a. AUX Jacks are 75% of Android models, *0% choice for iPhones*
b. FM Radio is 50% of Android models, *0% choice for iPhones*
c. Portable memory is 71% of Android models, *0% choice for iPhones*
For about the same footprint, consider keeping a HAM radio on the
charger.
I do have an Advanced Class ham ticket but haven't used it in years.
Think the Internet spoiled things...
I live in the boonies in a high fire danger area with windy mountain
roads and with the San Andreas Fault line within eyesight and we
have outages.
While the PG&E power goes out monthly, we only get evacuation orders
once every few decades - but it's going to happen. Again. And again
it will.
I live in a gated retirement community with around 8000 homes (will be
10K on buildout) in a metro area of 6M folks. The power hasn't gone out
in over a year. We live in vastly different settings...
As a neighborhood, we went down to the local fire station years ago
to get our HAM radio licenses and each of us is tuned to the same
repeater freq.
In an emergency, the ability for two-way communication can be
important. And it's about the same cost & footprint as your (rather
nice) FM radio.
If you're talking using 2 meter repeaters the handhelds are quite a bit
more than 50 bucks...
Radio is an area that preppers are keen about. And a keen prepper would
make sure he has a standalone radio that receives at least AM/FM if not
a much wider range of bands. Such radios are often hand crankable to
charge the battery. The whole notion of this in a cell phone is not
fringe, but close to it.
Short version: if it's safety critical - get a dedicated radio.
In the meantime, most popular FM (and AM) stations here (and most
everywhere) stream their content if that is really what one wants.
Personally haven't listened to AM/FM in decades except to test a radio out.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/analogue-radio-stations-licence-renewal-ofcom-classic-fm-talksport-a9599071.html
Norway has done and the Swiss will do soon, but other than that no other country has plans.
Apple is offering its
awesome SOS via satellite service for free
AJL <noemail@none.com> wrote
For about the same footprint, consider keeping a HAM radio on the
charger.
I do have an Advanced Class ham ticket but haven't used it in years.
Think the Internet spoiled things...
Don't get me wrong, I really liked the neat FM radio you showed.
<https://www.radioddity.com/products/raddy-rf75a>
It's similar in footprint to this radio I got from a neighborhood event.
<https://i.postimg.cc/1zvGYNZt/hamradio.jpg>
I like your FM radio. You need it because your phone OEM saved a few
cents (at your expense) by not providing both the radio & the jack.
I was just clarifying that, in emergencies, HAM is nice in addition to FM.
The Apple iKooks are stupid in that they don't realize Apple lies to them when Apple claims to care about their emergencies (with SOS subscriptions).
If Apple really cared, they'd let them have FM radio's for free also.
But FM radios would cut into lucrative music-streaming subscriptions.
I live in the boonies in a high fire danger area with windy mountain
roads and with the San Andreas Fault line within eyesight and we
have outages.
While the PG&E power goes out monthly, we only get evacuation orders
once every few decades - but it's going to happen. Again. And again
it will.
I live in a gated retirement community with around 8000 homes (will be
10K on buildout) in a metro area of 6M folks. The power hasn't gone out
in over a year. We live in vastly different settings...
Understood. We are subject to EPSS which is PG&E's way to punish us for making them go out of business years ago when they burned a whole town.
So now, the power goes out two and three times a month in the dry months (which, in California, is most of the year) but only about once a month on the winter wet season (which started today, by the way, as it's raining).
Of course every one of us (thousands upon thousands of homes in the mountains) has a 240VAC generator or two, plus battery backups, etc.
We even have special meters from PG&E that we can hook our generators up _directly_ to the meter when the power goes out. Fancy that from PG&E!
I think they give them to us for free because our power goes out that much
so the CPUC forced them to do it as PG&E has the same attitude as Apple.
As a neighborhood, we went down to the local fire station years ago
to get our HAM radio licenses and each of us is tuned to the same
repeater freq.
In an emergency, the ability for two-way communication can be
important. And it's about the same cost & footprint as your (rather
nice) FM radio.
If you're talking using 2 meter repeaters the handhelds are quite a bit
more than 50 bucks...
I am one person who is not afraid to say I'm ignorant, where you saying
that means you know more than I do and I accept that and learn from you.
The only thing I know about HAM radio is what I needed to learn to pass the test and after that, like you, I forgot about most of it over time.
So you know a lot more than I do as I only did it as a community event
for safety reasons (given we live in the highest fire danger area possible, and we can see the San Andreas Fault, and our PG&E power goes out two and three times a week in the dry EPSS periods but only monthly in the winter).
Is my radio any good?
If you look at the picture I provided you, the radios I have are
BAOFENG UV-5R
Are they any good?
The reason I don't know is _everyone_ in the neighborhood has them.
That's many hundreds of people who all have the same HAM radio as I do.
What happened is one HAM enthusiast aficionado long ago sent out a
suggestion we all chip in twenty-five bucks each and that would cover the radio and the testing - which was why those two radios plus two tests cost
me only fifty bucks (one for my wife and the other for me).
We have sequential federal Id's (ain't that sweet) where I don't remember them so since they have to be used, I write them on the back of the radio.
Are those BAOFENG UV-5R radios any good?
If Apple really cared, they'd let them have FM radio's for free also.
But FM radios would cut into lucrative music-streaming subscriptions.
I miss the days when they had a FM radio included with the iPod..
candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net> wrote
If Apple really cared, they'd let them have FM radio's for free also.
But FM radios would cut into lucrative music-streaming subscriptions.
I miss the days when they had a FM radio included with the iPod..
I have a bunch of iPods, which is when I was first exposed to Apple's shenanigans where to install iTunes made the computer _less_ functional
than to _not install_ iTunes (if you don't understand why, just ask).
It was shocking to me, at that first exposure to the insanely unexpected walled-garden restrictions that you couldn't just copy all the non DRM
songs off of any iPod in the world onto any other iPod in the world.
of course, I solved that problem by uninstalling iTunes, and then I _could_ easily copy every non-DRM song off of any iPod onto the computer and then onto any other iPod (or even from one iPod to another) at will...
But it was my first exposure to the incredible restrictions that Apple
owners put up with - like sheep led to slaughter - they just give in.
It's kind of the same with FM radio and the loss of the aux jack which
Apple tells its gullible customers they're supposed to feel courageous
about.
And guess what.... they "feel" exactly as Apple tells them to feel.
*Courageous*
As if it's a badge of honor to have a phone functionally crippled such that it can't do the simplest things that almost every other phone easily does.
If Apple really cared, they'd let them have FM radio's for free also.
But FM radios would cut into lucrative music-streaming subscriptions.
I miss the days when they had a FM radio included with the iPod..
As if it's a badge of honor to have a phone functionally crippled such that >> it can't do the simplest things that almost every other phone easily does.
Bluetooth connection to my car or headphones work. Are you still longing
for Steely Dan?
https://youtu.be/HV3zWSawJiw?si=8bLMFO_ln1I278ob
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