1.
Midland Radio
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Midland Radio Corporation is a U. S. based manufacturer of radio equipment. Midland manufactures industrial and marine two-way radio systems, CB radios, located in Kansas City, Missouri, Midland is the oldest U. S. manufacturer of CB Radios. Midland was established in the 1960s and is owned by private investors, Midland Official Site European Regional Site Cte Int
2.
Oregon Scientific
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Oregon Scientific, Inc. is a manufacturer of electronic products including radio-referenced clocks, home weather stations, public alert monitors, youth learning aids and fitness devices. The firm was started in 1989 in Portland, Oregon, United States, in 1997, the company became a fully owned subsidiary of IDT, a Hong Kong-based company. OSI and its parent company introduced the worlds slimmest MP3 player, the company is known for its WeatherNow award-winning weather station built for home use that uses FM radio signals from MSN Direct to provide 4-days of regional weather information. Oregon Scientific made the first stand alone waterproof mp3 player, in 2007, CES Innovations award winners included the ATC2K Waterproof Action Cam, the Talking Wireless BBQ/ Oven Thermometer and the WeatherNow II. Their Pendant MP3 Player and Waterproof MP3 player received awards for innovation at the 2005 Consumer Electronics Show, in 2003, OSI partnered with SMaL, Axia and Fujifilm to produce the world’s smallest digital camera. Other products include a digital video camera, an alarm clock designed by Philippe Starck, a pedometer that keeps seven days worth of data. Tablet marketed for children in 2012, in 2000, one of the companys weather radios was recalled for errors in reporting severe weather warnings. In 2005-06, the company opened its own retail stores with locations in Los Angeles, Palo Alto and these stores round out their retail locations currently in Italy, China, Singapore and Hong Kong. Hoovers, IDT International IDT International Limiteds website
3.
Radio station
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A radio station is a set of equipment necessary to carry on communication via radio waves. Generally, it is a receiver or transmitter, an antenna, Radio stations play a vital role in communication technology as they are heavily relied on to transfer data and information across the world. More broadly, the definition of a radio station includes the aforementioned equipment, such a station may include several radio stations defined above. This definition of a station is more often referred to as a transmitter site. Each station shall be classified by the service in which it operates permanently or temporarily», transmitter - Takes the electrical output of a microphone and then modulates a higher-frequency carrier signal and transmits it as radio waves. Receiver - The broadcast message is received by the receiver and decodes the radio sine waves, antenna - An antenna is required for transmission, it is also required to receive radio waves. The main use of an antenna is to radio signals. Aerial feeder - system of feeding HF-Energy in the antenna Transmission lines - Transmission lines are used to transfer the radio signals from one location to another. For example, a line was used in Luftwaffe, Germany during WW II to send information from camps back to their base. Connectors Interface panel remote control – This is used to various different types of the equipment used in a radio station. To input broadcast data into a transmitter an interface panel will need to be used, cable – A cable can be used to connect the various devices. Equipment Rack – To hold all equipment in a secure and logical manner, power protection equipment – For holding equipments in a stable, secure and logical manner. UPS – For uninterrupted power supply and these are the most used/important devices and items for most radio stations. A microphone is used to capture the input of sound created by people speaking into the device. The sounds are turned into electrical energy, this energy then flows along a metal antenna. As the electrons in the current move back and forth up the antenna. The waves travel at the speed of light, taking the program with them. A compound of both a transmitter and a receiver is called a transceiver, they are combined and share common circuitry or a single housing, when no circuitry is common between the transmit and receive functions, the device becomes a transmitter-receiver
4.
Weather forecasting
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Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, hence, forecasts become less accurate as the difference between current time and the time for which the forecast is being made increases. The use of ensembles and model consensus help narrow the error, there are a variety of end uses to weather forecasts. Weather warnings are important forecasts because they are used to protect life, forecasts based on temperature and precipitation are important to agriculture, and therefore to traders within commodity markets. Temperature forecasts are used by utility companies to estimate demand over coming days, on an everyday basis, people use weather forecasts to determine what to wear on a given day. Since outdoor activities are severely curtailed by rain, snow and wind chill, forecasts can be used to plan activities around these events. In 2014, the US spent $5.1 billion on weather forecasting, for millennia people have tried to forecast the weather. In 650 BC, the Babylonians predicted the weather from cloud patterns as well as astrology, in about 340 BC, Aristotle described weather patterns in Meteorologica. Later, Theophrastus compiled a book on weather forecasting, called the Book of Signs, chinese weather prediction lore extends at least as far back as 300 BC, which was also around the same time ancient Indian astronomers developed weather-prediction methods. You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, ancient weather forecasting methods usually relied on observed patterns of events, also termed pattern recognition. For example, it might be observed if the sunset was particularly red. This experience accumulated over the generations to produce weather lore, however, not all of these predictions prove reliable, and many of them have since been found not to stand up to rigorous statistical testing. It was not until the invention of the telegraph in 1835 that the modern age of weather forecasting began. Before that, the fastest that distant weather reports could travel was around 100 miles per day, the two men credited with the birth of forecasting as a science were officer of the Royal Navy Francis Beaufort and his protégé Robert FitzRoy. Beaufort developed the Wind Force Scale and Weather Notation coding, which he was to use in his journals for the remainder of his life. He also promoted the development of reliable tide tables around British shores, Robert FitzRoy was appointed in 1854 as chief of a new department within the Board of Trade to deal with the collection of weather data at sea as a service to mariners. This was the forerunner of the modern Meteorological Office, all ship captains were tasked with collating data on the weather and computing it, with the use of tested instruments that were loaned for this purpose. Fifteen land stations were established to use the new telegraph to transmit to him daily reports of weather at set times leading to the first gale warning service and his warning service for shipping was initiated in February 1861, with the use of telegraph communications
5.
News bulletin
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Its use is also assigned to the most significant story of the moment or a story that is being covered live. It could be a story that is simply of wide interest to viewers and has little impact otherwise, many times, breaking news is used after the news organization has already reported on the story. When a story has not been reported on previously, the graphic, there is then an opening graphic, featuring music which adds an emphasis on the importance of the event. This is usually followed with the introduction of a news anchor, lower thirds and other graphics may also be altered to convey a sense of urgency. Additionally, the coverage may be passed to a reporter at the location of the breaking event, possibly sharing more information about the story as it breaks. Depending upon the story being followed, the report may last only a few minutes, or continue for multiple hours – or with the most significant events, days – at a time. The anchor will usually remind viewers to check the networks website, usually regular daytime programming is re-joined in progress and segments may be missed. If the event occurs during prime time, the anchor will usually remind viewers that there will be more details on their local newscast. Some events, like State of the Union addresses and presidential debates, are scheduled to start at the top of the hour during prime time, under those circumstances, regularly scheduled network programming is preempted for the duration of the event. Also, no reverse countdown is provided to allow affiliates to change to the networks news feed. Instead, the network may announce the preemption of regularly scheduled prime time programming, on radio, the process of a breaking news story is somewhat the same, though some different considerations are made for the medium. For instance, a breaking news theme is required by default to have an urgent tenor and be used only for the purpose of true breaking news or bulletins. For local events, continuous coverage may be imposed, or else the station may wait until they have a reporter at the scene and will promise more details of the event as they become available. Other considerations are also, FM music stations rarely relay breaking news unless it is an event of grave national concern. Less urgent events allow a network to feed updates to stations at 20,30 and 50 minutes after the hour to give a summary of events, News bulletins have been a fixture of radio broadcasting since at least the 1920s. In the decades before 24-hour news networks such as CNN began to exist, programming interruptions were restricted to extremely urgent news, such breaks are now common at 24-hour news channels, which may have an anchor available for live interruption at any time. Some networks, such as Sky News, largely emphasize this, another type of breaking news is that of severe weather events, which had such coverage evolve in a very similar manner. In various countries and at various outlets, terms such as breaking, urgent, flash, bulletin
6.
Natural disaster
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An adverse event will not rise to the level of a disaster if it occurs in an area without vulnerable population. In a vulnerable area, however, such as Nepal during the 2015 earthquake, a landslide is described as an outward and downward slope movement of an abundance of slope-forming materials including rock, soil, artificial, or even a combination of these things. During World War I, an estimated 40,000 to 80,000 soldiers died as a result of avalanches during the campaign in the Alps at the Austrian-Italian front. Many of the avalanches were caused by artillery fire, an earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earths crust that creates seismic waves. At the Earths surface earthquakes manifest themselves by vibration, shaking, earthquakes are caused by slippage within geological faults. The underground point of origin of the earthquake is called the seismic focus, the point directly above the focus on the surface is called the epicenter. Earthquakes by themselves rarely kill people or wildlife and it is usually the secondary events that they trigger such as building collapse, fires, tsunamis and volcanoes. Many of these could possibly be avoided by better construction, safety systems, when natural erosion or human mining makes the ground too weak to support the structures built on it, the ground can collapse and produce a sinkhole. Volcanoes can cause destruction and consequent disaster in several ways. The effects include the eruption itself that may cause harm following the explosion of the volcano or falling rocks. Second, lava may be produced during the eruption of a volcano, third, volcanic ash generally meaning the cooled ash – may form a cloud, and settle thickly in nearby locations. When mixed with water forms a concrete-like material. In sufficient quantity ash may cause roofs to collapse under its weight, since the ash has the consistency of ground glass it causes abrasion damage to moving parts such as engines. It is believed that Pompeii was destroyed by a pyroclastic flow, a lahar is a volcanic mudflow or landslide. The 1953 Tangiwai disaster was caused by a lahar, as was the 1985 Armero tragedy in which the town of Armero was buried, a specific type of volcano is the supervolcano. It also killed three-quarters of all plant life in the northern hemisphere, the main danger from a supervolcano is the immense cloud of ash, which has a disastrous global effect on climate and temperature for many years. It is a violent, sudden and destructive change either in quality of water or in distribution or movement of water on land below the surface or in atmosphere. A flood is an overflow of water that submerges land, the EU Floods Directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land which is usually not covered by water
7.
Child abduction alert system
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A child abduction alert system is a tool used to alert the public in cases of worrying or life-threatening disappearances of children. AMBER Alerts systems in Poland, Slovakia, Luxembourg and Malta, AMBER Alert Europe is an international not for profit organisation with 25 members in 17 countries. Its Police Network consists of over 40 experts representing law enforcement from 14 EU countries, the goals of AMBER Alert Europe are backed by 465 Members of the European Parliament, most successful Written Declaration since 2011. Goal of the network is to allow missing children police experts to quickly and informally contact their colleagues in other European member states, when it is believed that the life or health of a missing child is in imminent danger, the police can issue an AMBER Alert. This allows them to alert the public and make sure everyone is on the lookout for the child. Extensive US research, backed by UK findings, show that when a child is abducted and killed, the AMBER Alert system was developed for these special ‘life or death’ cases. Law enforcement agencies are responsible for issuing an AMBER Alert and use strict criteria, the technology currently being used by AMBER Alert Europe builds on the technology already used in the Netherlands since 2008 for the Dutch AMBER Alert plan. The first cross-border child alert organised by AMBER Alert Europe was issued in the morning of the 8th of May 2013 for two Dutch brothers. The boys photo was displayed on screens in the Belgian province of Limburg and in North Rhine-Westphalia and has received extensive media attention in the Netherlands, Belgium. The bodies of the children have found at 19 May 2013 near Cothen. In April 2015 a cross border Child Alert had been issued for a 10-year-old girl from Szczecin, Poland, in close cooperation with the German authorities and the NGO Initiative Vermisste Kinder the Polish child alert was also spread in Germany. Via social media and large screens at railway stations German citizens were asked to be on the lookout for the missing child, additionally, the alert was also disseminated by AMBER Alert Europe, AMBER Alert Netherlands and the recently launched AMBER Alert Slovakia. A child alert system reaches millions of people within minutes, when a public child alert is issued by the police, the picture of the child is distributed to a much larger audience. A missing child is considered endangered when there is an immediate and significant risk of harm, Police can decide to publicize information and ask the help of citizens to recover the child. However it is important to understand that endangered missing children for which an alert system can be of use constitute an average 1 to 2% of the total cases of missing children in Europe. Child alert tools have proven their value in a number of EU Member States, therefore, the impact of this must be assessed by law enforcement agencies taking into consideration article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and national legislation. In the best interest of the child, information should be removed from public sources as soon as the child is being found and it is also the main partner working on developing the Google Child Alert System in Europe. Any citizen or organization has the opportunity to register to participate, Child Alert is managed by Child Focus, in collaboration with the Federal police and the Belgian justice
8.
Terrorist attack
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Terrorism is, in its broadest sense, the use of intentionally indiscriminate violence as a means to create terror or fear, in order to achieve a political, religious, or ideological aim. It is classified as fourth-generation warfare and as a violent crime, in modern times, terrorism is considered a major threat to society and therefore illegal under anti-terrorism laws in most jurisdictions. It is also considered a war crime under the laws of war when used to target non-combatants, such as civilians, neutral military personnel, a broad array of political organizations have practiced terrorism to further their objectives. It has been practiced by both right-wing and left-wing political organizations, nationalist groups, religious groups, revolutionaries, and ruling governments, there is no universally agreed upon definition of the term, and many definitions exist. According to data from the Global Terrorism Database, more than 61,000 incidents of non-state terrorism, Terrorism comes from the French word terrorisme, and originally referred specifically to state terrorism as practiced by the French government during the 1793–1794 Reign of Terror. The French word terrorisme in turn derives from the Latin verb terrere meaning to frighten, the Jacobins, coming to power in France in 1792, are said to have initiated the Reign of Terror. After the Jacobins lost power, the word terrorist became a term of abuse, although terrorism originally referred to acts committed by a government, currently it usually refers to the killing of innocent people for political purposes in such a way as to create a spectacle. This meaning can be traced back to Sergey Nechayev, who described himself as a terrorist, Nechayev founded the Russian terrorist group Peoples Retribution in 1869. It is a form of state-terrorism, the concept was however developed long before the Second Gulf War by Harlan Ullman as chair of a forum of retired military personnel. The definition of terrorism has proven controversial, various legal systems and government agencies use different definitions of terrorism in their national legislation. Moreover, the community has been slow to formulate a universally agreed. These difficulties arise from the fact that the term terrorism is politically and emotionally charged, in this regard, Angus Martyn, briefing the Australian parliament, stated, The international community has never succeeded in developing an accepted comprehensive definition of terrorism. The international community has adopted a series of conventions that define. U. S. Bruce Hoffman, a scholar, has noted, experts and other long-established scholars in the field are equally incapable of reaching a consensus. Four years and a second later, Schmid was no closer to the goal of his quest. Walter Laqueur despaired of defining terrorism in both editions of his work on the subject, maintaining that it is neither possible to do so nor worthwhile to make the attempt. Hoffman believes it is possible to some key characteristics of terrorism. A definition proposed by Carsten Bockstette at the George C, such acts are meant to send a message from an illicit clandestine organization
9.
Very high frequency
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Very high frequency is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves from 30 MHz to 300 MHz, with corresponding wavelengths of ten to one meters. Frequencies immediately below VHF are denoted high frequency, and the higher frequencies are known as ultra high frequency. Air traffic control communications and air navigation systems work at distances of 100 kilometres or more to aircraft at cruising altitude, some older DVB-T receivers included channels E2 to E4 but newer ones only go down to channel E5. VHF propagation characteristics are suited for terrestrial communication, with a range generally somewhat farther than line-of-sight from the transmitter. VHF waves are restricted to the radio horizon less than 100 miles. VHF is less affected by noise and interference from electrical equipment than lower frequencies. Unlike high frequencies, the ionosphere does not usually reflect VHF waves, the distance to the radio horizon is slightly extended over the geometric line of sight to the horizon, as radio waves are weakly bent back toward the Earth by the atmosphere. These approximations are only valid for antennas at heights that are compared to the radius of the Earth. They may not necessarily be accurate in mountainous areas, since the landscape may not be transparent enough for radio waves, in engineered communications systems, more complex calculations are required to assess the probable coverage area of a proposed transmitter station. The accuracy of calculations for digital TV signals is being debated. Portable radios usually use whips or rubber ducky antennas, while base stations usually use larger fiberglass whips or collinear arrays of vertical dipoles, for directional antennas, the Yagi antenna is the most widely used as a high gain or beam antenna. For television reception, the Yagi is used, as well as the log periodic antenna due to its wider bandwidth, helical and turnstile antennas are used for satellite communication since they employ circular polarization. For even higher gain, multiple Yagis or helicals can be mounted together to make array antennas, vertical collinear arrays of dipoles can be used to make high gain omnidirectional antennas, in which more of the antennas power is radiated in horizontal directions. Television and FM broadcasting stations use arrays of specialized dipole antennas such as batwing antennas. Certain subparts of the VHF band have the same use around the world, some national uses are detailed below. 108–118 MHz, Air navigation beacons VOR and Instrument Landing System localiser, 118–137 MHz, Airband for air traffic control, AM,121.5 MHz is emergency frequency 144–146 MHz, Amateur radio. Other capital cities and regional areas used a combination of these, the initial commercial services in Hobart and Darwin were respectively allocated channels 6 and 8 rather than 7 or 9. By the early 1960s it became apparent that the 10 VHF channels were insufficient to support the growth of television services and this was rectified by the addition of three additional frequencies—channels 0, 5A and 11
10.
FM broadcasting
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FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting using frequency modulation technology. Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, it is used worldwide to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio, FM broadcasting is capable of better sound quality than AM broadcasting, the chief competing radio broadcasting technology, so it is used for most music broadcasts. FM radio stations use the VHF frequencies, the term FM band describes the frequency band in a given country which is dedicated to FM broadcasting. Throughout the world, the FM broadcast band falls within the VHF part of the radio spectrum. Usually 87.5 to 108.0 MHz is used, or some portion thereof, with few exceptions, In the former Soviet republics, and some former Eastern Bloc countries, assigned frequencies are at intervals of 30 kHz. This band, sometimes referred to as the OIRT band, is slowly being phased out in many countries, in those countries the 87. 5–108.0 MHz band is referred to as the CCIR band. In Japan, the band 76–95 MHz is used, the frequency of an FM broadcast station is usually an exact multiple of 100 kHz. In most of South Korea, the Americas, the Philippines, in some parts of Europe, Greenland and Africa, only even multiples are used. In the UK odd or even are used, in Italy, multiples of 50 kHz are used. There are other unusual and obsolete FM broadcasting standards in countries, including 1,10,30,74,500. Random noise has a triangular spectral distribution in an FM system and this can be offset, to a limited extent, by boosting the high frequencies before transmission and reducing them by a corresponding amount in the receiver. Reducing the high frequencies in the receiver also reduces the high-frequency noise. These processes of boosting and then reducing certain frequencies are known as pre-emphasis and de-emphasis, the amount of pre-emphasis and de-emphasis used is defined by the time constant of a simple RC filter circuit. In most of the world a 50 µs time constant is used, in the Americas and South Korea,75 µs is used. This applies to both mono and stereo transmissions, for stereo, pre-emphasis is applied to the left and right channels before multiplexing. They cannot be pre-emphasized as much because it would cause excessive deviation of the FM carrier, systems more modern than FM broadcasting tend to use either programme-dependent variable pre-emphasis, e. g. dbx in the BTSC TV sound system, or none at all. Long before FM stereo transmission was considered, FM multiplexing of other types of audio level information was experimented with. Edwin Armstrong who invented FM was the first to experiment with multiplexing and these original FM multiplex subcarriers were amplitude modulated
11.
Scanner (radio)
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More often than not, these scanners can also tune to different types of modulation as well. Early scanners were slow, bulky, and expensive, today, modern microprocessors have enabled scanners to store thousands of channels and monitor hundreds of channels per second. Recent models can follow trunked radio systems and decode APCO-P25 digital transmissions, both hand held and desktop models are available. Scanners are often used to police, fire and emergency medical services. Radio scanning serves an important role in the fields of journalism and crime investigation, scanners developed from earlier tunable and fixed-frequency radios that received one frequency at a time. Non-broadcast radio systems, such as used by public safety agencies. With a radio fixed on a frequency, much time could pass between transmissions, while other frequencies might be active. A scanning radio will sequentially monitor multiple programmed channels, or search between user defined frequency limits, the scanner will stop on an active frequency strong enough to break the radios squelch setting and resume scanning other frequencies when that activity ceases. Scanners first became popular and widely available during the heyday of CB radio in the 1970s, the first scanners often had between four and ten channels and required the purchase of a separate crystal for each frequency received. A US patent was issued to Peter W. Pflasterer on June 1,1976, an early 1976 US entry was the Tennelec MCP-1, sold at the January 1976 Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago. Many recent models will allow scanning of the specific DCS or CTCSS code used on a frequency should it have multiple users. One memory bank can be assigned to air traffic control, another can be for local marine communications and these can be switched on and off depending on the users preference. Most scanners have a radio band, allowing the listener to tune into weather radio broadcasts from a NOAA transmitter. Some scanners are equipped with Fire-Tone out, fire tone out decodes Quick Call type tones and acts as a pager when the correct sequence of tones is detected. Modern scanners allow hundreds or thousands of frequencies to be entered via a keypad and stored in various memory banks, active frequencies can be found by searching the internet and frequency reference books or can be discovered through a programmable scanners search function. An external antenna for a scanner or an extendable antenna for a hand held unit will provide greater performance than the original equipment antennas provided by manufacturers. Scanners are used by hobbyists, railfans, auto race fans, aviation enthusiasts, off duty emergency services personnel, many scanner clubs exist to allow members to share information about frequencies, codes and operations. Most have Internet presence, such as websites, email lists or Web forums and it is legal to possess a scanner in Australia
12.
Radio receiver
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In radio communications, a radio receiver is an electronic device that receives radio waves and converts the information carried by them to a usable form. It is used with an antenna, the antenna intercepts radio waves and converts them to tiny alternating currents which are applied to the receiver, and the receiver extracts the desired information. The information produced by the receiver may be in the form of sound, a radio receiver may be a separate piece of electronic equipment, or an electronic circuit within another device. The most familiar form of radio receiver is a broadcast receiver, often just called a radio, the sound is produced either by a loudspeaker in the radio or an earphone which plugs into a jack on the radio. The radio requires electric power, provided either by batteries inside the radio or a cord which plugs into an electric outlet. All radios have a control to adjust the loudness of the audio. The frequency of radio stations is usually listed prominently in their advertising, in order to select a particular station to receive, the radio is adjusted to the frequency of the desired transmitter. In some radios this is done by the user turning a tuning knob until the station is heard in the radios loudspeaker. In most countries radio broadcasting is permitted using two different methods of modulation, that is, methods of adding the signal to the radio wave, AM and FM. In amplitude modulation the strength of the signal is varied by the audio signal. AM broadcasting is permitted on AM broadcast bands between 148 and 283 kHz in the low range and 526 and 1706 kHz in the medium frequency range of the radio spectrum. In frequency modulation the frequency of the signal is varied slightly by the audio signal. FM broadcasting is permitted in the FM broadcast bands between about 65 and 108 MHz in the high frequency range. The exact frequency ranges vary somewhat in different countries, radios sold in each receive the correct frequency range for that country. Most broadcast radios, called AM/FM radios, can receive both AM and FM bands, and have a switch to select which band to receive. Limited AM broadcasting is permitted in parts of the high frequency band called the shortwave band. Shortwave listening requires a receiver that can receive these bands, called a shortwave receiver, at these frequencies, radio waves transmitted into the sky can reflect from a layer in the atmosphere called the ionosphere, returning to earth at transcontinental distances. So shortwaves are used for long distance international broadcasting, often by governmental public service broadcasting organizations like the BBC, due to their lower frequency, AM radio stations can often be received at longer distances than FM stations, at hundreds of miles
13.
AM broadcasting
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AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is authorized in the wave band worldwide. Commercial AM broadcasting developed from amateur broadcasts around 1920, and was the commercially important form of radio broadcasting until FM broadcasting began after World War II. This period is known as the Golden Age of Radio, today, AM competes with FM, as well as with various digital radio broadcasting services distributed from terrestrial and satellite transmitters. AM broadcasting was the first broadcasting technology invented, the technology of amplitude modulation radio transmission was developed between 1900 and 1920. This was used for private communication and message traffic, such as telegrams. The entrepreneurs who developed AM radiotelephone transmission did not anticipate broadcasting voice, the term broadcasting, borrowed from agriculture, was applied to this new activity around 1920. Prior to 1920 there was no concept of broadcasting, or that radio listeners could be a market for entertainment. Although there were a number of broadcasts during this period. True radio broadcasting didnt begin until around 1920, when it sprang up spontaneously among amateur stations, AM remained the dominant method of broadcasting for the next 30 years, a period called the Golden Age of Radio, until FM broadcasting started to become widespread in the 1950s. AM remains a popular, profitable entertainment medium today and the dominant form of broadcasting in some such as Australia. The first AM voice transmission was made by Canadian researcher Reginald Fessenden on 23 December 1900, Fessenden is a significant figure in the development of AM radio. He helped develop one of the first – the Alexanderson alternator, the first practical continuous wave AM transmitters were based on versions of the Poulsen arc transmitter invented in 1903, and the huge, expensive Alexanderson alternator, developed 1906–1910. The modifications necessary to transmit AM were clumsy and resulted in low audio quality. Modulation was usually accomplished by a carbon microphone inserted directly in the antenna wire, the limited power handling ability of the microphone severely limited the power of the first radiotelephones, in powerful transmitters water-cooled microphones had to be used. At the receiving end, the crystal radio receivers then in use could not drive loudspeakers, only earphones. The discovery in 1912 of the ability of the Audion vacuum tube, invented in 1906 by Lee De Forest
14.
Television station
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A television station is a business, organisation or other enterprise, such as an amateur television operator, that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can occur via analog television signals or, more recently, broadcast television systems standards are set by the government, and these vary around the world. Television stations broadcasting over a system were typically limited to one television channel. The term television station is normally applied to television stations. Television stations usually require a broadcast license from a government agency which sets the requirements, most commercial television stations are owned independently, but many are either affiliated with a television network or are owned-and-operated by a television network. Another form a television station may take is non-commercial educational and considered public broadcasting, some countries have set up nationwide television networks, in which individual television stations act as mere repeaters of nationwide programs. To get a signal from the control room to the transmitter. The link can be either by radio or T1/E1, a transmitter/studio link may also send telemetry back to the station, but this may be embedded in subcarriers of the main broadcast. Stations which retransmit or simulcast another may simply pick-up that station over-the-air, the license usually specifies which other station is it allowed to carry. In North America, full-power stations on band I are generally limited to 100 kW analog video and 10 kW analog audio, stations on band III can go up by 5dB to 316 kW video,31.6 kW audio, or 160 kW digital. Low-VHF stations are subject to long-distance reception just as with FM. There are no stations on Channel 1, UHF, by comparison, has a much shorter wavelength, and thus requires a shorter antenna, but also higher power. North American stations can go up to 5000 kW ERP for video and 500 kW audio, or 1000 kW digital. Low channels travel further than high ones at the same power, despite this, in the U. S. the Federal Communications Commission is taking another large portion of this band away, in contrast to the rest of the world, which has been taking VHF instead. This means that some stations left on VHF are harder to receive after the analog shutdown, since at least 1974, there are no stations on channel 37 in North America for radio astronomy purposes. Most television stations are commercial broadcasting enterprises which are structured in a variety of ways to generate revenue from television commercials and they may be an independent station or part of a broadcasting network, or some other structure. They can produce some or all of their programs or buy some broadcast syndication programming for or all of it from other stations or independent production companies, many stations have some sort of television studio, which on major-network stations is often used for newscasts or other local programming. There is usually a department, where journalists gather information
15.
Cable television
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This contrasts with broadcast television, in which the television signal is transmitted over the air by radio waves and received by a television antenna attached to the television. FM radio programming, high-speed Internet, telephone services, and similar non-television services may also be provided through these cables, analog television was standard in the 20th century, but since the 2000s, cable systems have been upgraded to digital cable operation. A cable channel is a television network available via cable television, alternative terms include non-broadcast channel or programming service, the latter being mainly used in legal contexts. Examples of cable/satellite channels/cable networks available in many countries are HBO, MTV, Cartoon Network, E. Eurosport, the abbreviation CATV is often used for cable television. It originally stood for Community Access Television or Community Antenna Television, in areas where over-the-air TV reception was limited by distance from transmitters or mountainous terrain, large community antennas were constructed, and cable was run from them to individual homes. The origins of cable broadcasting for radio are even older as radio programming was distributed by cable in some European cities as far back as 1924, Cable television has gone through a series of steps of evolution in the United States and Canada. Particularly in Canada, communities with their own signals were fertile cable markets, as viewers wanted to receive American signals. Early systems carried only a maximum of seven channels, using 2,4,5 or 6,7,9,11 and 13, as the equipment was unable to confine the signal discreetly within the assigned channel bandwidth. The reason 4 and 5 along with 6 and 7 could be used together was because of the 4 MHz gap between 4 and 5 and the nearly 90 MHz gap between 6 and 7. Even though eight channels are listed, in systems that maximized 7 channels. As equipment improved, all channels could be utilized, except where a local VHF television station broadcast. Local broadcast channels were not usable for signals deemed to be priority, later, the cable operators began to carry FM radio stations, and encouraged subscribers to connect their FM stereo sets to cable. Before stereo and bilingual TV sound became common, Pay-TV channel sound was added to the FM stereo cable line-ups, about this time, operators expanded beyond the 12-channel dial to use the midband and superband VHF channels adjacent to the high band 7-13 of North American television frequencies. Some operators as in Cornwall, Ontario, used a dual distribution network with Channels 2-13 on each of the two cables, during the 1980s, United States regulations not unlike public, educational, and government access created the beginning of cable-originated live television programming. These stations evolved partially into todays over-the-air digital subchannels, where a main broadcast TV station e. g, many live local programs with local interests were subsequently created all over the United States in most major television markets in the early 1980s. This evolved into todays many cable-only broadcasts of diverse programming, including cable-only produced television movies and miniseries, Cable specialty channels, starting with channels oriented to show movies and large sporting or performance events, diversified further, and narrowcasting became common. By the late 1980s, cable-only signals outnumbered broadcast signals on cable systems, by the mid-1980s in Canada, cable operators were allowed by the regulator to enter into distribution contracts with cable networks on their own. By the 1990s, tiers became common, with customers able to subscribe to different tiers to obtain different selections of additional channels above the basic selection, by subscribing to additional tiers, customers could get specialty channels, movie channels, and foreign channels
16.
Human power
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Human power is work or energy that is produced from the human body. It can also refer to the power of a human, power comes primarily from muscles, but body heat is also used to do work like warming shelters, food, or other humans. World records of performance by humans are of interest to work planners. Human power is used to generate electricity that is stored. Normal human metabolism produces heat at a basal rate of around 80 watts. A trained cyclist can produce about 400 watts of power for an hour or more. A healthy well-fed laborer over the course of an 8-hour work shift can sustain an output of about 75 watts. The yield of electric power is decreased by the inefficiency of the human-powered generator, while some exercise equipment has been fitted with generators, the amount of energy collected is of low value compared to the cost of the conversion equipment. Several forms of transport utilize human power and they include the bicycle, wheelchair, walking, skateboard, wheelbarrow, rowing, skis, and rickshaw. Some forms may utilize more than one person, the historical galley was propelled by freemen or citizens in ancient times, and by slaves captured by pirates in more recent times. The Gossamer Condor was the first human-powered aircraft capable of controlled and sustained flight and it may directly use mechanical power from muscles, or a generator may convert energy generated by the body into electrical power. Such devices contain electrical generators or a system to recharge their batteries. Separate crank-operated generators are now available to recharge battery-powered portable electronic devices such as cell phones, others, such as mechanically powered flashlights, have the generator integrated within the device itself. An alternative to batteries for electricity storage is supercapacitors, now being used in some devices such as the mechanically powered flashlight shown here. Devices that store the energy mechanically, rather than electrically, include Clockwork radios with a mainspring which is wound up by a crank, human-powered devices are useful as emergency equipment, when natural disaster, war, or civil disturbance make regular power supplies unavailable. They have also seen as economical for use in poor countries. They are also a preferable alternative to the use of disposable batteries. Communications is an application for the relatively small amount of electric power that can be generated by a human turning a generator
17.
Mains electricity
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Mains electricity is the general-purpose alternating-current electric power supply. The two principal properties of the power supply, voltage and frequency, differ between regions. A voltage of 230 V and a frequency of 50 Hz is used in Europe, most of Africa, most of Asia, most of South America, in North America, the most common combination is 120 V and a frequency of 60 Hz. Other voltages exist, and some countries may have, for example,230 V but 60 Hz and this is a concern to travelers, since portable appliances designed for one voltage and frequency combination may not operate with or may be destroyed by another. In the UK, mains power is generally referred to as the mains. All these parameters vary among regions, the voltages are generally in the range 100–240 V. The two commonly used frequencies are 50 Hz and 60 Hz, single-phase or three-phase power is most commonly used today, although two-phase systems were used early in the 20th century. Foreign enclaves, such as industrial plants or overseas military bases. Some city areas may use different from that of the surrounding countryside. Regions in a state of anarchy may have no central electrical authority. Many other combinations of voltage and utility frequency were formerly used, direct current has been almost completely displaced by alternating current in public power systems, but DC was used especially in some city areas to the end of the 20th century. The modern combinations of 230 V/50 Hz and 120 V/60 Hz, listed in IEC60038, electricity is used for lighting, heating, cooling, electric motors and electronic equipment. The U. S. Energy Information Administration has published, Estimated U. S.3 Does not include water heating,4 Includes small electric devices, heating elements, and motors which are not listed above. Does not include electric vehicle charging, electronic appliances, typically use an AC to DC converter to power the device, this is often capable of operation over the approximate range of 100 V to 250 V and at 50 Hz to 60 Hz. The other categories are typically AC applications and usually have more restricted input ranges. A study by the Building Research Establishment in the UK states that The existing 230 V system is suited to the future of electricity whether through design or Darwinian processes. Any current perceived weakness is generally a result of cost reduction, questions as to whether there are alternatives to the existing 230 V AC system are often overshadowed by legacy issues, the future smart agenda and cost in all but specific situations. Where opportunities do exist they are often for specific parts of the overall load, in many countries, household power is single-phase electric power, with two or three wired contacts at each outlet
18.
Battery (electricity)
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An electric battery is a device consisting of one or more electrochemical cells with external connections provided to power electrical devices such as flashlights, smartphones, and electric cars. When a battery is supplying power, its positive terminal is the cathode. The terminal marked negative is the source of electrons that when connected to a circuit will flow. It is the movement of ions within the battery which allows current to flow out of the battery to perform work. Historically the term specifically referred to a device composed of multiple cells. Primary batteries are used once and discarded, the materials are irreversibly changed during discharge. Common examples are the battery used for flashlights and a multitude of portable electronic devices. Secondary batteries can be discharged and recharged multiple times using mains power from a wall socket, examples include the lead-acid batteries used in vehicles and lithium-ion batteries used for portable electronics such as laptops and smartphones. According to a 2005 estimate, the battery industry generates US$48 billion in sales each year. Batteries have much lower energy than common fuels such as gasoline. This is somewhat offset by the efficiency of electric motors in producing mechanical work. The usage of battery to describe a group of electrical devices dates to Benjamin Franklin, alessandro Volta built and described the first electrochemical battery, the voltaic pile, in 1800. This was a stack of copper and zinc plates, separated by brine-soaked paper disks, Volta did not understand that the voltage was due to chemical reactions. Although early batteries were of value for experimental purposes, in practice their voltages fluctuated. It consisted of a pot filled with a copper sulfate solution, in which was immersed an unglazed earthenware container filled with sulfuric acid. These wet cells used liquid electrolytes, which were prone to leakage and spillage if not handled correctly, many used glass jars to hold their components, which made them fragile and potentially dangerous. These characteristics made wet cells unsuitable for portable appliances, near the end of the nineteenth century, the invention of dry cell batteries, which replaced the liquid electrolyte with a paste, made portable electrical devices practical. Batteries convert chemical energy directly to electrical energy, a battery consists of some number of voltaic cells
19.
Power outage
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A power outage is a short-term or a long-term loss of the electric power to a particular area. There are many causes of failures in an electricity network. Power failures are particularly critical at sites where the environment and public safety are at risk, other critical systems, such as telecommunication, are also required to have emergency power. The battery room of a telephone exchange usually has arrays of lead–acid batteries for backup, Power is automatically restored once the fault is cleared. A brownout is a drop in voltage in a power supply. The term brownout comes from the experienced by lighting when the voltage sags. Brownouts can cause poor performance of equipment or even incorrect operation, a blackout is the total loss of power to an area and is the most severe form of power outage that can occur. Blackouts which result from or result in power stations tripping are particularly difficult to recover from quickly, outages may last from a few minutes to a few weeks depending on the nature of the blackout and the configuration of the electrical network. In power supply networks, the generation and the electrical load must be very close to equal every second to avoid overloading of network components. Protective relays and fuses are used to automatically detect overloads and to disconnect circuits at risk of damage, under certain conditions, a network component shutting down can cause current fluctuations in neighboring segments of the network leading to a cascading failure of a larger section of the network. This may range from a building, to a block, to an entire city, modern power systems are designed to be resistant to this sort of cascading failure, but it may be unavoidable. In a 2003 publication, Carreras and co-authors claimed that reducing the likelihood of small outages only increases the likelihood of larger ones, in that case, the short-term economic benefit of keeping the individual customer happy increases the likelihood of large-scale blackouts. Computer systems and other devices containing logic circuitry are susceptible to data loss or hardware damage that can be caused by the sudden loss of power. These can include data networking equipment, video projectors, alarm systems as well as computers, to protect against surges, which can damage hardware when power is restored, a special device called a surge protector that absorbs the excess voltage can be used. Restoring power after a wide-area outage can be difficult, as power stations need to be brought back on-line, normally, this is done with the help of power from the rest of the grid. In the total absence of power, a so-called black start needs to be performed to bootstrap the power grid into operation. It has been argued on the basis of data and computer modeling that power grids are self-organized critical systems. These systems exhibit unavoidable disturbances of all sizes, up to the size of the entire system and this phenomenon has been attributed to steadily increasing demand/load, the economics of running a power company, and the limits of modern engineering
20.
Flashlight
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A flashlight or a torch, is a portable hand-held electric light. The source of the light is usually an incandescent light bulb or light-emitting diode, a typical flashlight consists of a light bulb mounted in a reflector, a transparent cover to protect the light source and reflector, a battery, and a switch. These are supported and protected by a case, the invention of the dry cell and miniature incandescent electric light bulbs made the first battery-powered flashlights possible around 1899. Today flashlights use mostly incandescent lamps or light-emitting diodes and run on disposable or rechargeable batteries, some are powered by the user turning a crank or shaking the lamp, and some have solar panels to recharge a battery. In addition to the general-purpose hand-held flashlight, many forms have been adapted for special uses, head or helmet-mounted flashlights designed for miners and campers leave the hands free. Some flashlights can be used underwater or in flammable atmospheres, flashlights are used as a light source when in a place with no power. Early flashlights ran on batteries, which could not provide a steady electric current. Because these early flashlights also used energy-inefficient carbon-filament bulbs, resting occurred at short intervals, consequently, they could be used only in brief flashes, hence the common North American name flashlight. The first dry cell battery was invented in 1887, unlike previous batteries, it used a paste electrolyte instead of a liquid. This was the first battery suitable for electrical devices, as it did not spill or break easily. The first mass-produced dry cell batteries came in 1896, and the invention of electric lights soon followed. Portable hand-held electric lights offered advantages in convenience and safety over torches, candles, the electric lamp was odorless, smokeless, and emitted less heat than combustion-powered lighting. It could be turned on and off, and avoided fire risk. On January 10,1899, British inventor David Misell obtained U. S,617,592, assigned to American Electrical Novelty and Manufacturing Company. This electric device designed by Misell was powered by D batteries laid front to back in a tube with the light bulb. The company donated some of these devices to the New York City police, carbon-filament bulbs and fairly crude dry cells made early flashlights an expensive novelty with low sales and low manufacturer interest. Development of the tungsten-filament lamp in 1904, with three times the efficacy of carbon filament types, and improved batteries, made flashlights more useful and popular. The advantage of instant control, and the absence of flame, flashlights became very popular in China, by the end of the 1930s,60 companies made flashlights, some selling for as little as one-third the cost of equivalent imported models
21.
Battery charger
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A battery charger, or recharger, is a device used to put energy into a secondary cell or rechargeable battery by forcing an electric current through it. The charging protocol depends on the size and type of the battery being charged, some battery types have high tolerance for overcharging and can be recharged by connection to a constant voltage source or a constant current source, depending on battery type. Other battery types cannot withstand over-charging, being damaged or overheating or even exploding, a trickle charger provides a relatively small amount of current, only enough to counteract self-discharge of a battery that is idle for a long time. Slow battery chargers may take hours to complete a charge, high-rate chargers may restore most capacity much faster. Such batteries require active monitoring of the battery to protect it from overcharge, Electric vehicles ideally need high-rate chargers, for public access, installation of such chargers and the distribution support for them is an issue in the proposed adoption of electric cars. Charge and discharge rates are often denoted as C or C-rate, any battery has an energy capacity which is given in amp-hours or milliamp-hours. The C-rate is amp or milliamp figure when charging a battery, for example, for a battery with a capacity of 500mAh, the current corresponding to a C-rate of 10 is a charge rate of 5000mA, while the current corresponding to a C-rate of 1/2 is 250mA. Such high charging rates are only with some battery types. Others will be damaged or possibly overheat or catch fire, for example, an automobile SLI lead-acid battery carries several risks of explosion. A simple charger works by supplying a constant DC or pulsed DC power source to a battery being charged, a simple charger typically does not alter its output based on charging time or the charge on the battery. This simplicity means that a simple charger is inexpensive, but there are tradeoffs, typically, a carefully designed simple charger takes longer to charge a battery than otherwise because it is set to use a lower charging rate to prevent damage. Even so, many batteries left on a charger for too long will be weakened or destroyed due to over-charging. These chargers also vary in that they can supply either a constant voltage, or a constant current, simple AC-powered battery chargers usually have much higher ripple current and ripple voltage than other kinds of battery chargers because they are inexpensively designed and built. Generally, when the current is within a batterys manufacturer recommended level. The maximum ripple current for a typical 12 V100 Ah VRLA lead acid battery is 5 amps, as long as the ripple current is not excessive, the expected life of a ripple-charged VRLA battery will be within 3% of the life of a constant DC-charged battery. Fast chargers make use of control circuitry to charge the batteries without damaging any of the cells in the battery. The control circuitry can be built into the battery or in the charging unit. Most such chargers have a fan to help keep the temperature of the cells at safe levels
22.
Vibrator (mechanical)
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A vibrator is a mechanical device to generate vibrations. The vibration is often generated by a motor with an unbalanced mass on its driveshaft. There are many different types of vibrator, some are components of larger products such as cellphones, pagers, and vibrator sex toys. When mobile phones and pagers vibrate, the alert is produced by a small component that is built into the phone or pager. Many older, non-electronic buzzers and doorbells contain a component that vibrates for the purpose of producing a sound, tattoo machines and some types of electric engraving tools contain a mechanism that vibrates a needle or cutting tool. Vibrators are used in different industrial applications both as components and as individual pieces of equipment. Vibratory feeders and vibrating hoppers are used extensively in the food, pharmaceutical, the application of vibration working with the force of gravity can often move materials through a process more effectively than other methods. Vibration is often used to position small components so that they can be gripped mechanically by automated equipment as required for assembly etc, vibrating screens are used to separate bulk materials in a mixture of different sized particles. For example, sand, gravel, river rock and crushed rock, vibrating compactors are used for soil compaction especially in foundations for roads, railways, and buildings. Concrete vibrators consolidate freshly poured concrete so that air and excess water are released. Improper consolidation of concrete can cause product defects, compromise the concrete strength, an internal concrete vibrator is a steel cylinder about the size of the handle of a baseball bat, with a hose or electrical cord attached to one end. The vibrator head is immersed in the wet concrete, external concrete vibrators attach, via a bracket or clamp system, to the concrete forms. There are a variety of external concrete vibrators available and some vibrator manufacturers have bracket or clamp systems designed to fit the major brands of concrete forms. External concrete vibrators are available in hydraulic, pneumatic or electric power, vibrating tables or shake tables are sometimes used to test products to determine or demonstrate their ability to withstand vibration. Testing of this type is commonly done in the automotive, aerospace and these machines are capable of producing three different types of vibration profile sine sweep, random vibration, and synthesized shock. In all three of these applications, the part under test will typically be instrumented with one or more accelerometers to measure component response to the vibration input, a sine sweep vibration profile typically starts vibrating at low frequency and increases in frequency at a set rate. The vibratory amplitude as measured in gs may increase or decrease as well, a sine sweep will find resonant frequencies in the part. A random vibration profile will excite different frequencies along a spectrum at different times, significant calculation goes into making sure that all frequencies get excited to within an acceptable tolerance band
23.
Strobe light
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A strobe light or stroboscopic lamp, commonly called a strobe, is a device used to produce regular flashes of light. It is one of a number of devices that can be used as a stroboscope, the word originated from the Greek strobos, meaning act of whirling. A typical commercial strobe light has an energy in the region of 10 to 150 joules. Larger strobe lights can be used in “continuous” mode, producing extremely intense illumination, the light source is commonly a xenon flash lamp, or flashtube, which has a complex spectrum and a color temperature of approximately 5,600 kelvins. To obtain colored light, colored gels may be used, strobe lights usually use flashtubes with energy supplied from a capacitor, an energy storage device much like a battery, but capable of charging and releasing energy much faster. Recently, some lights have been found to use rectified mains electricity. In a capacitor-based strobe light, the capacitor is charged up to around 300 V, once the capacitor has been charged, a small amount of power is diverted into a trigger transformer, a small transformer with a high turns ratio. This generates the weak but high voltage required to ionize the xenon gas in a flash tube. An arc is created inside the tube, which acts as a bridge for the much bigger pulse to flow down later, arcs present almost a direct short circuit, allowing the capacitors to quickly release their energy into the arc. This rapidly heats the gas, creating an extremely bright plasma discharge. A strobe without a storage device simply discharges mains voltages across the tube once its fired. This type of strobe requires no charging time and allows for much quicker flash rates, such strobes require a form of current limiting, because as mentioned above, an arc acts as a kind of short circuit. Individual strobe flashes typically only last around 200 microseconds, but can be sustained for greater or lesser periods of time depending on the intended use. Since this stop is only apparent, a point on the rotating body will either appear to move backward or forward, or not move. If the flash occurs equal to the period of rotation the marked point will appear to not move. Any non integer flash setting will make the mark appear to move forward or backward, strobe lighting has also been used to see the movements of the vocal cords in slow motion during speech, a procedure known as video-stroboscopy. A common use of a flash is to optimize a car engines efficiency at a certain rotational period by directing the strobe-light towards a mark on the flywheel on the engines main axle. The strobe-light tool for such ignition timing is called a timing light, other applications are in alarm systems, emergency vehicle lighting, theatrical lighting, and as high-visibility running lights
24.
Siren (alarm)
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A siren is a loud noise making device. Civil defense sirens are mounted in fixed locations and used to warn of natural disasters or attacks, sirens are used on emergency service vehicles such as ambulances, police cars and fire trucks. There are two types, pneumatic and electronic. Many fire sirens serve double duty as tornado or civil defense sirens, most fire sirens are either mounted on the roof of a fire station, or on a pole next to the fire station. Most fire sirens are single tone and mechanically driven by electric motors with an attached to the shaft. Some newer sirens are electronically driven by speakers, though these are not as common, fire sirens are often called fire whistles, fire alarms, or fire horns. Although there is no standard signaling of fire sirens, some utilize codes to inform firefighters of the location of the fire, fire sirens are often blasted once a day at noon and are also called noon sirens or noon whistles. Some time before 1799, the first siren was invented by the Scottish natural philosopher John Robison, robisons sirens were used as musical instruments, specifically, they powered some of the pipes in an organ. Robisons siren consisted of a stopcock that opened and closed a pneumatic tube, the stopcock was apparently driven by the rotation of a wheel. In 1819 an improved siren was invented and named by Baron Charles Cagniard de la Tour, de la Tours siren consisted of two perforated disks that were mounted coaxially at the outlet of a pneumatic tube. One disk was stationary, while the disk rotated. The rotating disk periodically interrupted the flow of air through the fixed disk, de la Tours siren could produce sound under water, suggesting a link with the sirens of Greek mythology, hence the name of the instrument. Instead of disks, most modern sirens use two cylinders, which have slots parallel to their length. The inner cylinder rotates while the outer one remains stationary, as air under pressure flows out of the slots of the inner cylinder and then escapes through the slots of the outer cylinder, the flow is periodically interrupted, creating a tone. The earliest way of summoning volunteer firemen to a fire was by ringing of a bell, either mounted atop the fire station, as electricity became available, the first fire sirens were manufactured. In 1886 French electrical engineer Gustave Trouvé, developed a siren to announce the silent arrival of his electric boats, two early fire sirens were the Decot siren and Sterling Siren. Both started manufacturing fire sirens around 1900 to 1905, many communities have since deactivated their fire sirens as pagers became available for fire department use. During the Second World War the British civil defence used a network of sirens to alert the population to the immanence of an air raid
25.
Navtex
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Navtex was developed to provide a low-cost, simple, and automated means of receiving this information aboard ships at sea within approximately 370 km off shore. Where the messages contain weather forecasts, a format very similar to the shipping forecast is used. Navtex is a component of the International Maritime Organization/International Hydrographic Organization Worldwide Navigation Warning Service, Navtex is also a major element of the Global Maritime Distress Safety System. International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea mandated certain classes of vessels must carry navtex, Navtex transmissions are also called narrow-band direct printing. The transmissions are layered on top of SITOR collective B-mode, SITOR-B is a forward error correcting broadcast that uses the CCIR476 character set. SITOR-B is also used in radio, where it is known as AMTOR-B or AMTOR-FEC. Navtex / SITOR / AMTOR broadcasts use 100 baud FSK modulation with a shift of 170 Hz. Navtex broadcasts are made on the medium frequencies of 518 kHz and 490 kHz. The international navtex frequency is 518 kHz, and these broadcasts should always be in English, National transmission of navtex uses 490 kHz specifically for broadcasts in local languages. It is not used in the U. S. Navtex Marine Safety Information national transmissions also place on HF at 4209.5 kHz using FEC mode. Other transmission modes with better error correction properties have emerged since navtex was made the standard for maritime information transmissions, overall, with slightly higher transmitter power most Navtex error correction issues tend to be absent. Navtex messages are transmitted using binary frequency-shift keying at 100 bit/s, the characters are encoded using the 7-bit CCIR476 character set and basic error detection is enabled by employing forward error correction. This is the format as the SITOR-B format. B1 is an alpha character identifying the station, and B2 is a character used to identify the subject of the message. Receivers use these characters to reject messages from certain stations or if the message contains subjects of no interest to the user, b3 and B4 are two-digit numerics identifying individual messages, used by receivers to keep already received messages from being repeated. For example, a message containing B1B2B3B4 characters of FE01 from a U. S. navtex station indicates a weather forecast message from Boston, Navtex message example, ZCZC FE01 NNNN ZCZC begins the message. This character defines the identity and its associated coverage area. The subject indicator character is used by the receiver to different classes of messages below
26.
Facsimile
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A facsimile is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from other forms of reproduction by attempting to replicate the source as accurately as possible in scale, color, condition, for books and manuscripts, this also entails a complete copy of all pages, hence, an incomplete copy is a partial facsimile. Facsimiles are sometimes used by scholars to research a source that they do not have access to otherwise, many are sold commercially, often accompanied by a volume of commentary. They may be produced in limited editions, typically of 500–2,000 copies, the term fax is a shortened form of facsimile though most faxes are not reproductions of the quality expected in a true facsimile. Advances in the art of facsimile are closely related to advances in printmaking, maps, for instance, were the focus of early explorations in making facsimiles, although these examples often lack the rigidity to the original source that is now expected. An early example is the Abraham Ortelius map, innovations during the 18th century, especially in the realms of lithography and aquatint, facilitated an explosion in the number of facsimiles of old master drawings that could be studied from afar. In the past, a such as the photostat, hectograph. More recently, facsimiles have been made by the use of form of photographic technique. For documents, a facsimile most often refers to document reproduction by a photocopy machine, in the digital age, an image scanner, a personal computer, and a desktop printer can be used to make a facsimile. Important illuminated manuscripts like Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry are not only on display to the public as facsimiles, however, unlike normal book reproductions, facsimiles remain truer to the original colors—which is especially important for illuminated manuscripts—and preserve defects. Facsimiles are best suited to printed or hand-written documents, and not to such as three-dimensional objects or oil paintings with unique surface texture. Reproductions of those objects are often referred to as replicas
27.
Marine VHF radio
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Marine VHF radio refers to the radio frequency range between 156.0 and 174 MHz, inclusive. The VHF signifies the very high frequency of the range, in the official language of the International Telecommunication Union the band is called the VHF maritime mobile band. In some countries additional channels are used, such as the L and F channels for leisure, Marine VHF radio equipment is installed on all large ships and most seagoing small craft. It is also used, with slightly different regulation, on rivers and it is used for a wide variety of purposes, including summoning rescue services and communicating with harbours, locks, bridges and marinas. A marine VHF set is a transmitter and receiver and only operates on standard. Channel 16 is the calling and distress channel. Frequency modulation is used, with vertical polarization, meaning that antennas have to be vertical in order to have good reception, modern-day marine VHF radios offer not only basic transmit and receive capabilities. Marine VHF mostly uses simplex transmission, where communication can take place in one direction at a time. A transmit button on the set or microphone determines whether it is operating as a transmitter or a receiver, Some channels, however, are duplex transmission channels where communication can take place in both directions simultaneously when the equipment on both ends allow it, otherwise semi-duplex is used. Each duplex channel has two frequency assignments, duplex channels can be used to place calls on the public telephone system for a fee via a marine operator. When full duplex is used, the call is similar to one using a phone or landline. When semi-duplex is used, voice is only carried one way at a time and this facility is still available in some areas, though its use has largely died out with the advent of mobile and satellite phones. Marine VHF radios can receive weather radio broadcasts, where they are available. Sets can be fixed or portable, a fixed set generally has the advantages of a more reliable power source, higher transmit power, a larger and more effective aerial and a bigger display and buttons. A portable set can be carried on a kayak, or to a lifeboat in an emergency, has its own power source and is waterproof if GMDSS-approved, a few portable VHFs are even approved to be used as emergency radios in environments requiring intrinsically safe equipment. Marine radios can be voice-only or can include Digital Selective Calling, voice-only equipment is the traditional type, which relies totally on the human voice for calling and communicating. The DSC information is sent on the reserved Channel 70, when the receiver picks up the call, their active channel is automatically switched to the transmitters channel and normal voice communication can proceed. The left hand digits of MMSI indicate the country and type of station and this is a ten-digit code that is either an encoded version of the ships alphanumeric call sign, or for vessels from outside the region, the ship MMSI prefixed with 9
28.
Frequency modulation
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In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation is the encoding of information in a carrier wave by varying the instantaneous frequency of the wave. This contrasts with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the wave varies. This modulation technique is known as frequency-shift keying, FSK is widely used in modems and fax modems, and can also be used to send Morse code. Frequency modulation is used for FM radio broadcasting. For this reason, most music is broadcast over FM radio, frequency modulation has a close relationship with phase modulation, phase modulation is often used as an intermediate step to achieve frequency modulation. Mathematically both of these are considered a case of quadrature amplitude modulation. While most of the energy of the signal is contained within fc ± fΔ, the frequency spectrum of an actual FM signal has components extending infinitely, although their amplitude decreases and higher-order components are often neglected in practical design problems. Mathematically, a baseband modulated signal may be approximated by a continuous wave signal with a frequency fm. This method is also named as Single-tone Modulation. As in other systems, the modulation index indicates by how much the modulated variable varies around its unmodulated level. e. The maximum deviation of the frequency from the carrier frequency. For a sine wave modulation, the index is seen to be the ratio of the peak frequency deviation of the carrier wave to the frequency of the modulating sine wave. If h ≪1, the modulation is called narrowband FM, sometimes modulation index h<0.3 rad is considered as Narrowband FM otherwise Wideband FM. In the case of digital modulation, the carrier f c is never transmitted, rather, one of two frequencies is transmitted, either f c + Δ f or f c − Δ f, depending on the binary state 0 or 1 of the modulation signal. If h ≫1, the modulation is called wideband FM, if the frequency deviation is held constant and the modulation frequency increased, the spacing between spectra increases. The carrier and sideband amplitudes are illustrated for different modulation indices of FM signals, for particular values of the modulation index, the carrier amplitude becomes zero and all the signal power is in the sidebands. Since the sidebands are on sides of the carrier, their count is doubled, and then multiplied by the modulating frequency to find the bandwidth. For example,3 kHz deviation modulated by a 2.2 kHz audio tone produces an index of 1.36. Suppose that we limit ourselves to only those sidebands that have an amplitude of at least 0.01
29.
Specific Area Message Encoding
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Specific Area Message Encoding is the protocol used to encode the Emergency Alert System and NOAA Weather Radio in the U. S. and Weatheradio Canada in Canada. It is also used to set off receivers in Mexico City and surrounding areas as part of Mexicos Seismic Alert System and this became known as the Warning Alarm Tone. Although it served NWR well, there were many drawbacks, the intent of what became SAME was to ultimately transmit a code with the initial broadcast of all NWR messages. The NWS started implementing SAME on the full NWR system in 1998, in 2003, NOAA established a SAME technology standard for weather radio receivers. However, the roll-out moved slowly until 1995, when the U. S. Government provided the budget needed to develop the SAME technology across the radio network. Nationwide implementation occurred in 1997, when the Federal Communications Commission adopted the SAME standard as part of its new Emergency Alert System. The SAME technique was adopted by the U. S. Federal Communications Commission in 1997 for use in the EAS as well as by Environment Canada for its Weatheradio Canada service in 2004. In the SAME system, messages are constructed in four parts, the first and last of which are digital, the digital sections of a SAME message are AFSK data burst, with each individual bit lasting 1920 μs each, giving a bit rate of 520 5⁄6 bits per second. A mark bit is four cycles of a sine wave, translating to a mark frequency of 2083 1⁄3 Hz. The data is sent isochronously and encoded in 8-bit bytes with the most-significant bit of each ASCII byte set to zero, the least-significant bit of each byte is transmitted first, including the preamble. The data stream is bit and byte synchronized on the preamble, however, consumer weather radio receivers often activate after hearing only one out of the three headers. The text of the code is a fixed format, <Preamble>ZCZC-ORG-EEE-PSSCCC+TTTT-JJJHHMM-LLLLLLLL- This is broken down as follows,1. A preamble of binary 10101011 repeated sixteen times, used for receiver calibration, generally only used with test messages. EAN – Emergency Action Notification Network Used to send Emergency Action Notifications, EEE — Event code, programmed at time of event 4. In the United States, the five digits are the FIPS state code. The entire state may be specified by using county number 000, in Canada, all six digits specify the Canadian Location Code, which corresponds to a specific forecast region as used by the Meteorological Service of Canada. All forecast region numbers are six digits with the first digit always zero. TTTT — Purge time of the alert event In the format hhmm, using 15 minute increments up to one hour, using 30 minute increments up to six hours, and using hourly increments beyond six hours
30.
County
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A county is a geographical region of a country used for administrative or other purposes, in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French conté or cunté denoting a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count or a viscount. The modern French is comté, and its equivalents in other languages are contea, contado, comtat, condado, Grafschaft, graafschap, Gau, when the Normans conquered England, they brought the term with them. The Saxons had already established the districts became the historic counties of England. The Vikings introduced the term earl to the British Isles, thus, the Anglo-Saxons earl and earldom were taken as equivalent to the continental use of count and county under the conquering Normans, and over time the two blended and became equivalent terms. Further, the term became a synonym for the native English word scir or, in Modern English. Since a shire was a division of the kingdom, the term county evolved to designate an administrative division of states or of a national government in most other modern uses. A county may be subdivided into districts, hundreds, townships or other administrative jurisdictions within the county. A county usually, but not always, contains cities, towns, townships, villages, or other municipal corporations, Provinces in Argentina are divided into departments, except in the Buenos Aires Province, where they are called partidos. The Autonomous City of Buenos Aires is divided into communes, in the eastern states of Australia, counties are used in the administration of land titles. They do not generally correspond to a level of government, but are used in the identification of parcels of land, canadas five oldest provinces – New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec and Prince Edward Island – are divided into counties. In addition to counties, Ontario is also subdivided into districts, district municipalities, metropolitan municipalities. British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, the word county is used to translate the Chinese term xiàn. In Mainland China, governed by the Peoples Republic of China, counties are the level of local government. There are 1,464 counties in the PRC out of a total of 2,862 county-level divisions, the number of counties has remained more or less constant since the Han dynasty. The county remains one of the oldest levels of government in China, the county government was particularly important in imperial China because this was the lowest layer at which the imperial government functioned. The head of a county during imperial times was the magistrate, in older context, prefecture and district are alternative terms to refer to xiàn before the establishment of the Republic of China. The English nomenclature county was adopted following the establishment of the ROC, contrary to the typical rural location of a county in Western countries, a city in China may enclose several counties
31.
Territories of the United States
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Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions directly overseen by the United States federal government. These territories are classified by whether they are incorporated and whether they have a government through an Organic Act passed by the U. S. Congress. Currently, the United States has sixteen territories, five of which are inhabited, Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, the U. S. Virgin Islands. They are classified as unincorporated territories and they are organized, self-governing territories with locally elected governors and territorial legislatures. Each also elects a member to the U. S. House of Representatives. Eleven territories are small islands, atolls and reefs, spread across the Caribbean and Pacific, the status of some are disputed by Colombia, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, and the Marshall Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the territory currently incorporated. Historically, territories were created to govern newly acquired land while the borders of the United States were still evolving, other territories administered by the United States went on to become independent countries, such as the Philippines, Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Palau. Many organized incorporated territories of the United States existed from 1789 to 1959, currently, the United States has sixteen territories, five of which are permanently inhabited, Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, United States Virgin Islands and American Samoa. The 11 uninhabited territories administered by the Interior Department are Palmyra Atoll, Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, while claimed by the US, Navassa Island, Wake Island, Serranilla Bank and Bajo Nuevo Bank are disputed. Territories have always been a part of the United States, by Act of Congress, the term United States, when used in a geographical sense, means the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands of the United States. Since political union with the Northern Mariana Islands in 1986, they too are treated as a part of the U. S, an Executive Order in 2007 includes American Samoa as U. S. geographical extent duly reflected in U. S. State Department documents. Approximately 4 million islanders are U. S. citizens, about 32,000 U. S. non-citizen nationals live in American Samoa, under current law among the territories, only persons born in American Samoa and Swains Island are non-citizen U. S. nationals. American Samoans are under the protection of the U. S. with freedom of U. S. travel without visas. The five inhabited U. S. territories have local voting rights and protections under U. S. courts, pay some U. S. taxes, depending on the congress, they may also vote on the floor in the House Committee of the Whole. S. Every four years, the Democratic and Republican political parties nominate their candidates at conventions which include delegates from the five major territories. The citizens there, however, do not vote in the election for U. S. President. S. Incorporated territories are considered a part of the United States
32.
NOAA Weather Radio
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NOAA Weather Radio broadcasts National Weather Service warnings, watches, forecasts, weather observations and other hazard information 24 hours a day. It also broadcasts alerts of non-weather emergencies such as security, natural, environmental. Known as The Voice of NOAAs National Weather Service, NOAA Weather Radio is provided as a service by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The radio service continuously transmits weather and marine forecasts and other related information, in addition, NWR works in cooperation with the FCCs Emergency Alert System, providing comprehensive severe weather alerts and civil emergency information. For example, a receiver that only tunes in standard FM or AM broadcast stations will not suffice, the seven FM channels, reserved by the U. S. In the wake of the Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak of 1965, starting in 1966, the Environmental Science Services Administration started a nationwide program known as ESSA VHF Weather Radio Network. In the early 1970s, this would be changed to NOAA Weather Radio, the original frequency was 162.550 MHz, with 163.275 MHz recommended as a backup. However, this frequency was dropped due to issues with other federal agencies, and 162.400 MHz was added in 1970. Honolulu NWR station KBA99 transmitted on 169.075 MHz for twelve years until it was moved to 162.550 in 1975, many basic weather band receivers manufactured and sold from the mid-1970s through the mid-1990s were configured to only receive the three main weather channels. However, for much of period, four additional intermediate channels existed to accommodate anticipated expansion. Over the years, a proliferation of stations meant to ensure near-complete geographical coverage, in addition, more mainstream consumer electronics, such as clock radios, portable multi-band receivers and two-way radios, now feature the ability to also receive NWR channels. Many of the devices also incorporate alerting capabilities. There are two different channel numbering systems used by various radio manufacturers. The first is the sequence that the radio frequencies were allocated to the service, 1=162.550, 2=162.400, 3=162.475, 4=162.425, 5=162.450, 6=162.500. The second is in simple increasing radio frequency sequence, 1=162.400, 2=162.425, 3=162.450, 4=162.475, 5=162.500, 6=162.525, 7=162.550. The NWS suggests that users determine which frequency is intended for their location so that they are assured of receiving correct. Government time, and are operated by Department of Commerces National Institute of Standards, according to NOAA, reliable signal reception typically extends in about a 40-mile radius from a full-power transmitter, assuming level terrain. However, signal blockages can occur, especially in mountainous areas, as of 2016, there are over a thousand NWR transmitters across the United States, covering 95% of the population
33.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
34.
National Weather Service
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It is a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration branch of the Department of Commerce, and is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland. The agency was known as the United States Weather Bureau from 1890 until it adopted its current name in 1970, the NWS performs its primary task through a collection of national and regional centers, and 122 local weather forecast offices. As the NWS is a government agency, most of its products are in the public domain, the agency was placed under the Secretary of War as Congress felt military discipline would probably secure the greatest promptness, regularity, and accuracy in the required observations. Within the Department of War, it was assigned to the U. S. Army Signal Service under Brigadier General Albert J. Myer, General Myer gave the National Weather Service its first name, The Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce. The agency first became an enterprise in 1890, when it became part of the Department of Agriculture. The first Weather Bureau radiosonde was launched in Massachusetts in 1937, the Bureau would later be moved to the Department of Commerce in 1940. On July 12,1950, bureau chief Francis W, the Weather Bureau became part of the Environmental Science Services Administration when that agency was formed in August 1966. The Environmental Science Services Administration was renamed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on October 1,1970, at this time, the Weather Bureau became the National Weather Service. NEXRAD, a system of Doppler radars deployed to improve the detection and warning time of local storms, replaced the WSR-57. Bob Glahn has written a history of the first hundred years of the National Weather Service. The NWS, through a variety of sub-organizations, issues different forecast products to users, although, throughout history, text forecasts have been the means of product dissemination, the NWS has been using more forecast products of a digital, gridded, image or other modern format. Each of the 122 Weather Forecast Offices send their graphical forecasts to a server to be compiled in the National Digital Forecast Database. The NDFD is a collection of weather observations used by organizations and the public, including precipitation amount, temperature. Specific points in the database can be accessed using an XML SOAP service. The National Weather Service issues many products relating to wildfires daily, for example, a Fire Weather Forecast, which have a forecast period covering up to seven days, is issued by local Weather Forecast Offices daily, with updates as needed. The forecasts contain weather information relevant to fire control and smoke management for the next 12 to 48 hours, such as direction and speed. The appropriate crews use this information to plan for staffing and equipment levels, the ability to conduct scheduled controlled burns, and assess the daily fire danger. Once per day, NWS meteorologists issue a coded fire weather forecast for specific United States Forest Service observation sites that are input into the National Fire Danger Rating System
35.
National security
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The concept developed all in the United States after World War II. Accordingly, in order to possess national security, a nation needs to possess economic security, energy security, environmental security, the variety of definitions provide an overview of the many usages of this concept. National security objectively means the absence of threats to acquired values and subjectively, in 1990, Harvard University history professor Charles Maier defined national security through the lens of national power, National security. The variety of definitions provide an overview of the usages of this concept. National security objectively means the absence of threats to acquired values and subjectively, in 1990, Harvard University history professor Charles Maier defined national security through the lens of national power, National security. To be truly secure, a nation needs other forms of security, authorities differ in their choice of nation security elements. Besides the military aspect of security, the aspects of diplomacy or politics, society, environment, energy and natural resources, the elements of national security correlate closely to the concept of the elements of national power. Romm lists security from narcotic cartels, economic security, environmental security, military security is traditionally the earliest recognised form of national security. Military security implies the capability of a nation to defend itself, alternatively, military security implies the capability of a nation to enforce its policy choices by use of military force. The term military security is considered synonymous with security in much of its usage, diplomacy, negotiation and other interactions form the means of interaction between the objects. Historically, conquest of nations has made conquerors rich through plunder, access to new resources, economic security today forms, arguably, as important a part of national security as military security. The creation and protection of jobs that supply defense and non-defense needs are vital to national security, third world countries are less secure due to lack of employment for their citizens. Environmental security deals with issues which threaten the national security of a nation in any manner. The scope and nature of environmental threats to security and strategies to engage them are a subject of debate. While all environmental events are not considered significant of being categorised as threats, many transnational issues, romm classifies these as, Transnational environmental problems that threaten a nations security, in its broad defined sense. These include global environmental problems such as climate change due to warming, deforestation and loss of biodiversity. Environmental or resource problems that threaten a nations security, traditionally defined and these would be problems whose outcomes would result in conventional threats to national security as first or higher order outcomes. Environmentally threatening outcomes of warfare, e. g. Prabhakaran Paleris 2008 definition of a resource is. a support inventory, biotic or abiotic, renewable or expendable. for sustaining life at a heightened level of well-being
36.
AMBER Alert
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An AMBER Alert or a Child Abduction Emergency is a child abduction alert system. It originated in the United States in 1996, AMBER is officially a backronym for Americas Missing, Broadcast Emergency Response, but was named after Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas, in 1996. Alternate regional alert names were used, in Georgia, Levis Call, in Hawaii, Maile Amber Alert. The alerts are also issued via e-mail, electronic signs, commercial electronic billboards. With the Google Child Alert, citizens see an AMBER Alert if they search for related information in a location where a child has recently been abducted. This is a component of the AMBER Alert system that is active in the US. Those interested in subscribing to receive AMBER Alerts in their area via SMS messages can visit Wireless Amber Alerts, in some states, the display scrollboards in front of lottery terminals are also used. The decision to declare an AMBER Alert is made by each organization that investigates each of the abductions. It is also used on stolen vehicles. The alerts are broadcast using the Emergency Alert System, which had previously been used primarily for weather bulletins, civil emergencies, Alerts usually contain a description of the child and of the likely abductor. To avoid both false alarms and having alerts ignored as a cry, the criteria for issuing an alert are rather strict. However, the U. S. Department of Justice issues the following guidance, the child must be at risk of serious injury or death. There must be sufficient descriptive information of child, captor, or captors vehicle to issue an alert, the child must be under 18 years of age. In 2013, West Virginia passed Skylars Law to eliminate #1 as a criterion for triggering an Amber Alert and it is recommended that AMBER Alert data immediately be entered into the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Crime Information Center. Text information describing the surrounding the abduction of the child should be entered. The Royal Canadian Mounted Polices requirements in Canada are nearly identical to the above list, one organization might notify the other if there is reason to suspect that the border may be crossed. If the child is suspected to be taken to Canada, a Canadian Amber Alert can also be issued, for incidents which do not meet AMBER Alert criteria, the United States Department of Justice developed the Child Abduction Response Teams program to assist local agencies. This program can be used in all missing childrens cases and can be used as part of an AMBER alert or when an abduction or disappearance does not meet AMBER Alert criteria
37.
Federal Communications Commission
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The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the media, public safety and homeland security, and modernizing itself. The FCC was formed by the Communications Act of 1934 to replace the radio regulation functions of the Federal Radio Commission, the FCC took over wire communication regulation from the Interstate Commerce Commission. The FCCs mandated jurisdiction covers the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the FCC also provides varied degrees of cooperation, oversight, and leadership for similar communications bodies in other countries of North America. The FCC is funded entirely by regulatory fees and it has an estimated fiscal-2016 budget of US$388 million. Consistent with the objectives of the Act as well as the 1993 Government Performance and Results Act and these are, Broadband All Americans should have affordable access to robust and reliable broadband products and services. Competition Competition in the provision of services, both domestically and overseas, supports the Nations economy. The competitive framework for communications services should foster innovation and offer consumers reliable, Media The Nations media regulations must promote competition and diversity and facilitate the transition to digital modes of delivery. Public Safety and Homeland Security Communications during emergencies and crisis must be available for public safety, health, defense, the Nations critical communications infrastructure must be reliable, interoperable, redundant, and rapidly restorable. The FCC is directed by five appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate for five-year terms. The U. S. President designates one of the commissioners to serve as chairman, only three commissioners may be members of the same political party. None of them may have a financial interest in any FCC-related business, importantly, commissioners may continue serving until the appointment of their replacements, but may not serve beyond the end of the next session of Congress following term expiration. In practice, as of 2016 this means that commissioners may serve up to 1 1/2 years beyond the term expiration dates listed above if no replacement is appointed. The Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau develops and implements the FCCs consumer policies, CGB serves as the public face of the FCC through outreach and education, as well as through their Consumer Center, which is responsible for responding to consumer inquiries and complaints. CGB also maintains partnerships with state, local, and tribal governments in such areas as emergency preparedness. The Enforcement Bureau is responsible for enforcement of provisions of the Communications Act 1934, FCC rules, FCC orders, major areas of enforcement that are handled by the Enforcement Bureau are consumer protection, local competition, public safety, and homeland security. S. The International Bureau also oversees FCC compliance with the international Radio Regulations, the Media Bureau also handles post-licensing matters regarding direct broadcast satellite service. The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau regulates domestic wireless telecommunications programs and policies, the Wireline Competition Bureau develops policy concerning wire line telecommunications. The Wireline Competition Bureaus main objective is to promote growth and economical investments in technology infrastructure, development, markets
38.
Emergency Alert System
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The official EAS is designed to enable the President of the United States to speak to the United States within 10 minutes. In addition to requirement, EAS is also designed to alert the public of local weather emergencies such as tornadoes. A national EAS test was conducted on November 9,2011, the most recent National EAS Test was performed September 28,2016, at 2,20 PM EDT. EAS is jointly coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Federal Communications Commission, the EAS regulations and standards are governed by the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau of the FCC. EAS has become part of Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, EAS messages are transmitted via AM, FM, broadcast television, cable television and Land Mobile Radio Service, as well as VHF, UHF, and FiOS. DirecTV, Dish Network, and all other DBS providers have been required to participate since May 31,2007, in 2008, the FCC began work on another system for public alerting designed and targeted at smartphones, meant to support the EAS. The Commercial Mobile Alert System made its debut in about early 2013 in select states for select events, while this system functions independently from the Emergency Alert System, it may broadcast identical information. Messages in the EAS are composed of four parts, a digitally encoded SAME header, a signal, an audio announcement. The SAME header is the most critical part of the EAS design,77 radio stations are designated as National Primary Stations in the Primary Entry Point System to distribute presidential messages to other broadcast stations and cable systems. The Emergency Action Notification is the notice to broadcasters that the President of the United States or his/her designee will deliver a message over the EAS via the PEP system, the FEMA PEP stations also serve as the primary source of initial broadcast for a Presidential Emergency Alert Notification. PEP station expansion will help ensure that all conditions the President of the United States can alert. In September 2009, FEMA contracted with the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers to equip selected radio stations to become FEMA Primary Entry Point stations, the project with USACE is actively bringing new stations into the FEMA PEP program. PEP stations provide resilience for alerts and warnings to the public, the IPAWS PMO continues to complete the integration of satellite data transmission paths as a diverse path for EAS message delivery from FEMA to PEP stations. An XM Radio transmission path was completed in the first quarter of 2010, the IPAWS EAS Modernization and PEP Expansion project includes and maintains 77 operational PEP stations throughout the United States and its territories. Direct coverage of the population will expand from approximately 67 percent in 2009 to over 90 percent when all 77 PEP stations become operational in 2015. The FEMA National Radio System Provides Primary Entry Point service to the Emergency Alert System, the FNARS net control station is located at the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center. Once an EAN is received by an EAS participant from a PEP station the message then daisy chains through the network of participants, daisy chains form when one station receives a message from multiple other stations and the station then forwards that message to multiple other stations. Because the header lacks error detection codes, it is repeated three times for redundancy, EAS decoders compare the received headers against one another, looking for an exact match between any two, eliminating most errors which can cause an activation to fail
39.
Weather Underground (weather service)
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Weather Underground is a commercial weather service providing real-time weather information via the Internet. Weather Underground provides weather reports for most major cities across the world on its website, as well as weather reports for newspapers. Most of its United States information comes from the National Weather Service, the website is available in many languages, and customers can access an ad-free version of the site with additional features for an annual fee. Weather Underground is owned by The Weather Company, a subsidiary of IBM, Weather Underground is based in San Francisco, California and was founded in 1995 as an offshoot of the University of Michigans Internet weather database. The name is a reference to the 1960s militant radical student group the Weather Underground, in 1993, they recruited Alan Steremberg and initiated a project to bring Internet weather into K-12 classrooms. WUs president Alan Steremberg wrote Blue Skies for the project, a graphical Mac gopher client, when the Mosaic Web browser appeared, this provided a natural transition from Blue Skies to the Web. In 1995 Weather Underground, Inc. became an entity separate from the university. It has grown to provide weather for print sources, in addition to its online presence, in 2005, Weather Underground became the weather provider for the Associated Press, WU also provides weather reports for some newspapers and the Google search engine. Alan Steremberg, Weather Undergrounds president, also worked on the development of Googles search engine with Larry Page. In October 2008, Jeff Masters reported that the site was #2 in Internet Weather for 2008, in February 2010, Weather Underground launched FullScreenWeather. com, a full screen weather Web tool with integrated mapping and mobile device use in mind. The Weather Underground website continues to operate as an entity from The Weather Channels primary site, weather. com. Third-party web analytics providers Alexa and SimilarWeb rate the site as the 117th and 98th most visited website in the United States respectively, SimilarWeb rates the site as the second most visited weather website globally, attracting more than 47 million visitors per month. The Weather Company also uses the sites San Francisco headquarters as a regional office, the websites popularity also helped launch a TV show hosted by meteorologist Mike Bettes, which airs on The Weather Channel from 6-8pm ET. com, and also the Weather Company brand. Meanwhile, the service remains a separate entity. The deal was finalized on January 29,2016, Web logs are one of the main features in Weather Underground, allowing users of the site to create blogs about weather, everyday life and anything else. Jeff Masters started the first blog on April 14,2005, rood has been writing blogs on climate change and societal response since 2007, with new entries on a weekly basis. On October 14,2016, the Wunderblog announced that it would be changing their name to Category 6, Weather Underground also uses observations from members with automated personal weather stations. Weather Underground currently uses observations from over 200,000 personal weather stations worldwide, the service previously distributed Internet radio feeds of NOAA Weather Radio stations from across the country, as provided by users
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