First Secretary Bounnhang Keosavang, Embassy of Laos, Washington, DC accepts a donation of 15 GA-72Cd magnetic locators from Michael B. Head, President, Schonstedt Instrument Company. The instruments will be used to find and clear cluster munitions in one of the world’s most contaminated countries. Also present for the occasion were Max Gaylard, Director, United Nations Mine Action Service, as well as dignitaries from the U.S. Department of State, the offices of U.S. Senators Byrd and Rockefeller, U.S. Representative Capito and West Virginia Governor Manchin. The ceremony underscored Schonstedt’s open-ended commitment of free tools for global humanitarian demining.

Schonstedt Instrument Company recently teamed with the U.S. Department of State to provide demining tools to underserved areas of the world. The donated equipment is made possible by – and in the name of – Schonstedt customers, nonprofit organizations and individual donors. United Nations humanitarian demining teams are currently using the donated equipment in Laos, Somalia, Kenya and Tajikistan. There, on a daily basis, they find and clear explosive remnants of war such as cluster bombs, grenades, mortars, shells and landmines.

This picture shows Schull mountain with the settlement nestling at its base. During the war, the mountains all along the Rasht Valley were cluster bombed with ShOAB and AO submunitions. The aluminum alloy casing of a ShOAB is visible on the right, and the rusted steel of an AO on the left. The town of Gharm in the Rasht Valley, central Tajikistan, is surrounded by steep hills and snow-capped mountains. During the civil war, some places on the high ground were defended with earthworks and trenches, the remains of which are still visible. These were mined defensively. Reports suggest that…

Tackling Tajikistan’s cluster bombs By Natalia Antelava BBC News, Rashd Valley, Tajikistan High above the mulberry orchards and rolling hills of the Rashd Valley, and just beneath the soaring snow-covered peaks, lies the village of Chor Charokh. Donkeys wander amid the mud huts, and women in traditional colourful headscarves shy away from visitors. A group of small children, happily oblivious to the poverty that surrounds them, scream and laugh as they chase a dog along a stream. None of these children were born when the government and the opposition fought for control of these mountains. Yet, in a way, for…

The Schonstedt Humanitarian Demining Initiative, a program launched earlier in the year, has responded to an urgent request from the United Nations to provide five magnetic locators for removal of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Tajikistan. The tools will be used to detect live but unexploded submunitions (cluster bombs) on mountainsides. Due to the spring snowmelt, the bomblets are rolling down the mountains and into the town below. The Chief Technical Advisor on-site will launch an effort to locate the remaining munitions before they, too, dislodge. Schonstedt donated the units as part of its teaming effort with the United Nations to…

Responding to customer input, Schonstedt Instrument Company has significantly boosted the audio output of its GA-92XT expandable locator. The company’s recent redesign of the processor board has resulted in an average increase in sound pressure level (SPL) from 103 decibels to 115 decibels, at a distance of 2″” from the speaker. While SPL measurements are highly dependent on the frequency of the sound and the distance from the source, this improvement can be put into context as follows: • 103 db is about the SPL measured from a jack hammer at a distance of 3 feet • 115 db is…

Schonstedt Instrument Company and the United Nations Mine Action Team have identified the International Mine Action Training Center, Nairobi, Kenya as the first recipient of free demining equipment under the Schonstedt Humanitarian Demining Initiative. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6757535.stm