Just spent 7 hours experiencing life sans electricity here in Spain - we're totally fine, but wow the world does not function in very basic ways, and if you don't own a radio you really have zero information or ability to communicate.

Full outage: non-functional telecoms, no ATMs & card payments but also no tills means many shops can't even take cash, no traffic lights, no lifts, no metro/trains, no doorbells (which in a flat-based world means you can't even visit your friends).

Most of the world just sat in the plazas & parks, hoping their friends would walk past, and clustering around the few people with a radio. Pleasant for one sunny afternoon, could've been a lot worse if it was longer/hotter/colder.

@pimterry Yes --> imagine *most* of the reasons for an outage.
This is why: radio ..... and those portable "juice packs" if cell phones work. (Did they?)

@geonz nope, maybe an occasional whatsapp coming through 1h delayed, no calls or texts or websites or similar.

@pimterry @geonz during national emergencies, many LTE mobile networks can be restricted to prioritise calls to 112 and essential SIMs (in devices used by the Emergency Services), its likely this has happened in many areas..

Luckily it appears Spain still has reasonably well funded public service radio, using both VHF/FM and AM/MW which can be received on basic analogue equipment that runs comfortably on batteries..

@vfrmedia @geonz yep, except I don't know a single person who owns a radio, and the shops ran out immediately. People were playing the radio out their windows to crowds outside. Sort-of worked, but definitely a wakeup call.

@pimterry @vfrmedia @geonz sweet were the days of around 2005-2008 when early smartphones had a FM radio receiver chip using the headphone wire as antenna...

@pimterry were the radio transmitters still working?

@pimterry
It would be interesting to see if the number of ham radio operators jumps up in the coming months
@f4grx

@magnetic_tape @pimterry lol

@pimterry @vfrmedia @geonz Cars don't have radios these days? I have ... many more radios then I need. One in car (I use that one), one in alarm clock, plus half of phones have FM receiver.

@pavel @geonz @vfrmedia Barcelona is a big walkable city with great transport, so very few own cars. Alarm clocks have been replaced by phones (and most need power anyway). Some Androids do have radios, but it seems not many from the last few years (and the old phones we all had tucked away are all out of battery!).

@pimterry @pavel @vfrmedia hmmm.... sounds like an app culture update is in order. (Currently even more horrified at cars with people driving into places and running over people...)