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Most people these days have a smartphone which is essentially a broadcast receiver, and carriers give the government ways to sending emergency broadcasts. This

Most people these days have a smartphone which is essentially a broadcast receiver, and carriers give the government ways to sending emergency broadcasts. This isn't a substitute for a dynamo radio as a fallback in an emergency, but is just as effective as an emergency VHF broadcast for the TV or emergency broadcasts on AM/FM. In the '90s even though everyone was supposed to have a dynamo radio for emergencies, in practice I knew pretty much nobody who did. If anything it's even better these days because they have their receiver with them at all times instead of in the living room or in the garage or in the car as used to be before smartphones. Most folks in the US have a different ISP at home than they do mobile carrier so there's redundancy that way as well. I do think it's a shame that there's no equivalent to something like the POTS which ran on separate power from the base power you get from the grid, but mobile networks also usually have layers of backup power that's independent of the grid so that's a good substitute.

whartung 3y ago
I don’t recall the details but as I understand it there was a bit going around about how modern phones actually have a built in FM radio but none of them had them enabled or accessible through the software. There was buzz of making that access mandatory but I haven’t heard anything about it for some time. My understanding is that terrestrial radio is struggling against the streaming and satellite providers. Some of the large AM stations at one point had special civil defense status. KFI 640 in LA is one of those in that it’s very high power and no other station shares its frequency. I don’t know what the civil defense status of station are now.
LeoPanthera 3y ago
Where I live was caught up in the SF bay area storms at the beginning of the year, and we had several extended multi-day power outages. It quickly became apparent that the battery backup in the local cell tower lasts about an hour, and then it's just gone. It was very worrying.
hulitu 3y ago
> If anything it's even better these days because they have their receiver with them at all times instead of in the living room or in the garage or in the car as used to be before smartphones. It is not the receiver. It is only the transmiter.

whartung 3y ago

I don’t recall the details but as I understand it there was a bit going around about how modern phones actually have a built in FM radio but none of them had them enabled or accessible through the software. There was buzz of making that access mandatory but I haven’t heard anything about it for some time. My understanding is that terrestrial radio is struggling against the streaming and satellite providers. Some of the large AM stations at one point had special civil defense status. KFI 640 in LA is one of those in that it’s very high power and no other station shares its frequency. I don’t know what the civil defense status of station are now.

LeoPanthera 3y ago

Where I live was caught up in the SF bay area storms at the beginning of the year, and we had several extended multi-day power outages. It quickly became apparent that the battery backup in the local cell tower lasts about an hour, and then it's just gone. It was very worrying.

hulitu 3y ago

> If anything it's even better these days because they have their receiver with them at all times instead of in the living room or in the garage or in the car as used to be before smartphones. It is not the receiver. It is only the transmiter.