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Comment by sybercecurity | Hacker News Reader

>I think it would be more appropriate to tell people to pack an AM radio in the disaster bag we’re all suppose to keep in the trunk.

From dealing with so-called "policy wonks" over the years, having a solution that requires people take action ahead of time and buy something new to replace something they had in the past is a non-starter. They most likely won't listen to anything after that. They are extremely risk-adverse in general so any change is seen as bad unless proven otherwise. It's easier (in their mind) to just force things to stay the way they are since they don't trust people to make decisions.

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> having a solution that requires people take action ahead of time and buy something new to replace something they had in the past is a non-starter

Do we have studies that test this hypothesis? Did people actually fail to replace the old thing by the new, or did it turn out okay?

Yeah, how many bug out bags do you own? How many people do you know have one?

How many people would actually know to try the AM band in an emergency? How many people even still know how to turn their radio to an AM band? And know what station to listen to?

I think this number is waaaay smaller than anyone thinks. Especially with modern buttonless car systems.

Where I am in Mass, highways often have big billboards saying "Tune to 1610 AM for emergency info" or whatever.

This is common in mountains in WA too.

To replace the AM in cars isn’t just the cars - it’s all the signage and transmitters, for regional information.

And the pack-an-AM-radio approach is likely to fall victim to old batteries. Low probability emergency equipment people are likely to forget about.

And a common use case for this would be people evacuating a disaster area. Being able to put up a simple transmitter with localized instructions would be a very good thing. As it stands there are government transmitters out there running looped broadcasts with general information and closure information.

You can buy an emergency AM radio, fully integrated with a lithium battery, a hand crank, a tiny solar panel, a flashlight. It can also charge your phone.

Bought one, it lasted a few years of very light use, but I can’t replace the battery so it’s trash now. I don’t like having to own more things I can’t service. Especially when products tend to be non-durable.

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