8 ms·

> So if you're not in the habit of turning on the local station because of crappy programming (like me), then you should at least be willing to find a local sta

> So if you're not in the habit of turning on the local station because of crappy programming (like me), then you should at least be willing to find a local station during weather. How would I even go about doing that? The only display devices I have are monitors. Even for radio, I would have to go to my car to listen.

qbasic_forever 5y ago
Part of living in an area prone to certain disasters is being prepared to deal with them. Get a small weather radio.
- techdragon 5y ago
  But I would have to listen to its crap all the time waiting for the rare signal I actually want from it. Edit: having continued reading more comments and googling what the fuck a “weather radio” is… I’m now deeply annoyed at the fact I have no equivalent living in Australia. I could look at a global weather service like Navtex but I’m actually not interested in the weather, i just want a way to get emergency broadcast warnings without relying on my phone. The system in Australia doesn’t use cell broadcast it uses a shitty alternative, they are tendering for a replacement that does use cell broadcast but who knows when that will actually be running. Since I have zero trust in the current system I’d like a way to get critical emergency notices without having to develop a habit of paranoid checking emergency websites or building my own fragile alert system using their RSS feeds or something like that.
  - floatingatoll 5y ago
    If it’s of any comfort, there used to be a lot less severe weather to need a radio for, and no one’s quite caught up to the reality of it yet.
  - qbasic_forever 5y ago
    The thing about severe weather is you can tell when it's happening. Tornadoes don't typically drop out of the clear blue sky. If it's a heavy thunderstorm and the weather forecast for the day calls for torando watches then keep the radio on and nearby. This doesn't have to be complicated.
bargle0 5y ago
Get an emergency radio. They’re not expensive.
Crosseye_Jack 5y ago
If getting a cheap TV is out of the question. Get a cheap USB TV Tuner (and prob a decent portable aerial, the ones that come with cheap USB TV Tuners are OK if you live in a strong signal area, but you might need something a bit better if not). It comes with the side effect of being a decent SDR for tuning into all sorts of things not just your local TV stations :-) Also get a cheap battery operated radio and a stock of batteries for it. Batteries don't last forever in storage, so replace them every now and then (check the expiry date on the pack) and don't leave the batteries in the radio but next to it (saves them leaking over the contacts, last thing you want to do when you NEED the radio is having to take it apart to clean the battery contacts or hunting for the batteries that fit it). EDIT: Also something to put on your list, A decent flashlight. Your phone is great, but if you have a power outage then you will want to kepe that charge for actual phone calls.
- mortenjorck 5y ago
  > It comes with the side effect of being a decent SDR for tuning into all sorts of things not just your local TV stations :-) USB broadcast tuners can be repurposed as software-defined radios? That sounds like a few Amazon and GitHub links I’d be very curious to see!
  - jasonjayr 5y ago
    https://www.adafruit.com/product/1497 https://www.adafruit.com/product/1497 <-- is relatively affordable But most of the cheap ones ($20 and less) are just DTV receivers that happen to be able to provide a signal that SDR tools can utilize. More information about this: https://www.rtl-sdr.com/about-rtl-sdr/ https://www.rtl-sdr.com/about-rtl-sdr/
  - jerry_tk 5y ago
    I think https://www.rtl-sdr.com/ https://www.rtl-sdr.com/ would be a good place to start learning about SDR USB sticks. But beware -'this rabbit hole goes deep!
Waterluvian 5y ago
FM radio and ATSC TV are still things despite the presence of new media. And the hardware is cheaper than it’s ever been. A television is like fifty or sixty bucks on sale. It’s ridiculous. I remember as a kid so badly wanting a small 12” TV and it was like $250.
kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
If you can get an antenna up then there are Ethernet-connected HDTV tuners you can use to pick up OTA.
dylan604 5y ago
Are you being pedantic with no information on how to receive local broadcasts because you've chosen to not have TV/radio/etc, or are you really just unaware of how to do this on modern equipment? Many responses answer if it is the latter, for the former, well, go back under your bridge troll ;-)
- SECProto 5y ago
  I was being pedantic. But also truthful, in that I do not have a tv and the only radio is in my car.
  - dylan604 5y ago
    That's what I thought. So, the onus is on you to stay informed. Society has put in place many many ways to notify of severe weather. You have elected to use none. Don't be the next statistic.
    - SECProto 5y ago
      The onus is indeed on me. When I've lived in places with rare susceptibility to tornados, they use the emergency alert system. When I lived somewhere with susceptibility to north korea firing missiles overhead, they have an air raid siren. When I lived somewhere the only weather danger is hurricanes, I just check the weather forecast.
hyakosm 5y ago
In my city, the public local station (CBFT-2) is broadcasting news and some other emissions on the Web. But I love my cheap ATSC tuner "converter box": can be useful in case of network outage, it can also record programs on a USB drive and play a lot of video files. Sadly, it's difficult to find an ATSC dongle for computer, they're less popular and more expensive than DVB dongles.
heavyset_go 5y ago
> How would I even go about doing that? The only display devices I have are monitors. Buy a $15 DTV tuner and antenna and hook them up to a monitor. You're being blasted with free HDTV over the air.
- SECProto 5y ago
  I live fairly remotely in Canada and I'm not - I believe CBC may be available but I'm not certain It was somewhat rhetorical, as I have access to weather alerts via the internet and am not in an area vulnerable to tornados or earthquakes.
barbazoo 5y ago
Get a radio and batteries. It's part of being prepared for an emergency.
pigbearpig 5y ago
Wow. Go to their website, Twitter, whatever. Spend $15 on a weather radio with alerts. It’s really not as hard as you’re making it out to be.

qbasic_forever 5y ago

Part of living in an area prone to certain disasters is being prepared to deal with them. Get a small weather radio.

techdragon 5y ago
But I would have to listen to its crap all the time waiting for the rare signal I actually want from it. Edit: having continued reading more comments and googling what the fuck a “weather radio” is… I’m now deeply annoyed at the fact I have no equivalent living in Australia. I could look at a global weather service like Navtex but I’m actually not interested in the weather, i just want a way to get emergency broadcast warnings without relying on my phone. The system in Australia doesn’t use cell broadcast it uses a shitty alternative, they are tendering for a replacement that does use cell broadcast but who knows when that will actually be running. Since I have zero trust in the current system I’d like a way to get critical emergency notices without having to develop a habit of paranoid checking emergency websites or building my own fragile alert system using their RSS feeds or something like that.
- floatingatoll 5y ago
  If it’s of any comfort, there used to be a lot less severe weather to need a radio for, and no one’s quite caught up to the reality of it yet.
- qbasic_forever 5y ago
  The thing about severe weather is you can tell when it's happening. Tornadoes don't typically drop out of the clear blue sky. If it's a heavy thunderstorm and the weather forecast for the day calls for torando watches then keep the radio on and nearby. This doesn't have to be complicated.

bargle0 5y ago

Get an emergency radio. They’re not expensive.

Crosseye_Jack 5y ago

If getting a cheap TV is out of the question. Get a cheap USB TV Tuner (and prob a decent portable aerial, the ones that come with cheap USB TV Tuners are OK if you live in a strong signal area, but you might need something a bit better if not). It comes with the side effect of being a decent SDR for tuning into all sorts of things not just your local TV stations :-) Also get a cheap battery operated radio and a stock of batteries for it. Batteries don't last forever in storage, so replace them every now and then (check the expiry date on the pack) and don't leave the batteries in the radio but next to it (saves them leaking over the contacts, last thing you want to do when you NEED the radio is having to take it apart to clean the battery contacts or hunting for the batteries that fit it). EDIT: Also something to put on your list, A decent flashlight. Your phone is great, but if you have a power outage then you will want to kepe that charge for actual phone calls.

mortenjorck 5y ago
> It comes with the side effect of being a decent SDR for tuning into all sorts of things not just your local TV stations :-) USB broadcast tuners can be repurposed as software-defined radios? That sounds like a few Amazon and GitHub links I’d be very curious to see!
- jasonjayr 5y ago
  https://www.adafruit.com/product/1497 https://www.adafruit.com/product/1497 <-- is relatively affordable But most of the cheap ones ($20 and less) are just DTV receivers that happen to be able to provide a signal that SDR tools can utilize. More information about this: https://www.rtl-sdr.com/about-rtl-sdr/ https://www.rtl-sdr.com/about-rtl-sdr/
- jerry_tk 5y ago
  I think https://www.rtl-sdr.com/ https://www.rtl-sdr.com/ would be a good place to start learning about SDR USB sticks. But beware -'this rabbit hole goes deep!

Waterluvian 5y ago

FM radio and ATSC TV are still things despite the presence of new media. And the hardware is cheaper than it’s ever been. A television is like fifty or sixty bucks on sale. It’s ridiculous. I remember as a kid so badly wanting a small 12” TV and it was like $250.

kevin_thibedeau 5y ago

If you can get an antenna up then there are Ethernet-connected HDTV tuners you can use to pick up OTA.

dylan604 5y ago

Are you being pedantic with no information on how to receive local broadcasts because you've chosen to not have TV/radio/etc, or are you really just unaware of how to do this on modern equipment? Many responses answer if it is the latter, for the former, well, go back under your bridge troll ;-)

SECProto 5y ago
I was being pedantic. But also truthful, in that I do not have a tv and the only radio is in my car.
- dylan604 5y ago
  That's what I thought. So, the onus is on you to stay informed. Society has put in place many many ways to notify of severe weather. You have elected to use none. Don't be the next statistic.
  - SECProto 5y ago
    The onus is indeed on me. When I've lived in places with rare susceptibility to tornados, they use the emergency alert system. When I lived somewhere with susceptibility to north korea firing missiles overhead, they have an air raid siren. When I lived somewhere the only weather danger is hurricanes, I just check the weather forecast.

hyakosm 5y ago

In my city, the public local station (CBFT-2) is broadcasting news and some other emissions on the Web. But I love my cheap ATSC tuner "converter box": can be useful in case of network outage, it can also record programs on a USB drive and play a lot of video files. Sadly, it's difficult to find an ATSC dongle for computer, they're less popular and more expensive than DVB dongles.

heavyset_go 5y ago

> How would I even go about doing that? The only display devices I have are monitors. Buy a $15 DTV tuner and antenna and hook them up to a monitor. You're being blasted with free HDTV over the air.

SECProto 5y ago
I live fairly remotely in Canada and I'm not - I believe CBC may be available but I'm not certain It was somewhat rhetorical, as I have access to weather alerts via the internet and am not in an area vulnerable to tornados or earthquakes.

barbazoo 5y ago

Get a radio and batteries. It's part of being prepared for an emergency.

pigbearpig 5y ago

Wow. Go to their website, Twitter, whatever. Spend $15 on a weather radio with alerts. It’s really not as hard as you’re making it out to be.