this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
488 points (91.6% liked)

Android

28002 readers
208 users here now

DROID DOES

Welcome to the droidymcdroidface-iest, Lemmyest (Lemmiest), test, bestest, phoniest, pluckiest, snarkiest, and spiciest Android community on Lemmy (Do not respond)! Here you can participate in amazing discussions and events relating to all things Android.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules


1. All posts must be relevant to Android devices/operating system.


2. Posts cannot be illegal or NSFW material.


3. No spam, self promotion, or upvote farming. Sources engaging in these behavior will be added to the Blacklist.


4. Non-whitelisted bots will be banned.


5. Engage respectfully: Harassment, flamebaiting, bad faith engagement, or agenda posting will result in your posts being removed. Excessive violations will result in temporary or permanent ban, depending on severity.


6. Memes are not allowed to be posts, but are allowed in the comments.


7. Posts from clickbait sources are heavily discouraged. Please de-clickbait titles if it needs to be submitted.


8. Submission statements of any length composed of your own thoughts inside the post text field are mandatory for any microblog posts, and are optional but recommended for article/image/video posts.


Community Resources:


We are Android girls*,

In our Lemmy.world.

The back is plastic,

It's fantastic.

*Well, not just girls: people of all gender identities are welcomed here.


Our Partner Communities:

!android@lemmy.ml


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

I didn't even realize Qualcomm removed the built in FM radio from their chips. Huh.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

There’s another type of radio that could save lives if implemented in smartphones. In the United States, the NOAA runs a network of radio towers that broadcast up-to-the-minute weather reports and automated alerts, which are specifically designed to stay running during tornadoes and other emergencies. The signals are broadcasted on 162.400 – 162.550 MHz, above the FM band, allowing the signals to travel much farther than regular radio or cell networks.

Higher frequencies travel shorter distances and permeate through buildings and trees less, so 162.4 - 162.55 MHz is going to be worse than the rest of the FM band (but still better than cell frequencies).

[–] v81@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's not that straight forward. And in a practical sense 162MHz is hardly significantly higher than 100MHz.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Apologies, I accidentally missed off the end of the quote, the bit I was commenting on:

The signals are broadcasted on 162.400 – 162.550 MHz, above the FM band, allowing the signals to travel much farther than regular radio or cell networks.

I agree that it isn't much different. However it is objectively worse than regular FM radio, not better as the article claimed.

[–] v81@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I still disagree. There are far more significant factors than the frequency.

Longer wavelength isn't an instant blanket solution to better propogation.

Factors like typical transmitter and receiver configurations matter, location matters, object density matters, reflections etc.. etc..

Hence why UHF is preferred in some cases by emergency services and so on.

Ultimately anything above 60MHz is going to be line of sight or a reflection when assuming the receiving station is mobile or portable, and in that case if the user is indoors higher frequencies might reflect better.

Also narrow FM has more power density than wide FM for the same power level, hence why broadcast transmitters need to be so incredibly powerful to get anywhere.