There is a lot of talk about 'Emergency Radios' and the importance of being capable of staying in touch with the surrounding world when infrastructure gets interrupted by storms, landslides, war, fire, earthquake, and so on. Once the grid is down and we are cut off from cellphones we will hope to have a working radio with charged batteries so we can dial around to find a radio station still able to send vital information. In the larger world there are EAS stations, Emergency Alert System stations, that plan and prepare to become beacons of contact held together by electric generators.
In the hyper local world of part 15 low power radio stations like Mark's will continue to serve loyal neighbors thanks to UPS, Uninterruptible Power Supplies, and the devoted work of a station operator to present useful announcements.
Another term that refers this subject is 'Survivalist Radio', which is a growing movement across the radio bands to serve the public by any wireless means possible.
All this is fine and good, but for prolonged emergencies (i.e., other than a short outages), you have to have an alternative means of power. UPS's only last so long.
Solar is always useful, no matter where you live. Wind is possible if you live in a house, and have control over your property. Then you need some method of electricity storage, such as deep discharge batteries. Survival can be a full time job.
Very true. But most power outages last from 10 minutes to a few hours and for that a UPS at least 900VA or higher with a LIFE PO4 lithium ion phosphate battery in place of the SLA battery it came with but if a power out is longer than an afternoon then yes it won't go longer than that. It has to run the Decade or Procaster, which at 125mA is about 15 watts and the Schlockwood which is close to the same so 30 watts. A LED 100watt replacement bulb consumes 14 watts so that with a UPS would last for longer. When I get the CM-10s I think they would be at or a little less power than the Decade. But if I start putting more things on the battery supported outlets like a second transmitter for simulcasting of course it increases the power consumption and power out run time.
An advantage of the Lithium Phosphate battery is it recharges in an hour while it takes the lead acid 8 hours, and is good for 2000 to 3000 charge discharge cycles depending on how discharged at time of recharge where a SLA(lead acid) is good for 500 only.
Yes those storage batteries that store power from roof solar panels are out of reach price wise for the majority even with your own home and property and the storage batteries/solar panels are 10s of 1000s $$$$. The back up generator idea that kicks in is good and affordable but runs on gasoline so not environmentally friendly. I was at someones home a while ago who has a roof solar panel and several of those huge batteries(the size of a small bar refrigerator) to store the power in the basement and he is running many things in the house off the batteries and less on the supplied electricity from the utility but in a major prolonged power outage and no sun even that is used up in a couple of days running a refrigerator, lights, TV, furnace. They are wired into the house wiring.
Everything being said about 'Emergency Radio' is important for radio station operators to think about because we are living in bumpy times. In terms of climate upheaval alone our existence can so quickly get turned upside down making at least basic preparedness something that can be greatly helpful in coping with unexpected situations. A flashlight and radio are probably the first two things to keep available.
The past 24 hours here at our location in the center of the U.S. has been turbulent for KDX. Yesterday afternoon, after diddling away the first half of the day I finally got outdoors to work on clearing overgrowth, when all at once it turned very dark and the wind started to rise. Within seconds the wind was blowing so hard that my pith helmet blew off and went scooting toward the east. To avoid being pushed over I clung to the side of the building as I made my way to safety. The wind became loud and high pitched like a jet landing right here in the yard and by the time I was indoors the wind subsided and a comparatively moderate rain began. It had been a flash cyclone and we were lucky to still be connected with power and internet. When I talked to a neighbor I learned that not far away trees were down and power lines interrupted.
Overnight was calm for us while we could hear constant thunder for hours, this morning to learn that nearby areas experienced damage and outages.
Even if your radio station leaves the air during emergencies, you could run an announcement advising listeners to tune to an area EAS station.