Do I really need to buy a radio for emergencies?

Maybe it was your dad, your aunt or you just read it there, but you've probably heard recently that a radio is an essential part of an emergency kit. And although phenomena such as the hurricanes that are hitting the United States and parts of the Caribbean and the recent earthquake that affected parts of Mexico have made it clear, being connected and aware could become a matter of life or death at any moment. However, for many of us the concept of buying a radio is comparable to buying a typewriter. Is it really necessary to rely on technology that is so old in emergency situations?

The short answer is yes. Why is it a bit longer to explain but, basically, radio waves travel much farther than any LTE transmission and that makes receiving a signal easier and that a radio transmission reaches a lot more people and that is the priority maximum when making emergency transmissions. Also, if we consider the way radio waves work, the concept makes much more sense. Basically, radio waves have 2 important elements to consider, frequency and range.

The higher the frequency of a radio wave, the more information it can transmit, but its range (range) is smaller. This works the same in the other way, the lower the frequency, the information to transmit is less, but the waves travel further.

What is the difference with LTE frequencies

Traditional radio waves operate at low frequencies, usually between 525 and 1705 kHz, for AM and 88 to 108 MHz (1 MHz = 1000 kHz) for FM radio. This means that AM stations have a much higher range than FM stations, so the latter, which have higher frequencies, tend to be more local.

On the other hand, cellular technology, regardless of whether it is 2G, 3G or LTE, operates at a higher frequency, between 700 and 2100 MHz, for current networks. This means that the cellular transmission towers are excellent for transmitting large data capabilities, such as your Netflix streams, that video you uploaded to YouTube or your Instagram photos, however, that same speed means that your range is much lower. This is why a city has a much larger volume of cell phone towers to offer the same coverage as a radio station, for example.

On the other hand, the number of transmission antennas needed to send emergency messages to most of the country is hundreds of times less than would be necessary to transmit the information only to the main urban centers, so, as we said In principle, radio is the best option, simply because it is the one that uses the least resources to carry the same message to a greater number of people. Follow this article to know the best emergency radios .

On the other hand, in recent emergencies, such as the tremor that was experienced in some parts of the country last week, there is a certain amount of bandwidth for both technologies and, in the case of cellular technology, there are millions of people literally trying to communicate at the same time, especially in this type of emergencies and this leads to congestion and loss of service. In the case of radio, being a passive system, there are no individuals monopolizing the bandwidth, so you can always count on this technology to get fresh and useful information that, in a real emergency could save your life.