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From: Martin Brown <'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: AM radio law opposed by tech and auto industries is close to
 passing
Date: Thu, 2 May 2024 20:11:47 +0100
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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.

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.

-- 
Martin Brown