Can you listen to your radio If the Power Goes Out?

[Skynet74]

Just curious how many are prepared if they lose power. Do you have batteries in all of your radios? Or are you one of those people who will be staring at the wall with nothing to listen to because the battery compartment in all your radios are empty? I have two GE Super radios with Batteries in both. I even have a tiny short wave portable that also gets AM and FM with batteries in it.

I thought of this question as I realized that some of my friends do not even own a portable radio at all. Some just have a car stereo. Others just have larger home stereos that don't take batteries. I would think that everybody would have at least one portable radio in case of an emergency. But you would be amazed at how many people would literally be left in the dark if the power went out, left with no way to monitor the outside world.

 

[McRadio]

And you're assuming radio would be peoples' first choice when they want to monitor the outside world?

 

[radioboy]

Skynet,

You should visit us down in Tallahassee, Fla., during bad weather when the power goes out.

About half the stations lose power too and are off the air..the others run satellite feeds. You can't hardly find
local weather info.

In 2004 during one of the hurricanes I stayed on the air with my Part 15 AM station giving out Red
Cross shelter info and weather updates.

 

[Skynet74]

And you're assuming radio would be peoples' first choice when they want to monitor the outside world?

OK.... I'll bite. How do you monitor the outside world when the Power goes out?

 

[Skynet74]

OK....I'll answer my own question since the board has fallen silent. Radio is always the first choice to monitor the outside world when the power goes out. The TV isn't going to work. Good luck running your computer on just battery power. Even if you do have a Laptop the modem is going to go out when the power does. You could always buy a newspaper and find out tomorrow why the power went out today. That doesn't seem like such a great option.

The bottom line is that anybody without a battery operated radio is pretty much going to be left in the dark during a hurricane, blizzard or other natural disaster. So stock up on batteries. Afterall We are in hurricane season. Then again ... maybe you are like me and have an Emergency plan in place to drive To Albany if winds go over 125 MPH. I'm just saying.

 

[McRadio]

I'm not talking about some extended outage due to something big like a hurricane but your normal outages here. I do think if it happens during the daylight hours on a weekday radio will be a helpful medium to get info. Nights and weekends, forget about it. WPRO would probably interrupt normal programming with information. Does WHJJ have a staff to handle the interruptions? Will the music stations do much of anything but play music?

 

[Skynet74]

I'm not talking about some extended outage due to something big like a hurricane but your normal outages here. I do think if it happens during the daylight hours on a weekday radio will be a helpful medium to get info. Nights and weekends, forget about it. WPRO would probably interrupt normal programming with information. Does WHJJ have a staff to handle the interruptions? Will the music stations do much of anything but play music?

Well the go to place would obviously be WPRO. I wouldn't expect much from anybody else. If the storm was strong enough to start bringing down Towers (worst case scenario), at least we are within range of out of market signals to get the latest news. WBZ Boston would be my second choice. I'm sure they would have extensive Rhode Island coverage. Then I would hit the New York stations as a third option if WBZ got blown away too. But to be honest.... if a big enough storm is coming where it looks like it's going to start destroying everything within 50 miles, I wouldn't even stick around here. I will make sure I am safe and sound in my hotel Room in Albany as I watch the tragedy unfold on television. Plus I live in a manadatory evecuation zone. So If the storm is strong enough they are going to make me leave anyway.

I've never even been in a hurricane.. EVER! Hurricane Gloria hit in 1985 when I was visiting my brother in San Diego. Same exact thing happened in 1991 when Hurricane Bob hit Rhode Island. I was in San Diego then too. So apparently Hurricanes only hit when I am in California. I'm still waiting for one to show up when I am actually here for it. It's only going to be a matter of time before it ends up happening. So during hurricane season each year I always think about this and constantly monitor the tropics. http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/

I just got finished with a year long project where I digitized and uploaded 100's of my audio tapes and CD's to a storage facility in Los Angeles for safe keeping. Better safe than sorry. I am doing the same thing with photographs and video right now. I don't want to be one of those poor people who return home to find my house destroyed with nothing left to my name. At least all my dopey tapes and pictures will be safe on the internet. That is important to me since those are things that can't be replaced.

But getting back to my original point. Even if it's a temporary outage of only a few hours, it's nice to be able to tune into a radio rather than just sit in darkess with Nothing to do. Everybody should have at least one portable radio with fully charged batteries.

 

[riradio02842]

I have a Katio KA-2100 AM/FM/SW radio that takes both 4D and 4AA batteries for power - you can switch between the power sources if needed. The two sets of batteries provide about 100 hours of listening time between them. I'm a big fan of this radio, one of the most sensitive AM/FM radios on the market.

 

[jimmyone]

I'm not talking about some extended outage due to something big like a hurricane but your normal outages here. I do think if it happens during the daylight hours on a weekday radio will be a helpful medium to get info. Nights and weekends, forget about it. WPRO would probably interrupt normal programming with information. Does WHJJ have a staff to handle the interruptions? Will the music stations do much of anything but play music?

Well the go to place would obviously be WPRO. I wouldn't expect much from anybody else. If the storm was strong enough to start bringing down Towers (worst case scenario), at least we are within range of out of market signals to get the latest news. WBZ Boston would be my second choice. I'm sure they would have extensive Rhode Island coverage. Then I would hit the New York stations as a third option if WBZ got blown away too. But to be honest.... if a big enough storm is coming where it looks like it's going to start destroying everything within 50 miles, I wouldn't even stick around here. I will make sure I am safe and sound in my hotel Room in Albany as I watch the tragedy unfold on television. Plus I live in a manadatory evecuation zone. So If the storm is strong enough they are going to make me leave anyway.

I've never even been in a hurricane.. EVER! Hurricane Gloria hit in 1985 when I was visiting my brother in San Diego. Same exact thing happened in 1991 when Hurricane Bob hit Rhode Island. I was in San Diego then too. So apparently Hurricanes only hit when I am in California. I'm still waiting for one to show up when I am actually here for it. It's only going to be a matter of time before it ends up happening. So during hurricane season each year I always think about this and constantly monitor the tropics. http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/

I just got finished with a year long project where I digitized and uploaded 100's of my audio tapes and CD's to a storage facility in Los Angeles for safe keeping. Better safe than sorry. I am doing the same thing with photographs and video right now. I don't want to be one of those poor people who return home to find my house destroyed with nothing left to my name. At least all my dopey tapes and pictures will be safe on the internet. That is important to me since those are things that can't be replaced.

But getting back to my original point. Even if it's a temporary outage of only a few hours, it's nice to be able to tune into a radio rather than just sit in darkess with Nothing to do. Everybody should have at least one portable radio with fully charged batteries.



Skynet, do all of us in Rhode Island a favor, Don't go to California anymore.

 

[Skynet74]

LOL..... yeah it's either a rare coincidense (or) Hurricanes are just afraid of me. So they only come when I'm gone. The next time I am on the west coast I will give fair warning to everybody here.

 

[Rick]

I use my handheld ham radio to get on a local repeater running SKYWARN. When the power 1st goes out, I listen to the police and/or fire and usually find out in seconds what's going on direct from the source.

 

[Skynet74]

I use my handheld ham radio to get on a local repeater running SKYWARN. When the power 1st goes out, I listen to the police and/or fire and usually find out in seconds what's going on direct from the source.

Nice! I used to have a Police scanner....until one day it fell off my desk and broke. At about that same time all the departments started switching over to digital. For some reason it cost about 5 times more for a scanner that decrypts digital signals. So I never replaced it.