An Unexpected Message

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

… from O2 this morning

MichaelG.

.

[VicParticipant @vic]

I can’t remember when the last one went off, but no one in my family got it. I checked the settings on my phone a few days ago, and I should get it this time. We’ll see.

[blowlampParticipant @blowlamp]

They love to keep the fear levels high.

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

My wife got it as well.  I seem to remember we didn’t get the last one either.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, I also had the message at around 1.00 pm, though I had heard it was going to happen, a few weeks ago.

Regards Nick.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

I got the text message at 12:38 today and it seemed to light up the screen with some message but that had gone before I could orient the phone to read it. It seemed to be able to over-ride the phone being off.
Sunday afternoon I will be at the EDMES exhibition at St Katherine’s Priory (shameless plug) so it will be interesting to see if everyone’s phone goes off at the same time. What if you were at a concert or play, or in church. Is it able to sound even if the phone is on silent?

On the other hand, given the crap reception I get since O2 turned off 3G I may be in a dead zone.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

For info. Bazyle:

https://www.gov.uk/alerts

MichaelG.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Distant memories:

http://www.atomica.co.uk/main.htm

[Michael Gilligan]

On Michael Gilligan Said:

Distant memories:

http://www.atomica.co.uk/main.htm

“Protect and Survive

This booklet tells you how to make your home and family as safe as possible under nuclear attack” 

 

Another thing which never happened, but raised anxiety levels for the population.

 

The advice for caravan dwellers would have been very helpful, I’m sure

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

It is probably some of the least well-informed guidance ever produced.

But historically important … if only for that.

MichaelG.

 

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Is that the one that says in the event of nuclear attack, put your head between your knees and kiss your **** goodbye

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, if you don’t want your phone to sound that emergency alert test on Sunday, you can opt out by going into your settings and find notifications, which may be under a heading such as “Safety & Emergency” and then wireless emergency alerts, and turn off Extreme and Severe Alerts. They may take some finding, but they should be on most mobile phones somewhere, looking in your table of contents or index should direct you to these. Don’t forget to turn them back on again though after the test on Sunday.

Regards Nick.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Or you could just turn your phone off.  I mean really off by choosing power off from the menu or however it’s done on iPhone. Despite rumours to the contrary once the phone is off it isn’t contactable or trackable.  This is distinct from the apparently passive standby mode that the phone goes into where just the screen blanks.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi John, yes of course you can switch it completely off, but if you wish to use your phone during the time of the test, switching the emergency alarms off, will let you do it in peace.

Regards Nick.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

As expected … I heard nothing

This “Not Spot” being devoid of any useable mobile ‘phone signal.

MichaelG.

[Bill PhinnParticipant @billphinn90025]

I don’t see the point of it. I got the pre-alert alert from UK-Gov telling me I would be getting an alert, but when the time came I got nothing. Why not just use the same messaging system that sent me the pre-alert alert to send the alert as well?

While we’re in whinge mode, what is a “severe alert”? “Important alert” or “emergency alert” would be fine, but “severe alert” isn’t idiomatic English, and left me in doubt what was meant when I first read it on someone else’s phone.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

At the critical time I was not near anyone and heard nothing though others later reported phones going off all around. I did get a message appear so partly effective. It might have been that I had no signal (O2 signal crap recently) and the message was pre-delivered with a time to show system.

Agree the English is shamefully poor. You can bet a committee of 10-20 spent weeks deciding it.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, I had just parked up when I went into town near me when I got the message and the alarm, but there was no one else around, so I don’t know if others heard it. My old phone at home, which has no sim, nor was connected to the Wi-Fi card had the message on it, but I don’t know if the alarm sounded on it.

Regards Nick.

[Nicholas Farr]

On Nicholas Farr Said:

Hi, I had just parked up when I went into town near me when I got the message and the alarm, but there was no one else around, so I don’t know if others heard it. My old phone at home, which has no sim, nor was connected to the Wi-Fi card had the message on it, but I don’t know if the alarm sounded on it.

Regards Nick.

[ my emboldening ]

I’m really struggling with that one, Nick ^^^

 

The advance-notice message would presumably have come from your service-provider [mine came from O2] … but how on Earth did they get it to your old ‘phone with no SIM  in it ?

I thought it was the SIM that gave the brick its identity as a ‘phone

The world works in mysterious ways !

MichaelG.

[Graham MeekParticipant @grahammeek88282]

There was a message on Google’s search page yesterday morning. It did not move me to switch my mobile phone on. As regards the Siren, my wife’s phone sounded more like an Ice-cream Van and the voice was definitely not BBC speak, AI no doubt given the drone.

I wonder how much this lot cost us?

Regards

Gray,

[Bill Phinn]

On Bill Phinn Said:

I don’t see the point of it. …

They are testing the system to confirm it works

While we’re in whinge mode, what is a “severe alert”? “Important alert” or “emergency alert” would be fine, but “severe alert” isn’t idiomatic English, and left me in doubt what was meant when I first read it on someone else’s phone.

Idiomatic English should never be used in an Alert system.  Though it might break the ice, an alert message must not be food for thought in case it becomes clear as mud!   Bill means plain English, not idiomatic.

‘Severe alert’, isn’t bad English, though my experience is of colour codes.    Black meant “some chance of nastiness – make a judgement about what if anything should be done”, Amber meant “medium risk of nastiness, prepare seriously for it”, and a Red alert meant “high-risk of nastiness, activate all precautions”.

The US military Defcon system is a chilling example:  do we prefer the numeric level or the name?  Defcon 5 (normal peacetime) is “Fade Out”, but, depending on the situation, the system rises through ‘”Double Take”, “Round House”, “Fast Pace” up to “Cocked Pistol”, which is Defcon 1.   “Cocked Pistol” means “Nuclear war has begun or is imminent: prepare to respond”.

Assuming they still have the capability, the UK gets roughly 4 minutes warning before Russian thermonuclear warheads explode.  There will be some survivors, and the number is increased by taking relatively simple countermeasures, making it necessary for the whole population to react quickly to the alert.   Civilisation as we know it ceases to exist, so forget all cosy individual expectations – the goal of Protect and Survive was about basic survival sufficient to rebuild society from scratch over many generations.  It was never about maintaining our normality.  Might seem scaremongering, but the Defcon system is real and all the hardware necessary is in place.

Nuclear war is an extreme we hope, but there are plenty of other threats, notably severe weather.  Global warming has made serious weather events far more likely, with once per century violence now recurring once per decade, or more.   Trees and infrastructure collapsing and flying debris are dangerous, but flash floods are perhaps the worst UK risk.  Take cover if you get a Red Weather alert, and maybe evacuate if you live on a flood plain, in a sharp valley, or under a dam.  Don’t go caravanning, sailing, storm-chasing, or test a 4×4 a raging torrent!  Plenty of BF’s do!

I think it unwise to switch off alert systems.  Being unprepared for a nasty surprise is rarely advantageous!   Believing bad things can’t happen to me has never worked.

Dave

 

 

 

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

If a phone is switched on but doesn’t have a SIM card inserted it still monitors the network so that it can make emergency calls and indeed receive emergency messages.  The latter are broadcast on a specific data channel and are addressed to all phones in a cell or group of cells or indeed (as yesterday) all cells in a network. This service was introduced into the GSM standard many years ago at the instigation of US operators IIRC and exists in one form or another in all subsequent standards (3G, 4G, 5G).

People may remember a few weeks back in the US  that a flash flood in Texas killed quite a number of young people staying in a campsite in a valley.  One of the contributory factors to that tragedy I believe was that the valley in question had very poor mobile coverage so the emergency message that was sent out didn’t reach the people there. With worsening climate change and increased frequency of floods here you can easily see that it will become increasingly important and useful here too.

[JAParticipant @ja]

Knowing that this alarm was coming I put my smart phone in a steel biscuit tin with the lid on. It still received the alarm. I thought the sealed tin would be a Faraday cage.

JA

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

If you’d soldered the lid on with continuous seams it might have worked.  It is actually very hard to keep EM waves out of a conductive box without careful attention to all the joins.  RF will get through long slots quite easily.  Putting it in the microwave could have worked better as the door seals have to be designed to keep the RF in at similar frequencies to cellular.

[blowlampParticipant @blowlamp]

Fix the roads instead of sending dummy phone messages, is what I want.

[Author]

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