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New emergency alert system, UK

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  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,718
    @B3, it was the development of the railway network that created a necessity for all places in the UK to coordinate clocks from the same base. Prior to that, towns could set their own time and Oxford was 5 minutes ahead of London. Christ Church refused to agree to the standardisation and so when the Great Tom bell tolls at 9.00 pm warning students they must be back in College, it actually sounds at 9.05.

    Similarly, when the great maritime nations of the world convened c. 1880 to agree on the location of the prime meridian, the decision to base it on Greenwich was not quite universal and for 30 years the French (who would have guessed?) insisted the meridian passed through Paris.
    Rutland, England
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Thanks @BenCotto. That's very interesting
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • I’m not sure if somebody mentioned that but such emergency alert system had been made mandatory for all EU members in 2018, https://eena.org/our-work/eena-special-focus/public-warning/   
    After the flooding of the Ahr valley in 2021, the Government here decided they need to get on with that because there is effectively no way nowadays to inform people in case of emergency. 

    I my garden.

  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    edited April 2023

    After the flooding of the Ahr valley in 2021
    This sounds like a place Terry Pratchett would invent. 'Land prices were very cheap and no one asked about the origin of the valley's name. Then one day they looked up and saw the approaching wall of water. "I would have called it Oh Fu..." started one man but his words were abruptly cut short.'

    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • Slow-wormSlow-worm Posts: 1,630
    How can a transmitter send a message to all handsets in range, without any link having been set up, such as bluetooth? Surely they would just not be recieved? 
  • TheGreenManTheGreenMan Posts: 1,957

  • TheGreenManTheGreenMan Posts: 1,957
    Slow-worm said:
    How can a transmitter send a message to all handsets in range, without any link having been set up, such as bluetooth? Surely they would just not be recieved? 
    Your phone is constantly receiving signal from the transmitter; there’s your link. Your phone shows signal strength; the strength of the signal it is constantly receiving from the nearest mast. There are 1.4 million masts in the UK. 

  • After the flooding of the Ahr valley in 2021
    This sounds like a place Terry Pratchett would invent. 'Land prices were very cheap and no one asked about the origin of the valley's name. Then one day they looked up and saw the approaching wall of water. "I would have called it Oh Fu..." started one man but his words were abruptly cut short.'

    Thanks @wild edges for your association. Indeed, 140 people's words were cut short in that night.
    For me, Ahr Valley is synonymous with Germany's incompetence. That plan of the EU fails btw, because 50% have no such phone in Germany (as well as France).

    I my garden.

  • TheGreenManTheGreenMan Posts: 1,957
    That plan of the EU fails btw, because 50% have no such phone in Germany (as well as France).
    Where did you get those stats from? 

    The data I’ve seen shows smartphone usage at 74% in Germany, 73% in France and 88% of the UK. 
  • Simone_in_WiltshireSimone_in_Wiltshire Posts: 1,073
    edited April 2023
    @pansyface Did you see the interview with the University of Reading professor, who is still advisor for the EU Commission for flood defence, and who said they had been working with Ahrtal on that topic for 10 years but Ahrtal refused to listen and to make changes. 
    Flood defence btw is a different financial pot than emergency alert system. 

    I my garden.

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