Flensburger Tageblatt, 27. Januar 2005

Catastrophe alarm clock warns against tsunamis

Flensburg. With a future warning system against dangerous flood waves, a „Catastrophe Alarm Clock” produced in Northern Germany may be able to save many lives. This, at least, is the conviction of the Flensburg-based developers and manufacturers of the novel warning radio.

“It is currently the only and the most reliable device on the market worldwide”, says Werner Drews, Managing Director of electronics company 2wcom GmbH. Contact has already been established with the German Civil Defense Service and Berlin’s Foreign Office.

The warning device works similar to a radio equipped with digital “Radio Data System” (RDS). This is an automatic frequency search system, that optically displays the current radio station on a radio and makes it possible to broadcast text to the radio’s display. The device is designed to be very robust and has an extremely hard shell. The company equips the warning decoders in different ways, depending on the country in which they are to be deployed. RDS impulses transmitted in the event of a catastrophe trigger the alarm. The sound produced is so loud that one device per house is fully sufficient. Simultaneously, the display lights up in bright red. In addition to this, text information is displayed and instructions on how to behave are broadcast over the speakers.

“We clearly see that in the event of tsunamis, as well, the warning radio can be a great help for many, many people”, is the firm conviction of 2wcom spokesperson Barbara Petersen. For persons living in endangered areas, the device could be the most important output stage of a complete early-warning system. The Flensburg-based company has also prepared a concept for the installation of solar-powered RDS receivers in central locations of villages in newly industrializing countries.

The small company with its 20 employees specialized on the RDS system and claims to be the world market leader. For example, the company equips the transmitting stations of German broadcasting corporations with RDS generators that are used throughout Europe.

15,000 households surrounding the Swedish nuclear power plant Barsebaek were already equipped with the life-saving FM radios from Flensburg back in 2003. The Swedish Technical Emergency Relief Service (Räddnings Verket) had purchased the warning radios. In the meantime, another 32,000 devices have been delivered to this customer. The mobile warning gadgets are used to give the population living around the country’s other three nuclear power plants an early warning in the event of an incident.

At the beginning of the summer, a pilot project will also be initiated in three Canadian cities, announced Jens-Peter Polleit, Sales Director at 2wcom. The latest blackouts after the collapse of the electricity network had caused the Canadians to test the warning alarm clock from Flensburg. The advantage of this device: even in the event of a complete blackout, it keeps working for approximately 60 hours. “You may not be able to listen to music in this case, but the warning announcement are still received” says Polleit. FM networks, on which RDS runs, are available almost all over the world, providing full coverage.

The producers of the warning radio assume that in the event of a possible mass production, the individual price per unit can be reduced from the current level of 150 Euros to no more than 30 Euros.