The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration will begin testing communication and tracking devices developed for miners by an Australian firm to determine if they are effective in underground mines.

The agency announced it will test the personal emergency devices and locator systems in mines owned by Consol Energy and St. Louis-based Peabody Energy. Both firms have mines in West Virginia, where state lawmakers on Jan. 23 passed mine-safety legislation that, among other provisions, requires owners to equip miners with those devices.

West Virginia's congressional delegation this week introduced similar federal legislation. Lawmakers in other states also have proposed or considered that requirement as well as other mine-safety reforms, spurred by incidents in which 16 West Virginia miners died and two others were seriously injured since Jan. 2.

MSHA does not currently mandate the use of the devices.

Developed by Mine Site Technologies of Australia, the personal emergency device requires installation of a surface or underground antenna loop that can radiate a low-frequency radio signal. The signal causes a miner's cap lamp to flash, alerting the miner to check a text message sent to a pager-like device on his belt.

The system can be used to send individual or group messages, MSHA officials said. Consol said it has had mixed results with PEDs in some of its underground mines. The devices also are used in other mines in the United States and elsewhere.

MSHA officials said they are surveying U.S. mines where PEDs have been used about their effectiveness and operation in mines where depth, geology and other conditions vary. They also will consider the system's dependence on power, which could be disrupted or turned off after a mine fire or explosions.

Agency officials also will consider Mine Site Technologies' Tracker IV system, which tracks tags issued to miners or attached to equipment to pinpoint their locations in underground mines or tunnels.

The tags contain transmitters that send signals to receiver beacons underground, which in turn send the information to computers that track the locations of the tags. Those systems are not in use in U.S. mines, said Bob Friend, MSHA's acting deputy assistant secretary.

MSHA officials said they also will consider the tracking systems' vulnerability to fire, explosions or roof falls that could damage their components and prevent them from functioning in an emergency. They said agency representatives will travel to Australia this month to observe the use of both systems in mines there.

Pennsylvania legislators and mining officials said last month that they, too, are considering the use of the devices.

Interest in the devices surged in West Virginia and around the country after 12 miners died and another was hurt after an explosion Jan. 2 that trapped them inside the Sago mine in Tallmansville. Less than three weeks later, two miners were trapped and killed when a fire broke out in the Aracoma Alma No. 1 mine in Melville.

Two more West Virginia miners died and another was hurt in two other mine accidents this week. The only survivor of the Sago mine explosion, Randal McCloy, 26, spent more than two weeks in a coma and is now in HealthSouth Mountainview Regional Rehabilitation Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va.

A spokeswoman for Mr. McCloy's family yesterday said his condition is continuing to improve. He cannot speak, but has shown signs of attempting to say words and has shown increased alertness and other neurological improvements, spokeswoman Aly Goodwin Gregg said.

Mr. McCloy ate a full breakfast with help from his wife, Anna, this week and has increased the amount of food he's eaten with assistance. He is now eating two to three meals a day, Ms. Gregg said.