You’d use the internet to look for information, not make a phone call.
Yeah, I don’t think anyone who isn’t old enough to have used a Thomas Bros. guide is going to react to an emergency situation with “I’d better tune to AM 940 for essential news and information!”. They’re gonna check Reddit.
Even if the EAS alert that comes over their cell phone directs them to do so?
If not, then I guess everyone under 40 is just gonna die.
If the EAS alert can tell me to tune to AM 980, it can tell me what AM 980 would be able to tell me.
If EAS stops working, Reddit is down, and so is the entire FM band and all satellite and cell service, then all the AM radios in the world aren’t gonna save you.
Not necessarily; such a message would be directing people to listen to AM 980 for continuing information updates from local authorities.
The EAS system is built to provide an immediate, relatively short alert, with key information, along with – if needed – that direction on where to get more/continuing information.
It is true that EAS is also built to allow the President to provide a direct message to citizens in the event of a national emergency – though it has never actually been used in this manner, even on 9/11. Nearly all emergencies for which EAS is used are local or regional in nature.
Or it could tell me to tune to FM 92.5. Or to check noaa.gov for updates. Or watch the local sheriff’s department’s Twitter feed. Or turn on the TV.
If the situation is so desperate that AM radio is the only functioning means of communication left, then either we’re in the most extreme of edge cases that you might as well be requiring cars to carry flare guns and semaphore flags, or we’re all about to die anyway. (Also, nobody’s gonna be able to tell us what station to tune to in the first place.)
Once again…
AM signals carry further than FM signals and modern over-the-air digital TV signals. The broadcast infrastructure for AM radio is more robust and less prone to failure in severe weather or other emergencies than cellular phone and data service.
They are not necessarily fully interchangeable.
So this place is so remote and desolate that it doesn’t have FM radio but it also still has an old-fashioned locally-run AM radio station and the local authorities are so responsive that whenever the EAS goes off, Mayor Hoss runs to the radio station to give instructions to his peoples?
And if ALL of that fails all at once, then whether your car has an AM radio in it is going to be the LEAST of your worries.
Not necessarily. As has been mentioned a number of times already in this thread, including in my post immediately above yours, an AM radio signal can be picked up and heard on a radio from a much longer distance from the transmitter than an FM radio signal.
So, people in a rural area that has no nearby stations at all can still listen to AM stations from many miles away, even if they are out of range of any FM stations.
So Mayor Hoss can just get on his phone that doesn’t work and relay to the AM operators 2,000 miles away what the conditions on the ground are.
A seamless plan!
Why would such a radio station have “continuing information updates from local authorities”?
I believe the scene at the AM studio would look something like this;
If the nearest town of any size is 50 miles away — and picking up an AM signal at that distance is very feasible, while not so for an FM signal — those probably are the local authorities.
Then it may as well be in China given that you’ve told us all other forms of communication with the outside world have failed.
EAS may or may not be bullshit, but EAM is not:
Armageddon, indeed.
None of them. That didn’t exist. It’s a good thing they had AM in their cars.
It really can’t. I’d tell you why but you’d just shoot it all down anyway. You don’t seem to accept that it’s not just some dudes on the SDMB but also pertinent experts who believe that AM car radio is an important safety feature.
Then I guess it’s a good thing it’s not 1927 anymore.
Y’know, we can argue the usefulness and possible obsolescence of the technology, and the wisdom of industry-protectionist measures. That should be neutral to whether we detest some of the content and the ownership.
You’re under estimating the coverage of AM radio. On a clear night, an AM transmitter in Chicago can be heard all the way into Mexico. During the day, a Miami AM radio station covers most of the Caribbean.
EAS has 77 hardened radio transmitters, with battery backups. They can cover the entire country, the wilderness, the territorial waters, and beyond. There’s no other system that can do that.
And then you’re underestimating the requirements for Mayor Hoss to run a radio station. He has to support the EAS with weekly and monthly drills as well as monitor two other stations in the case of missed EAS messages. But if he drops the ball or dies, there are still those primary transmitters covering the area.
EAS pushes to AM and FM radio, TV, satellite radio, etc. As a result, it’s not just a bunch of transmitters, it’s a complex system of procedures, alert codes and messages, and regulations. We can’t just start tossing parts of it away until there is a replacement.