Jersey Blockade

[London Lite]

Like many, I still have a FM radio on my phone, but have to use corded headphones which are used as an antenna. Luckily I have a spare pair, but use Bluetooth headphones these days.

I also use a cordless phone, but still have a spare corded phone which can be used in the event of a power cut.

[AndrewP]

Re-Broadcast Standby. Basically receiving the signal from another transmitter and rebroadcasting it.

In the analogue days it was the way that the main TV transmitters would get their channels if they lost the feed from the normal route. It's not a thing with digital TV or radio for various reasons

Ah ok. Thanks for clarifying. I seem to remember something about BBC National Radio falling off-air north of Birmingham and having to use this method to provide some sort of service a few years ago..

But do you have the means to listen to the radio in that scenario.

Personally I'd be raiding all the kids toys for as many AA batteries as I could find to shove in the bathroom radio!

Indeed I do! I have a Roberts FM/MW/LW and Tecsun SW radio. Hopefully my stash of batteries don't have to be recharged before the mains gets switched back on.

It does feel weird that it seems like I'm the only one who both has and regularly uses battery powered radios in this thread - especially considering that I'm probably towards the younger end of the membership. I hardly watch television either - save for Call The Midwife - although I still find the pres very interesting.
I think it is probably due to my upbringing, where SW radio - especially the BBC - was my link to the outside world.

Like many, I still have a FM radio on my phone, but have to use corded headphones which are used as an antenna. Luckily I have a spare pair, but use Bluetooth headphones these days.

I also use a cordless phone, but still have a spare corded phone which can be used in the event of a power cut.

For me, the absence of an FM Radio on a phone is an absolute dealbreaker. I was going to buy a new phone for my birthday earlier this year, but bailed when I found that, despite having a headphone jack, it doesn't have a radio tuner. My friends weren't big supporters of my decision...

[Markymark]

Re-Broadcast Standby. Basically receiving the signal from another transmitter and rebroadcasting it.

In the analogue days it was the way that the main TV transmitters would get their channels if they lost the feed from the normal route. It's not a thing with digital TV or radio for various reasons

Ah ok. Thanks for clarifying. I seem to remember something about BBC National Radio falling off-air north of Birmingham and having to use this method to provide some sort of service a few years ago..

https://www.lamont.me.uk/broadcast/

[Inspector Sands]

It does feel weird that it seems like I'm the only one who both has and regularly uses battery powered radios in this thread - especially considering that I'm probably towards the younger end of the membership.

The only one we have is in the bathroom, because that's the only way to power it there. A DAB/FM battery one too, which actually lasts a lot longer than it sounds like it should.

I remember Mrs Sands suggesting putting an Alexa in the bathroom but then I pointed out that there's no power in there for it. Would have been handy for those times we're on the loo and remember something we need on the shopping list :?

For me, the absence of an FM Radio on a phone is an absolute dealbreaker. I was going to buy a new phone for my birthday earlier this year, but bailed when I found that, despite having a headphone jack, it doesn't have a radio tuner. My friends weren't big supporters of my decision...

Removable batteries were my dealbreaker until I couldn't find a phone with one. Now it's SD cards and headphone jacks.

I rarely use the radio on my phone these days but then I rarely listen to the radio anyway. But years ago when I was permanately plugged into a Walkman the Radios on those were absolute essential features, and they had to be decent too - plenty of presets and able to use in pocket by feel

IIRC a lot of mobiles have the hardware for FM even if it's not a feature that's brought out into the OS, it's part of a standard chip

[XIII]

You'd struggle to find a decent phone with a removal battery these days. I use wireless headphones so no headphone jack on a phone doesn't bother me that much.

I'm surprised any phone has FM radio, my Dad who isn't particularly tech savvy uses the Radio Player app to listen to radio stations.

[London Lite]

I've got a personal DAB with a rechargeable battery that still works will, I think it gets at least 20 hours listening time on DAB. The battery seems to go faster if I use FM ironically!

[nwtv2003]

[mention]Inspector Sands[/mention] re your Alexa dilemma, we have a cheap portable speaker in the bathroom which is connected to an Echo Dot which is plugged in on the landing outside of the Bathroom. It’s close enough for us to say Alexa... when in the bathroom. So we can get any old rubbish going through the speaker in the bathroom.

For us it was accidental as we had a cheap portable speaker which did nothing and a surplus Echo Dot, which now has a new lease of life.

[Steve in Pudsey]

I wonder whether Radio Jersey and Guernsey's set ups are any more resiliant than standard ViLoR given the ship's anchor scenario making it more likely than for other stations that they lose contact with the data centres on the mainland?

I think it was established on the occasion that all of the stations on ViLoR at that point fell off air that there is the ability to feed the half of the desk that handles local sources (or the NCA studio) direct to the transmitter on an emergency ISDN, so I wonder if they might have some better options for keeping some kind of service going, even if it's just a couple of laptops that can be plugged in with a selection of content that can sustain between announceents.

[James Martin]

I'm suprised the CI stations went to ViLOR for that reason although like you say if you lose the link, although it'll take the playout system and the Axia desk down, the Glensound one should still work and you can patch that to TX over ISDN.

Full redundancy exists in the data centres however - one assumes there's more than one cable and the trips to the data centres will take different paths to the mainland?

Is there provision for satellite broadband on the islands - could that be the belt-n-braces scenario?

[Markymark]

Satellite broadband would be no good as a large scale emergency alternative to the fibre connections, it's highly bandwidth constrained, and obviously has major latancy and jitter issues

If this map is to be believed the islands have a number of different routes

https://www.submarinecablemap.com/

[Steve in Pudsey]

Didn't do much good in 2016!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-38141230

[Markymark]

You'd struggle to find a decent phone with a removal battery these days. I use wireless headphones so no headphone jack on a phone doesn't bother me that much.

I'm surprised any phone has FM radio, my Dad who isn't particularly tech savvy uses the Radio Player app to listen to radio stations.

2G dumb phones often had FM radios built in. I had a Sony k750 which I kept using well into the last decade, and after I'd moved to a 3G smartphone, simply for listening to the radio. Even had RDS. Still got it somewhere. Perhaps I should charge it up!

[wonkey_monkey]

On the subject of landlines, Jersey went 100% fibre-to-the-home two years ago (first jurisdiction in the world to do so, apparently, and paid for by selling the copper they stripped out, or so legend has it), so if the power goes, the phones go. My neighbour had a battery backup, which I think he qualified for on account of his medical condition, though I don't know how long it would last.

If we were to lose all our telecoms, we could still get the word out by heading to the East coast and mobile roaming to a French network.

[i.h]

So immediately you've no Internet - your phone exchange is probably working but your modem isn't. Your only phone is DECT and so requires power (
the regs used to say you must have a non powered phone for this reason) Your nearest mobile phone mast has no power, but anyway your phone battery doesn't last a day.

That's where it gets interesting.

BT's fibre cabinets should have battery backup, and now as they slowly migrate to VoIP I'd hope they monitor and replace batteries where necessary (legacy landlines pass through but are not reliant on the cabinet being powered). Openreach FTTP users are connected straight to the telephone exchange with the colossal backup systems they normally have so it'll stay connected as long as you can power your end. I assume VM must have some battery backup in their local network too (to run both the legacy and VoIP phone systems?). The so called alt-nets (cityfibre, gigaclear, hyperoptic etc) could be anyone's guess.

BT themselves sell a UPS to run their router for a period of time, though it's not going to last for a long term power outage. You can of course DIY it too. I wonder why DECT phones with battery backups never really happened.

In terms of UK-CI fibre connectivity I'd imagine a ship is more likely to take it out than power loss at the terminal sites - if push came to shove (and assuming it didn't already have one) they'd just whack a generator on it

I wonder whether Radio Jersey and Guernsey's set ups are any more resiliant than standard ViLoR given the ship's anchor scenario making it more likely than for other stations that they lose contact with the data centres on the mainland?

I think it was established on the occasion that all of the stations on ViLoR at that point fell off air that there is the ability to feed the half of the desk that handles local sources (or the NCA studio) direct to the transmitter on an emergency ISDN, so I wonder if they might have some better options for keeping some kind of service going, even if it's just a couple of laptops that can be plugged in with a selection of content that can sustain between announceents.

With ISDN on its way out, presumably they've got to think of an IP solution for that (but one that somehow avoids BT's IP network in case it were to melt down?)

[Markymark]

So immediately you've no Internet - your phone exchange is probably working but your modem isn't. Your only phone is DECT and so requires power (
the regs used to say you must have a non powered phone for this reason) Your nearest mobile phone mast has no power, but anyway your phone battery doesn't last a day.

That's where it gets interesting.

BT's fibre cabinets should have battery backup, and now as they slowly migrate to VoIP I'd hope they monitor and replace batteries where necessary (legacy landlines pass through but are not reliant on the cabinet being powered). Openreach FTTP users are connected straight to the telephone exchange with the colossal backup systems they normally have so it'll stay connected as long as you can power your end. I assume VM must have some battery backup in their local network too (to run both the legacy and VoIP phone systems?). The so called alt-nets (cityfibre, gigaclear, hyperoptic etc) could be anyone's guess.

I was working recently at a place in the middle of nowhere. No usable 3 or 4G on any network, and a very poor 2G.However there was a HyperOptic 1 gig symetrical service, worked well, except for the day the nearest village lost power. That was that for our internet (and by extention WiFi calling)