[SHORT DESCRIPTION]
We have developed a system which can be launched in developing countries easily and with much lower cost than traditional radio stations. It gives a higher capability of reducing the effects of disaster by sharing the knowledge, advice and experience of local communities. It can also help to sound the alarm, warning residents and instructing them during crisis.
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[TASK WE FOCUSED ON]
Disaster awareness:
Particularly those that happen periodically at specific sites, such as typhoons and hurricanes, flood damage, mudslides, flash flooding, mud flows, pyroclastic flows etc.
Countries and areas:
On the frontier, rural, and isolated communities where no well developed infrastructures or ICT exist and are unreachable by existing or non-existent alert systems.
Places without well diffused disaster education due to language barriers, cultural differences, location / isolation, and lack of access to resources.
[SOLUTION]
The best ways of reducing/ preventing disaster are:
1: To anticipate potential disasters. Plan and execute effective mitigation efforts Educate the community on how to evacuate quickly and safely to preserve life and livestock.
2: Become aware of our surroundings, landscape and nature, so as to predict disasters.
3: Sound the alarm quickly and effectively to all residents of a community when disaster strikes, so that they may act immediately to save lives.
Thus, it is necessary to communicate in the local languages of communities in order to share knowledge accumulated in previous disasters and experiences unique to that community. In addition, alerts and instructions given should be unique to the community, in order to best save lives.
For example, from experience, the community may know that “That cliff will have landslides when the water level goes to the root of the trees along the river.”
“Community FM Radio” is the solution making it possible to communicate the stories of being visited by disasters for the people on the frontier with no internet communication.
Mobile FM Radio Station makes it easier to establish a new disaster preventing radio station by minimizing the cost and equipment as compared to traditional radio stations by as much as 99 percent.
[SYSTEM]
Our Mobile FM Radio Station Kit is consists of;
-Easy controllable application for making recording and broadcasting radio contents
-Inexpensive 3-10 watt FM transmitter for radio wave transmission
While it costs less about 100 USD, establishing a typical small radio station costs more than 10 thousand USD.
Application
The application is developed for Android ver2.2+ and is very simple to use. Currently, it has the following functions:
-Mixing bar for controlling the volumes of multiple sound sources for
-----Live air broadcasting
-----Recording interviews and content
-----Playback broadcasting
-Record contents while broadcasting for later re airing
-Broadcasting of pre-recorded contents such as interviews and music
Downloading pre made radio program contents which are made by affiliates, and cover a wide range of topics such as disaster prevention, health, environment and sustainability.
We are now developing an audio editor to enable the user to cut and remix contents directly on their android devices. In addition, our automatic broadcasting functions will make sorting and scheduling broadcasts a simple process. Finally, our application will be open source so that anyone in the world can use it.
Transmitter
This is a device which converts the sound from a smartphone or tablet headphone jack into FM signals and transmits it. There are many low cost (less than 100USD) transmitters under 10 watts available. These devices will work anywhere there is a power source of DC12V, such as solar panels, cars and motor bikes.
In addition to low cost commercial transmitters, we are currently designing our own FM transmitter, which will be released as an open source hardware design when complete.
Antenna
The antenna is necessary for FM transmission. A 5 watt FM transmitter with a suitable antenna can cover an area of 2-3km, depending on the characteristics of the landscape. Placing the antenna as high as possible may require some creative engineering, such as building a bamboo structure.