4 ms·

Forget "will" and try "do." If power to the cell towers is out, you get no emergency info. This used to be a yearly occurrence back when I lived in a more rural

Forget "will" and try "do." If power to the cell towers is out, you get no emergency info. This used to be a yearly occurrence back when I lived in a more rural area. Just as you keep flashlights around, you've got to keep an AM/FM radio around.

niftich 9y ago
Also, for reasons that aren't entirely clear to me, weather/emergency radio in the US, run by NOAA, is FM on a different VHF band between 162.4 MHz and 162.55 MHz, which most run-of-the-mill receivers don't tune. To be emergency-prepared in the US, you are wise to own such a weather band radio, a lot of which come with built-in hand-crank dynamos, flashlights, and other features useful in a dicey situation. However, this development does segregate the most useful set of government-run emergency functionality away from ordinary consumer devices and into a special product category.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- nherment 9y ago
  I will venture ahead and point out that 162MHz is within (or close to?) the Marine VHF band. Guessing that historically the need for weather broadcasts was from marine navigation it would make sense that the weather forecast have stayed on these frequencies.
chimeracoder 9y ago
> Forget "will" and try "do." If power to the cell towers is out, you get no emergency info. This used to be a yearly occurrence back when I lived in a more rural area. Or, only five years ago, for me living in downtown Manhattan (when Hurricane Sandy hit). The next morning, all cell service was completely offline (in addition to us having no power).
- vvanders 9y ago
  In the case of large events they can easily overload cell networks as well. That happened in the Boston Marathon bombing[1]. Thankfully there was already hams running communication for the event and could get messages through when the towers were down. [1] http://www.arrl.org/news/radio-amateurs-provide-communication-support-in-boston-marathon-bombings-updated http://www.arrl.org/news/radio-amateurs-provide-communicatio...

niftich 9y ago

Also, for reasons that aren't entirely clear to me, weather/emergency radio in the US, run by NOAA, is FM on a different VHF band between 162.4 MHz and 162.55 MHz, which most run-of-the-mill receivers don't tune. To be emergency-prepared in the US, you are wise to own such a weather band radio, a lot of which come with built-in hand-crank dynamos, flashlights, and other features useful in a dicey situation. However, this development does segregate the most useful set of government-run emergency functionality away from ordinary consumer devices and into a special product category.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
nherment 9y ago
I will venture ahead and point out that 162MHz is within (or close to?) the Marine VHF band. Guessing that historically the need for weather broadcasts was from marine navigation it would make sense that the weather forecast have stayed on these frequencies.

chimeracoder 9y ago

> Forget "will" and try "do." If power to the cell towers is out, you get no emergency info. This used to be a yearly occurrence back when I lived in a more rural area. Or, only five years ago, for me living in downtown Manhattan (when Hurricane Sandy hit). The next morning, all cell service was completely offline (in addition to us having no power).

vvanders 9y ago
In the case of large events they can easily overload cell networks as well. That happened in the Boston Marathon bombing[1]. Thankfully there was already hams running communication for the event and could get messages through when the towers were down. [1] http://www.arrl.org/news/radio-amateurs-provide-communication-support-in-boston-marathon-bombings-updated http://www.arrl.org/news/radio-amateurs-provide-communicatio...