Will his PC work during a power failure.
Down here, south of the "Cheddar Curtain", the IL State Police have a Low Band car-to-car frequency, that is known as ISPEN, IL St Police Emengency Network, on 42.500 mhz.
Not to be confused with ISPERN, NLEEF, WISPERN, 155.475.
Back in the 60's, all schools, hospitals, etc had a "Federal" brand Ten-Ten receiver on 42.5. When storms, nuclear situations, etc happened, the radios were signal via a two tone "page", and the receivers opened up, they also had a "monitor" button. Whenever a NWS alert happens, it goes out on 42.5. I got to babysit one in high school, and the system is still in use today. Lots of those 40+ year old receivers are still working, with replacement nicads.
Many years ago, I was in SC at a GE school, and my scanner started squaking with an IL weather alert in the southern part of the state. Where you are located, you would hear some of the alerts, but not neccessarily all of them that would be pertinent for your area.
I would check with your local or county civil defense (oh yeah, now ESDA) or the county sherrif, or state police, to see if there is a statewide or local weather alerting system in your area.
Weather Radios are okay, but here in north central IL, they go off a lot for the whole state. If no one is at the computer, or the system is down, ooops!
With a 10-10 type unit (AC with battery back up) or a pager, it will probably always work.
Many local ham clubs have an alerting system on a repeater, to get the message out.
Around here, several police and fire departments do the same as well.
Know any local hams? They may have some info.
I, or several other guys on here, can supply some names of hams in Cambridge, if need be.
regards.....casey
