Closure of the Weatheradio service in Canada
1–10 of 65 posts
Re: Closure of the Weatheradio service in Canada
#2Why was this done?
Re: Closure of the Weatheradio service in Canada
#3I 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.
Re: Closure of the Weatheradio service in Canada
#4I'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.
Re: Closure of the Weatheradio service in Canada
#5While 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.
Re: Closure of the Weatheradio service in Canada
#6Sad 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.
Re: Closure of the Weatheradio service in Canada
#7I'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.
Re: Closure of the Weatheradio service in Canada
#8Here'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
Re: Closure of the Weatheradio service in Canada
#9While 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…
> If I understand correctly, this service was for people who didn't have internet access, which with cell service, StarLink and similar services is become a very small minority of individuals.
You'd be surprised at how bad cell service is in Canadian areas that aren't even considered "boonies". There are often times when you're driving without cell service or any other options.
Re: Closure of the Weatheradio service in Canada
#10While 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…
> 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
I'm not bringing Starlink on a week-long kayak voyage. My cousin isn't bringing it on his hiking and hunting trip in the bush. There's no cell service out there - radio is all you get, at best. This might not be tremendously well used, but there was and continues to be utility for radio broadcasting that one can receive on a cheap low-powered device for free with no subscription in the middle of nowhere. None of your suggestions touch that.
> we'd still have roads maintained for horse and buggies.
Do you leave the city, much? Ever drive up an FSR?