimum number of wires. This means that as officers come
out of the cordon for rest periods and shift changeover, the entire
communications kit can be removed very quickly and handed over
to the next officer going in. This can be accomplished in less
than one minute with no specialised knowledge being required.
It consists of the Airwave terminal, a simple carrying harness
with straps going round the wearer’s shoulders, and a single
cable to a headset which is worn outside the PPE hood. Instead
of earphones, this headset uses vibrating transducers which press
gently on the wearers cheekbones through the hood material and
allow speech to be heard through the facial bone structure. An
added benefit is that the ears remain free so outside sounds may
be heard easily.
The microphone is mounted on a flexible boom and is placed adjacent
to the speech module of the respirator. A small bore aluminium
tube is fastened round the speech module with its open end facing
into it. A thin rubber tube connects from an adapter on the microphone
to its other end. This helps direct the speech from the respirator
speech module directly into the microphone.
For clarity, the headset is shown worn without the hood. |
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