4 ms·

It's a phone for emergencies in built up areas. It strikes me as odd it's received so many awards. Then I learn it's offered on contract, OK only $25 a year,

It's a phone for emergencies in built up areas. It strikes me as odd it's received so many awards. Then I learn it's offered on contract, OK only $25 a year, but peace of mind against what scenarios exactly? If you're on the edge of signal you'll lose data and voice then SMS last. Mainly because SMS is small enough to slip through in 1-5s intermittent connections. UK Emergency services and mountain rescue use SMS extensively, but backed up by other channels - radio, sat phone and what have you. So I could perhaps understand a cut-down text device, but voice? Hmmm. Even a 121.5 transceiver, cheap and AAA powered, would be a better idea.

Klinky 10y ago
There have been events where power is lost for extended periods in developed areas. Hurricane Katrina would be a good example of people being trapped without basic services inside a major metro. Tornadoes, flooding, wildfires, and ice storms are other examples. A smartphone would last 1 - 2 days before going offline. Less if you used it actively. It might also get stolen.
- hga 10y ago
  Tornadoes Speaking from very personal experience, as in I was living on a high spot in Joplin, MO right at the southern edge of the "zone of total destruction" when the 2011 tornado hit, one cell tower hit the stack of apartments to the east of me, and the other landed on part of the parking/access road area just to the west of me. ADDED: I forgot that the "before" picture I picked up (from the eeevil Daily Mail, this is one area where they excel), shows the original positions of the towers: http://www.ancell-ent.com/1715_Rex_Ave_127B_Joplin/images/ http://www.ancell-ent.com/1715_Rex_Ave_127B_Joplin/images/ From the perspective of the picture, east is up and a bit to the right, the towers fell up and more to the left (counterclockwise). But tornadoes have several saving graces, including that their path, even for an EF-5 monster like that one, is relatively narrow. As in I could walk beyond its effects, only a few blocks north, and while I can't remember if I had still had cell service while in my trashed apartment, I easily had it once I'd relocated to my mother's home ~15 block north of the path. 2 days later, I think it was, I was able to return, and by then AT&T? had a temporary cell tower running on a generator next to the spot of one of downed cell towers, using a point to point antenna to connect it to the rest of their network. This characteristic allows massive surging of resources to the affected area, e.g. as I left my apartment complex within 1-2 hours, fire trucks from 40 miles (Lamar, distance by road) and 21 miles (Quapaw tribe in Oklohoma, with which the city has a close relationship) were there and men were already suiting up to search the complex.
  - msisk6 10y ago
    I was in Joplin right after the tornado and had a somewhat different experience. I grew up there and my folks still lived there at the time not far from St. Johns Hospital (the one that was hit and featured in most of the news). I was working at a startup in Oregon when a friend in Joplin called right after the tornado went though town. A quick look at the news told me all I needed to know and I immediately packed up my Jeep with emergency supplies and headed out for a non-stop drive from Portland to Joplin. I got there late on the 2nd day and the place was still in shambles. No cell signal in the disaster zone at all. My folks house was spared major damage (neighbors on either side and behind weren't so lucky) but they lost power, cable, and land-line when a falling tree ripped the feeds and power meter off the house. I had an AT&T phone and it was mostly useless for about a week. Even after the temp towers went up (and there was one not very far away) the network was saturated with emergency workers. OTOH, my Iridium worked just fine. Too bad my folks didn't have one -- I didn't know their status until I got there in person. I'm don't see a whole lot of value in a device like this. Any sort of natural disaster is likely to tear up the infrastructure a traditional cell phone depends on.
    - hga 10y ago
      Ah, I make no claims about how good cell phone coverage was in the disaster area for the first week, mostly about how it was if you just traveled a short distance from it. Although I think I recall it not being bad in subsequent weeks, and, I would be using it from the edge of the zone of total destruction, and a hundred feet or so away from what was likely a tower of my provider. But I wasn't using it heavily there, at most for coordination while on-site removing stuff from my apartment. You were also several miles to my west, in the direction the tornado came from. I also had the advantage of being on a hill, that might not have been true for you. But we agree in that such a device is not to be depended upon; I'd say at best something to hold in reserve, and mention of affordable emergency Iridium systems like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11701692 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11701692 has gotten my interest.
- semi-extrinsic 10y ago
  > A smartphone would last 1 - 2 days before going offline. If we assume a 50% charge at crisis start, and a rational response by the person using it: * Turn off wifi, cellular data, bluetooth, other unneccesary stuff * Turn screen brightness to minimum * Send only text messages * Don't use phone unless sending or receiving important message any decent smartphone will last 4 days or more. Example: I have a midrange Samsung A5 for an office phone (mandatory company rules). With wifi and 4G enabled, but only being used to check the occasional message. It lasts 8 days on a charge.
  - Klinky 10y ago
    All you need is a runaway process to chew through your battery in an hour or two. One time Facebook kept chewing up gobs of power despite me not using it very often, and it seemed to be because it wanted me to sign in again or something inane like that.
    - semi-extrinsic 10y ago
      Yet another reason for not having the Facebook app installed. They have a fully functional mobile website, you know, which doesn't compromise all aspects of your privacy.
neurotech1 10y ago
121.5 MHz is no longer satellite monitored for ELT/PLBs. That and its the VHF Aviation Emergency/Guard channel. 121.5 Mhz Emergency Channel is for aviation usage only (other than older PLBs) although if you had a multi-band handheld transceiver (in a genuine emergency) it would probably be useful to communicate with rescue helicopters etc.
- anexprogrammer 10y ago
  Hm.. Thought it had opened up to a more general guard emergency only freq when they added PLBs to it - SAR, coastguard etc. I'm not current with aviation any more so the off the cuff thought could be very silly. :)
  - neurotech1 10y ago
    Not officially. Using aviation channels for frivolous non-aviation uses can result in FAA/FCC/FBI getting involved. The 121.5 beacon actually interferes with Emergency voice transmissions, so downed pilots sometimes shut them off in order to talk to rescue crews etc. without a beeping noise :)

Klinky 10y ago

There have been events where power is lost for extended periods in developed areas. Hurricane Katrina would be a good example of people being trapped without basic services inside a major metro. Tornadoes, flooding, wildfires, and ice storms are other examples. A smartphone would last 1 - 2 days before going offline. Less if you used it actively. It might also get stolen.

hga 10y ago
Tornadoes Speaking from very personal experience, as in I was living on a high spot in Joplin, MO right at the southern edge of the "zone of total destruction" when the 2011 tornado hit, one cell tower hit the stack of apartments to the east of me, and the other landed on part of the parking/access road area just to the west of me. ADDED: I forgot that the "before" picture I picked up (from the eeevil Daily Mail, this is one area where they excel), shows the original positions of the towers: http://www.ancell-ent.com/1715_Rex_Ave_127B_Joplin/images/ http://www.ancell-ent.com/1715_Rex_Ave_127B_Joplin/images/ From the perspective of the picture, east is up and a bit to the right, the towers fell up and more to the left (counterclockwise). But tornadoes have several saving graces, including that their path, even for an EF-5 monster like that one, is relatively narrow. As in I could walk beyond its effects, only a few blocks north, and while I can't remember if I had still had cell service while in my trashed apartment, I easily had it once I'd relocated to my mother's home ~15 block north of the path. 2 days later, I think it was, I was able to return, and by then AT&T? had a temporary cell tower running on a generator next to the spot of one of downed cell towers, using a point to point antenna to connect it to the rest of their network. This characteristic allows massive surging of resources to the affected area, e.g. as I left my apartment complex within 1-2 hours, fire trucks from 40 miles (Lamar, distance by road) and 21 miles (Quapaw tribe in Oklohoma, with which the city has a close relationship) were there and men were already suiting up to search the complex.
- msisk6 10y ago
  I was in Joplin right after the tornado and had a somewhat different experience. I grew up there and my folks still lived there at the time not far from St. Johns Hospital (the one that was hit and featured in most of the news). I was working at a startup in Oregon when a friend in Joplin called right after the tornado went though town. A quick look at the news told me all I needed to know and I immediately packed up my Jeep with emergency supplies and headed out for a non-stop drive from Portland to Joplin. I got there late on the 2nd day and the place was still in shambles. No cell signal in the disaster zone at all. My folks house was spared major damage (neighbors on either side and behind weren't so lucky) but they lost power, cable, and land-line when a falling tree ripped the feeds and power meter off the house. I had an AT&T phone and it was mostly useless for about a week. Even after the temp towers went up (and there was one not very far away) the network was saturated with emergency workers. OTOH, my Iridium worked just fine. Too bad my folks didn't have one -- I didn't know their status until I got there in person. I'm don't see a whole lot of value in a device like this. Any sort of natural disaster is likely to tear up the infrastructure a traditional cell phone depends on.
  - hga 10y ago
    Ah, I make no claims about how good cell phone coverage was in the disaster area for the first week, mostly about how it was if you just traveled a short distance from it. Although I think I recall it not being bad in subsequent weeks, and, I would be using it from the edge of the zone of total destruction, and a hundred feet or so away from what was likely a tower of my provider. But I wasn't using it heavily there, at most for coordination while on-site removing stuff from my apartment. You were also several miles to my west, in the direction the tornado came from. I also had the advantage of being on a hill, that might not have been true for you. But we agree in that such a device is not to be depended upon; I'd say at best something to hold in reserve, and mention of affordable emergency Iridium systems like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11701692 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11701692 has gotten my interest.
semi-extrinsic 10y ago
> A smartphone would last 1 - 2 days before going offline. If we assume a 50% charge at crisis start, and a rational response by the person using it: * Turn off wifi, cellular data, bluetooth, other unneccesary stuff * Turn screen brightness to minimum * Send only text messages * Don't use phone unless sending or receiving important message any decent smartphone will last 4 days or more. Example: I have a midrange Samsung A5 for an office phone (mandatory company rules). With wifi and 4G enabled, but only being used to check the occasional message. It lasts 8 days on a charge.
- Klinky 10y ago
  All you need is a runaway process to chew through your battery in an hour or two. One time Facebook kept chewing up gobs of power despite me not using it very often, and it seemed to be because it wanted me to sign in again or something inane like that.
  - semi-extrinsic 10y ago
    Yet another reason for not having the Facebook app installed. They have a fully functional mobile website, you know, which doesn't compromise all aspects of your privacy.

neurotech1 10y ago

121.5 MHz is no longer satellite monitored for ELT/PLBs. That and its the VHF Aviation Emergency/Guard channel. 121.5 Mhz Emergency Channel is for aviation usage only (other than older PLBs) although if you had a multi-band handheld transceiver (in a genuine emergency) it would probably be useful to communicate with rescue helicopters etc.

anexprogrammer 10y ago
Hm.. Thought it had opened up to a more general guard emergency only freq when they added PLBs to it - SAR, coastguard etc. I'm not current with aviation any more so the off the cuff thought could be very silly. :)
- neurotech1 10y ago
  Not officially. Using aviation channels for frivolous non-aviation uses can result in FAA/FCC/FBI getting involved. The 121.5 beacon actually interferes with Emergency voice transmissions, so downed pilots sometimes shut them off in order to talk to rescue crews etc. without a beeping noise :)