I hate to see this. I bought a Sangean AM/FM/Weather radio with NOAA All Hazards alerting a little while back (I've been extremely happy with it) and as I was programming it wondered how long until either a group like DOGE, or private interest who wanted to repurpose these radio bands would cause such a wonderful service to go away. Maybe I'm naive but I'm surprised it happened in Canada before it happened here in the U.S.
I'd noticed something was going on lately. I sent an email over two months ago to Environment Canada about a station near Brockville (VFK721) repeating its intro statement over and over again without a forecast and never got a reply from them. The station's still broken.
I guess the stations are just stuck right now live transmitting possibly not even a forecast, just an endless station ID announcement.
While I understand the nostalgia, as a Canadian I wasn't even aware this was a thing.
We still have CBC radio that broadcast weather reports, and whether reports are still available on the internet.
If I understand correctly, this service was for people who didn't have internet access, which with cell service, StarLink (yeah, Elon Musk, I know but it has been a game charger in remote communities) and similar services is become a very small minority of individuals.
I think we have to not maintain things that are older tech and unused and focus on things that are the future. If we didn't, we'd still have roads maintained for horse and buggies.
Sad to see things like this close, the US had a some similar stations that have closed over the years. I think these stations are still useful in this day and age.
The costs of these stations were probably like change one find in their sofa. But in the US, there is always enough funds for killing people, little for keeping people alive and safe. The same may be starting to happen in Canada too, they probably need to start increasing they defense spending due to changing winds from the south.
I'm starting to wonder how many Canadians are on Hacker News. This after seeing the BC Time Zone story as well as this one. Just curious, really. I'm wondering what the country breakdown is for Hacker News users.
Here's a map I put together of the Weatheradio (one "r"!) service coverage in Canada, assuming each station has a range of 60 km: https://www.keacher.com/files/dir12/weatheradio_map2.png Perhaps unsurprisingly, the coverage is most dense where the population density is also highest, with some exceptions.
And if anybody is curious, here's the coverage for the equivalent Weather Radio service in the United States: https://www.weather.gov/nwr/maps
Serious question: might the solution be a satellite broadcast in the clear, a la DVB-S but for data, audio, or video?
Weather radio is a critical service, and even if traditional AM/FM or RF signals are deprecated, there should still be a way for anyone - no matter how remote - to get safety and meteorology information from the government. Given that its constant availability is more important than latency or bandwidth, it feels like an appropriate use for GEO satellites broadcasting down over a large area in the clear, such that any basic SDR and a cheap dish could grab the signal with minimal fuss.
Pretty boneheaded move. Yeah I'll download your app (???) so I can listen to critical weather information on my phone that can't even stay powered on an entire day without charging... Cool, guess I'll just take a wild guess as to how this extreme weather is going to proceed. The whole point of these services is their resilience and the fact you can depend on them. Some fragile-ass mobile phone shit is not a suitable replacement for that whatsoever. Totally inexcusable.
If you live in a portion of the US that has severe weather, a NOAA weather radio with the EAS alerting function is a mandatory addition to your home. It could be the difference between life or death. See: first five minutes of Twister.
Inexpensive, AC powered with battery backup and it always works. No internet, no cell tower needed, which was likely just trashed by the storm you're trying to shelter from.
Fun fact these radios can warn you about more than weather. "Radiological Hazard Warning" and "Volcano Warning" to name a few.
Many more people died in decades past from severe weather and natural disasters precisely because of inadequate advance warning.
So naturally they would migrate people to...a replacement orders of magnitude more unreliable.
I sent a letter to my MP the day after receiving the administrative alert on my radio last week, explaining how weather radio has directly led to me avoiding significant property damage in the past couple years. Doesn't feel like there's a whole lot else I can do.
Guess I'll sell my weather radio on eBay in a few weeks, since there won't be any market for it locally.
Related I think - The Hello Weather/Bonjour Météo Canada toll-free 833 phone numbers are shutting down on March 16th if that hasn't been mentioned.
I archive daily calls to selected time-and-temp phone numbers
1-833-794-3556 # Hello Weather Canada (English)
1-833-586-3836 # Hello Weather Canada (French)
I'm archiving these until they go dark. I'll probably put the calls immediately before and after on my YT time-and-temp channel.
Is this the Canadian equivalent of the US NOAA Weather Radio service? If so, that sucks. The last Tornado Warning in my area did not trigger the weather alert of my phone, but it did trigger our weather radio.
It's also very useful for people who don't speak English, as you can just set up a weather radio in their home with only the severe alerts enable, then simply explain "if this makes noise, shelter in place."
Edit: Guess so: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatheradio_Canada. I wonder if this is some kind "decoupling" with the US, as the article states it "is an official partner of the [US] National Weather Service," and the decommissioning seems abrupt and no reason was given.
I am a ham radio operator and also a member of Radio Amateurs of Canada. As we all know, the weather can be a matter of life and death and it is important Canadians have access to the latest weather. I am glad that RAC is taking up the cause for Canadians. In many parts of the country weather radio services parts of the country that don't have reliable Internet or AM/FM radio broadcasts. 73
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[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 48.5 ms ] threadI guess the stations are just stuck right now live transmitting possibly not even a forecast, just an endless station ID announcement.
We still have CBC radio that broadcast weather reports, and whether reports are still available on the internet.
If I understand correctly, this service was for people who didn't have internet access, which with cell service, StarLink (yeah, Elon Musk, I know but it has been a game charger in remote communities) and similar services is become a very small minority of individuals.
I think we have to not maintain things that are older tech and unused and focus on things that are the future. If we didn't, we'd still have roads maintained for horse and buggies.
The costs of these stations were probably like change one find in their sofa. But in the US, there is always enough funds for killing people, little for keeping people alive and safe. The same may be starting to happen in Canada too, they probably need to start increasing they defense spending due to changing winds from the south.
And if anybody is curious, here's the coverage for the equivalent Weather Radio service in the United States: https://www.weather.gov/nwr/maps
Weather radio is a critical service, and even if traditional AM/FM or RF signals are deprecated, there should still be a way for anyone - no matter how remote - to get safety and meteorology information from the government. Given that its constant availability is more important than latency or bandwidth, it feels like an appropriate use for GEO satellites broadcasting down over a large area in the clear, such that any basic SDR and a cheap dish could grab the signal with minimal fuss.
If you live in a portion of the US that has severe weather, a NOAA weather radio with the EAS alerting function is a mandatory addition to your home. It could be the difference between life or death. See: first five minutes of Twister.
Inexpensive, AC powered with battery backup and it always works. No internet, no cell tower needed, which was likely just trashed by the storm you're trying to shelter from.
Fun fact these radios can warn you about more than weather. "Radiological Hazard Warning" and "Volcano Warning" to name a few.
Many more people died in decades past from severe weather and natural disasters precisely because of inadequate advance warning.
So naturally they would migrate people to...a replacement orders of magnitude more unreliable.
Guess I'll sell my weather radio on eBay in a few weeks, since there won't be any market for it locally.
I archive daily calls to selected time-and-temp phone numbers 1-833-794-3556 # Hello Weather Canada (English) 1-833-586-3836 # Hello Weather Canada (French) I'm archiving these until they go dark. I'll probably put the calls immediately before and after on my YT time-and-temp channel.
It's also very useful for people who don't speak English, as you can just set up a weather radio in their home with only the severe alerts enable, then simply explain "if this makes noise, shelter in place."
Edit: Guess so: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatheradio_Canada. I wonder if this is some kind "decoupling" with the US, as the article states it "is an official partner of the [US] National Weather Service," and the decommissioning seems abrupt and no reason was given.