The phrase “embedded reporter” has become part of the common vernacular.

Even before the Iraq war began in March, executives debated the challenges they would face operating inside a technologically primitive country.

News may be happening at a rapid-fire pace, but without a connection, journalists can’t get information back to their home office.

The forthcoming SwiftLink 1200 consumer version will greatly resemble the military version pictured here. It enables worldwide voice, data and Internet communication using the existing Inmarsat satellite network.
Photo: TeleCommunication Systems

Mix in the hostile environment of a war zone, and it’s no surprise that reporters and photographers are in for rough sledding.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (daily, 287,424; Sunday, 468,134) came up against those challenges firsthand. When the Pentagon announced that it would be embedding reporters with troops going to Iraq, the paper quickly signed up to participate.

According to Tim Poor, national and foreign editor, the newspaper thought that embedding would be the safest way to cover the war from the ground. What’s more, he said, embedding would give Post-Dispatch readers information they wouldn’t necessarily get from wire services.

“All of our reporters and photographers in the field have received special training,” Poor said. “One reporter went to one of the Pentagon’s boot camps for journalists. We sent the rest to training sessions offered by private companies on self-protection and chemical and biological weapons suits.”

Each person deployed was issued a bulletproof vest with ballistic plates front and back, designed to protect against higher-caliber military rounds. Besides the chemical protection suits, gear included boots, combat packs with built-in water holders and Kevlar helmets.

But combat training was only part of the equation. Journalists also had to become familiar with the equipment they needed to transmit stories back to editors’ desks.

Although journalists took along a number of different phones, a reliable connection was still not guaranteed.

Among the phones used was a satellite phone, the Inmarsat Nera M-4 Communicator. The phone, the largest unit sent to Iraq, is about the size of a briefcase, weighs 10 pounds and costs around $8,000.

During the initial days of the war, the phone worked well, allowing Post-Dispatch photographer Andrew Cutraro to send 12 photos in about 15 minutes.

By the war’s third day, however, so many journalists were using the phones that it often became impossible to get a reliable satellite link.

“Our satellite phone (Inmarsat) has performed only sporadically,” Poor said. “We’ve gotten it up to talk on, but have had problems filing. Some stories have had to be dictated. Interestingly, the Iridium satellite phones, which we had trouble filing stories and photos on in the past, have turned out to be fairly reliable in Iraq, at least for voice communications.”

In response, Poor said the next contingent of Post-Dispatch reporters will be equipped with an Iridium phone as well as a phone outfitted with a regional broadband global area network modem. (RBGAN modems can send data at rates of up to 432 kilobytes per second).

Iridium flamed out in spectacular fashion in March 2000 after less than two years of service, losing investors billions in the process, but was later bought by a consortium of four companies in December 2000 and renamed Iridium Satellite LLC.

The staff from the Post-Dispatch took two Motorola Iridium 9500 phones. Each weighs one pound and costs $750.

The RBGAN phones weigh about 3.3 pounds, cost about $1,500 and offer high-speed transmission of photos and stories, but do not accommodate voice.

The Post-Dispatch journalists also tried to use other ways to keep in touch. Like many other correspondents, the reporters also purchased a French Thuraya Satellite Communications Co. phone while they were in Kuwait.

But U.S. military overseers said the reporters could not use the phone because the signal could be traced by enemy artillery positions.

Due to the time delay between Iraq and the United States, filing typically comes at a time that worked out well for the Post-Dispatch’s print production schedule.

Stories are posted online, meanwhile, as soon as they are edited.

“We had one story that was dictated around 10:45 p.m. our time and we got it in the next day’s paper,” Poor said. “The time difference — Iraq is nine hours ahead — should mean that the stories should be filed early and give us plenty of time. But periodic communications blackouts, the unpredictable schedule of the troops and our equipment problems have made it anybody’s guess as to when we’ll see a story or hear from our reporter.”