Radio signals don’t pass through rock to reach caves, mines, and tunnels, right? You’d be excused for thinking so, because you’ve surely lost your favorite radio station, or your phone conversation, when you’ve driven into a tunnel. But things aren’t that simple. By using special techniques, radio communication between the surface and underground really is possible, and you can try it for yourself.
Commercial equipment is available for communicating with miners, but these systems are massively expensive and not really portable. But cave explorers also need to talk to their colleagues on the surface — we’ll see why later — and cavers’ needs have been met, in the main, by the maker community. What’s more, there’s still plenty of scope here for devising new equipment and new techniques. So if you want to take up a new and unusual challenge, or if you just want to learn how cave radio is even possible, join us on this voyage of discovery into subterranean communication.