Wireless comms and the end of civilisation

Humans are critical, like it or not

"But these days our infrastructure is much more autonomous and robust, and extensive plans exist to keep things running even as the world falls apart around us."

You have got to be kidding. Once the power grid control systems fail, which "best case" will happen when the nuclear power plants do a week or so after the last humans show up for work at them, everything else will finally fail in a matter of days.

I liked it ...

...so there. I enjoyed the original, when it was more believable and I was a lot younger. But I'm enjoying the remake too. I'm worried that they may soften the original ending, but there we are. I liked the use of the mobile phone as one of two threads showing the breakdown of civilised ideas and habits: Abbie kept hers on all the time, even when there was no signal (nor likelihood of one) until finally it ran out of power. We also watched her slowly hardening towards bodies: screaming the first time, gritting herself the second, and slowly speeding up in her search through the bodies in the school.

Suspension of disbelief is easy when the story works and the acting and scripts are good. Survivors has that, unlike (for example) CSI Miami being hit with a tsunami.

And the Reg article is just as entertaining: I'd like to have written it if only I'd known all that stuff. I certainly remember transistor radios on the go before Survivors, and I know of a thriving hobbyist world building things using valves even now, so you haven't got it all right but you did jolly well.

[@Richard not liking 'amateur': amateur means someone who loves what s/he's doing, and that's fine by me]

Re: And the worst part

@AC

Dude... the show is about a pandemic virus not EMP - viruses don't fry circuitry.

..Oh and anyway, all that stuff about an EMP pulse from a nuclear weapon is mostly BS anyway.

Firstly if the device is off/unplugged it'll probably be fine. Secondly, nuclear EMP pulses don't spread that far from the point of detonation (10 miles?) unless they are detonated at significant altitude. "Significant" means upto 300Km, and "detonation" means your comms satellites at that orbit are toast anyway.

You'd need a fair number of ground nuclear detonations to cover the UK in EMP, and if that's the case - who gives a monkeys about your fridge and microwave not working - they're the least of your problems.

@ Lottie

"What about carrier pigeons? A wireless, mains free eddible WAN "

So *that's* why those Scandinavian students actually implemented the joke RFC about IP over Avian Carriers! (2549, iirc).

It's the one with *everything* in the pockets.

Ethanol?

I would be fine, as would my friends... I have a little hobby that at the moment is for drinking, but since I can get up to 93% pure ethanol out of my still, I'd just tweak a diesel generator to run on ethanol (not too difficult). What's left over we'd drink while blasting old AC/DC in order to collect other like-minded survivors and scare away those who don't appreciate good music.

Anonymous because I have to watch out for the revenoors!!!

Good fiction vs. bad fiction

"Suspend disbelief. Stop thinking it is a documentary and realise it is fiction. If fiction had to make sense there would me no HHGTTG, Discworld or Shakespeare and the world would be a poorer place."

The difference between good fiction and bad fiction is that good fiction remains consistent with its own premises. Bad fiction does not.

Yes, the television show is fiction. Everyone knows that. However, critiquing the flaws in poor fiction is still a worthwhile pasttime; it beats staring vacantly at the tube and passively letting it wash over you. At least writing the critique is an active process.

Frankly, I've never understood the folks who just sit staring at the tube making fun fo the folks who do something; even doing something as trivial as writing about a TV show still beats just watching it.

Gates' Survivors

If this happened and the Gates' survived; how would they survive? I think that would be much more interesting than a lady who stares at her phone with no signal until it dies :p

re: Steve Pettifer / amateur radio and power

It comes to mind that if 90% of the population no-longer need their car-batteries, thats a couple of weeks of power right there while some method of charging is cobbled together - built a little generator for A-level physics, know the theory, could scale it up with a little patience and what little wire-stock is still held at the local maplins (assuming I didn't have enough in stock here.)

It is a topic that Raynet does think about.

--... ...-- / -.. . / -- ----- - ..-. ....

P.S. for that matter, you don't need much power to communicate around the globe using morse...

mine's the one with the VX-7r in the pocket.

good work but could do with some phone numbers :)

Personally i think this is a nice article, I was not aware of RayNet or the capabilities of our comms infrastructure. However, bar RayNet, as other people have pointed out, who on earth (literally) are you going to call. I'm not aware that Satellite (Iridium) or other technolgies have a broadcast facility so unless you know the telephone number of any survivors your fecked!!

Prehaps El Reg could publish some useful numbers for us to remember in case of such a disaster, 999 withstanding :)

a bit of fun

I loved the original 70's survivors though you are right that it tailed off after the first series. The new one is ok so far but I'm not impressed by their survival skills. I laughed at the Maplins comment as I said to my wife that's the first place I'd go (after securing some weapons of course) followed by a hospital pharmacy before nicking a 7.5 tonner, packing it full of food and heading for the hills.

First things you'd do...

1. Get a BT Phone and Yellow pages phone book. This will list the places were the TA and DIY shops are.

2. Go to B+Q, get crowbars, torches, etc.

(Now's your excuse to get that 10 million candle powered torch you've always wanted)

3. Go to TA and Police HQ and get guns and bullet proof vests.

4. Go to Maplins and get walkie-talkies and GPS.

5. Get rechargeable batteries and recharge them via Car lighter socket.

6. Get to Chemists, Health Centres and pick up medicines incl. soap (soap is very important).

7. Pick up Clothes, it's going to be cold in Winter...

8. Raid libraries and colleges to get books on farming.

9. Get to the Secret Bunker up here in Scotland and on the way pick up food.

10. Sit out the first Winter as that'll kill off the first batch of idiots that survived.

11. Get yourself a farm and grow food and babies.

12. Then wait until all the Nuclear storage units and power plants finally degrade in 50-100 years time and release all their toxins throughout the UK and kills every last one of you all.

See the Ants will inherit he Earth...

@good article

I can do you a good deal on a supercharger and extra fuel tanks - but the shotgun holder is a bit hard to come by...

@Toby Mills

There are International emergency frequencies on most of the HF bands that Amateurs use, so anyone left would likely be monitoring those. These would give both inter-UK and International communications. There are a number of Amateur Satellites which again would offer Intercontinental coverage and dont necessarily require a lot of power to use. You would need a PC to predict passes though.