Since the disasters of September 11th, "propagation (of radio waves) through building rubble is a new realm in the study of radio signals," says Science News Online.
The NIST has been working with demolition companies blasting doomed structures into rubble to find out how radio waves travel or do not travel through the rubble of fallen structures. They plant transmitters representing signals from cell phones to walkie talkies throughout a structure and then collect data after the blast and implosion of the structure.
The article states that the NIST engineers have collected data from the demolition of Veteran's Stadium in Philadelphia, a 14 story apartment complex in New Orleans and a Washington DC convention center leveled last December.
Seeding repeaters?
