I too find TV to have its uses....our local stations do a good job with the broadcasts during storms (H-canes). I don't know if they do it elsewhere but a few of our stations join forces and broadcast together using the best of all of them....it is nice.

I bought a little B&W portable TV some years ago for about $30. In that time, I have used it during emergencies about twice. I guess I've substituted NOAA radio (and the local AM/FM stations) for that purpose. It doesn't help that I'd need to rig a large antenna to pick up the closest TV stations. I will probably go out and pick up a digital TV in a few years when they are common and the price is down a bit. But for now, I have 8-10 NOAA radios that have that angle covered. As a bonus, most of those are solar/hand-crank, while the TV requires a 12V hookup or a metric ton of "C" batteries.

Digital television audio in an emergency- phooey!
An actually TV- double phooey!


I'll keep my little Grundig. Shortwave might give me much usable information, but if I can get high enough at night it will pick up AM from Boston sometimes.

I looked into the ATSC system and they use power-hungry chips, not optimized for portable use.

I think there's a very good reason to have a TV on in a weather emergency - information density. When you have a tv you have audio and multiple visual streams of information. This can provide you with a lot more decision support than just an NOAA radio.

I have a battery operated, small screen portable TV (2-3 inches) that I will miss when they throw the switch to digital. One reason that I like to have a TV is for information redundancy. For whatever reason, I might be in a situation where I can pick up only a local TV station. In such a situation, a small, battery operated TV might provide the local information that I need to make prudent decisions. I'm not very happy that my portable TV's will soon become useless.

Touche.
OK, then I'll begin implementing a plan that will let me use my laptop + router + cable modem on UPS backup, with cell network as a backup ISP in case cable is out. This will give me a much larger datastream than TV, while utilizing resources I already possess. I can even post to ETS in the middle of the disaster.

Except that its so delayed from the NOAA its only useful if your not in the area of the emergency.

Basically, that's the setup I have. My "TV" is a Pinnacle USB HDTV tuner hooked to a Macbook Pro.
Data connectivity is DSL fallback is 3G, fallback is dialup, fallback is smoke signals.

You want a "command center" you can't do much better than a computer with 2 or 3 big screens and a TV tuner card or dongle.
Just power-hungry.

Bingo! I was just about to jump on the www aspect. Because I am such a paranoid about weather, while I was in Florida, my goto source of info was always the laptop. I could bring up a whole host of tv station websites as well as NOAA and others and get the latest stream of data, much sooner than NOAA weather radio, and especially the TV set. I could watch the progress of cells moving in from the southwest and get a good idea of intensity, course and speed, and whether it was building up or running down. Even running around with just a blackberry, I could access the internet with it and check the weather, including local radar, although it was admittedly not as elaborate, but it did what I needed it to do. On the rare occasions where I lost power or the cable signal went down, I could at least get to the blackberry and see what was coming.

Now I have a wi-max feed to the house here in Denver. I think it may be a step up from the cable internet service, and certainly far better than phone DSL. Nothing is foolproof, but at least when the power goes out I still have at least two hours of life in the laptop batteries, or 24+ hours on the blackberry.

Combine that with a decent trunking scanner, and you probably have as it good as it gets for monitoring weather and/or other emergency situations.

Power is indeed the problem, so is some form of portability when required i.e. a bug out situation.



My alternative 'Command Centre' setup

Viewing DVB Digital TV/Radio/Teletext broadcast reception (Laura DVB reciever)

Recording and playback of DVB broadcasts (Archos 605)

Watching DVD quality video (recoded to DivX) and Audio formats stored on SDHC cards using the Archos.

The ability to view and read any PDF file stored on the SDHC cards using the Archos.

The ability to take VGA quality Video and high resolution photos (Casio Exlim) and watch the captured content on a high reolution screen on the (Archos 605)

GSM 2.5 connectivity (Voice calls, SMS, picture SMS, email etc) using the Motorola.

The weakest link so far is Internet connectivity (current setup works quite nicely with VOIP cable broadband wireless router at home). I'm currently looking into 3G connection i.e. a 3G phone with an inbuilt wireless router (not yet available) to replace the current Motorola mobile phone. This would give the ability to access hundred of IPTV, IP Radio, Podcasts sources etc from around the world and full internet access ability.

I'm also currently looking for a high capacity general purpose Lithium Ion portable rechargeable battery with both 12V and USB input/output connectivity with individual cells based on either 18650 or RCR123 so as to be compatible with general purpose flashlights.

The SW radio reciever is not shown but is off course included. Everything should fit into a large SLR type camera bag including the Solar Power sources and associated cabling.

The Archos 605 can also be used as a Vehicle GPS navigator with the Archos GPS attachment.

And if all else fails then a portable Satellite TV reciever system may be required.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=48737&DOY=12m11