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From: john larkin <jl@650pot.com>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: AM radio law opposed by tech and auto industries is close to passing
Date: Thu, 02 May 2024 12:56:17 -0700
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On Thu, 2 May 2024 20:11:47 +0100, Martin Brown
<'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> wrote:

>On 02/05/2024 18:04, John Larkin wrote:
>> On Thu, 2 May 2024 17:03:03 +0100, Martin Brown
>> <'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> wrote:
>> 
>>> On 02/05/2024 16:18, John Larkin wrote:
>>>>
>>>> If there is a real emergency, it's crazy to require people to be
>>>> listening to the radio all the time or die.
>>>
>>> Actually it isn't a bad way to update people. You would actually say
>>> listen in every hour, three hours or fixed time daily (much like the UK
>>> met office shipping forecast) if there was a truly cataclysmic event.
>>>
>>> Cell phone network is dead after at most 2 days without mains. Main
>>> phone network after about a week but VDSL and DECT go down immediately.
>>> The latter caught a lot of people out in Storm Arwen Nov 2021.
>>>
>>> AM/FM analogue radio is about the best solution and lasts well if used
>>> sparingly. DAB radios eat batteries *very* quickly.
>> 
>> The alerts here are fast and brief, for traumatic events, tornadoes,
>> kidnappings, whatever. Listening to the radio hourly won't catch them.
>
>We don't have serious tornadoes or anything like the endemic violence of 
>the USA here. Most UK car radios these days have FM RDS which sees local 
>radio station traffic news RDS tagged automagically for updates of 
>crashes, traffic congestion and major incidents in the region.

I don't see any endemic violence, but then I stay out of rowdy pubs
and bad neighborhoods at 2AM. The big crime threats around here are
occasional double parking and Tesla charging cords on sidewalks. Not
many people waving swords around. 

(Lots of construction is done without permits, another heinous crime,
but we ignore that... live and let live.)

I did experience one tornado and many hurricanes when I lived in New
Orleans. On Mardi Gras Day, the burglarly rate went down, because all
the criminals were in the French Quarter partying too.

>
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System
>
>That breaks into whatever you happen to be listening to CD, radio, USB 
>stick or streaming internet. A few commercial stations abuse it and 
>"forget" to send the end of RDS break code or have really annoying disco 
>beat thump thump thump sounds over their traffic news announcers voice.
>> 
>> Phone alerts make more sense. AM radio is repulsive here, and FM is
>> not much better, so listening constantly for an emergency alert
>> doesn't make sense.
>
>UK also has phone alerts. They tested the system a while back. I got 
>mine about 40s *before* the alleged transmit time (not impressed) but my 
>wife with her Apple iPhone never got one at all! Probably due to the 
>network she was on rather than a serious attempt to cull iPhone users.
>> 
>> A battery powered AM radio is useful during a sustained emergency
>> without power, like a hurricane or earthquake, assuming that the AM
>> stations have power.
>
>Analogue really has the edge when it comes to low power frugal radio 
>reception in adverse conditions - power consumption is miniscule. 
>Sustained emergency is becoming an increasing risk with tensions in the 
>Middle East and Putin's Russia looking at who to invade next.

We might get a 30-second warning of an earthquake, which won't help
much. The real life-saver would be a warning of a tsunami, which might
wipe out the west coasts of Oregon and Washington  and Canada. Even a
couple of minutes heads-up would let people get to higher ground.

Firestorm-type forest fires deserve warnings too. Hazards are caused
by people building death-trap towns in badly-managed forests.

Life spans have more than doubled since 1900, so I shouldn't complain.