Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Listen to the radio - the emergency broadcasting network

future blog post regarding the significance of getting vital information to people in a vast disaster zone when all other forms of modern electronic communication are down.

As usual with some historic perspective on the one hand and an outlook regarding the use in future mass casualty events.

Radio is simple to use, effective way of getting instructions to those who are otherwise left clueless or, even worse, dependent on the spread of rumors in absence of real, verified and reliable information.

Unfortunately many broadcasting capabilities of stations using airwaves with very long ranges like shortwave have been reduced, because nowadays other broadcasts and Internet based transmissions of sound, video and text are more popular and (admittedly) of better quality. The only problem is what to do if these more modern forms of telecommunication fail ?


source: Youtube, uploaded by RogueStudio TV

A visual severe weather warning makes sense to alert people when they just watch TV and must get the severe weather warning as soon as possible in order to get the maximum time to prepare themselves for the impact of that weather emergency. As described many times: there are dangers like earthquakes which can't be predicted when they happen and if they happen only a few seconds (up to very few minutes far away from the epicenter) forewarning time remains.

When a disaster has impacted the populated area and all those TV/radio transmitters, cell towers, satellite connections and land lines for phone or Internet have been damaged or destroyed the population has suddenly no reliable source of information. The first simple, but sufficient thing to restore is radio ! It doesn't require as much technical stuff as TV and its signal could be picked up over a much wider area than TV. Many people do have TVs, but what if they all don't have AC power ? Many people however do have portable radios which also run on batteries, many mobile phones have built-in FM receivers (many owners might not be aware of this feature) and most cars have a radio which offer at least FM reception, sometimes even AM bands and cars/trucks have fully charged 12/24V batteries which could last for days if just the radio is switched on. (of course the battery also recharges if the motor runs)

To setup a backup FM/AM transmitter doesn't require that much financial and power resources and the advantage in holiday destinations abroad is that there's no worry about all those different TV standards in all those countries. (NTSC,PAL,SECAM,DVB-T,DVB-T2,how many lines, 50 or 60Hz, etc)

FM is FM and AM is AM all over the world, just there might be some countries which have slightly different frequency bands. It's also much simpler to get a 'network' running, since only one powerful transmitter is need in order to reach possibly millions of people (in densely populated areas) instead of numerous cell towers for 3G/4G or WIFI networks. Radio has noticeably the disadvantage of offering no channel from the citizens back to sender, but in time of regional/national/international crisis it's more important to get instructions out for the population.

As currently ongoing 'crisis light' (it could have been much worse, with many more dead and wounded) reminds us that often such simple things like where to pick up food or water at an outlet run by either military or NGO wouldn't be possible without radio instructions or printed fliers. (recently the Dutch Navy hand the latter out at Sint Maarten) Food and water distribution points are important and so are instructions for evacuation, medical tips or tips on hygiene or where wounded can be brought to in order to get proper treatment. It's hard to imagine for millennials, but for more than 50 years the world managed pretty well without Internet, apps, Youtube and all the other nice gadgets. Those gadgets are nice to have, but pretty useless when there's no Internet via 3G,4G,WIFI,Cable or DSL which can be knocked out all at once.
Radio can also be pretty upsetting for those who are used to comment on each and every message they come across. Radio is pretty simple: We (radio operators) talk, you - listen ! In an emergency that all what counts. It's like "Do this - or you might die"
   

Emergency broadcasts in Sint Maarten/Saint Martin (Hurricane Irma)

Florida (Hurricane Irma)


[Update Sep 26 2017 (Hurricane Maria)]

Puerto Rico has lost almost all (95%) communication infrastructure, and while FEMA is publishing 'rumor control' info on its webpage, it's highly unlikely that people in Puerto Rico are able to read it, since most of them currently don't have Internet access !
Even the local subsidiary of the NWS was hit hard by hurricane Maria and according to latest info available from officials, there's stil no contact with 7 areas of Puerto Rico. No power, transmission systems are down, fuels are rationed. The governor and other officials rely on local AM/FM stations to get their word out to the people. There will some updates here shortly - stay tuned.
[/update]


Broadcasting equipment
Broadcast 500W and 1KW FM Transmitters [commercial] #

 related links:
Emergency Broadcast System (USA) [Wikipedia]
Emergency Alert System (USA) [Wikipedia]
Emergency Alert System (EAS) (USA) [FCC]
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