News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Ask HN: Offline resources during internet outages?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: Offline resources during internet outages? by exitb on Thursday September 29, 2022 @07:56AM (#33019334)
Portable shortwave radio is a good idea and doesn't really need to be crank-powered. These things sip power and can last a couple weeks of moderate daily usage on a single set of batteries. A box of double-A batteries (which you should have anyway) can last you months.

A good receiver with a bit of antenna can easily give you access to radio stations thousands of kilometers away, as well as amateur radio operators.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Offline resources during internet outages? by tpmx on Thursday September 29, 2022 @09:28AM (#33020315)
Small shortwave radios with built-in antennas are next to unusable in urban/semi-urban areas these days, unless there also is power outage shutting down all of those local emitters of RF noise. Witnessed that last winter when we had a six hour power outage - the SW/MW radio could suddenly receive quite a few broadcasts again.

And then you realize that these days mostly China and some american religious organizations invest heavily in shortwave broadcasts.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Offline resources during internet outages? by tpmx on Thursday September 29, 2022 @11:40AM (#33022231)
I should add that it was possible to find the BBC WS on medium wave, iirc. During the power outage, that is. Not before or after.

Location: Southern Sweden

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Offline resources during internet outages? by LinuxBender on Thursday September 29, 2022 @09:27AM (#33020308)
Adding to this there are portable shortwave radios that also play mp3/wav files. Most are not great quality but useful if that's all one has. I have one in front of me made by XHDATA. D-328
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Offline resources during internet outages? by mod on Thursday September 29, 2022 @09:32AM (#33020386)
A small solar charger designed for camping (charging phones) might make this pretty self-sufficient.
[ Parent | on HN ]