Television and Radio Frequencies

[Gordonfleaman]

Hi, zomboiders!

A Ham Radio operator here.

 

For a long time, I've taken to letting go of small things like in video games seeing radio broadcasts and amateur radio broadcasts and such broadcasts taking place on the wrong frequency. Mostly because of the "It's just a game" excuses I've been given. Let's take a look at the tapes, shall we?

 

EXHIBIT 1: The Screecher

An amazing game. As you can see here though, the emergency broadcast frequency is operating at sixteen fourty decimal four KHz, on AM. This particular frequency is part of the AM broadcasting band medium wave in ITU region 2. Therefore in America - the setting for The Screecher - broadcasting on this frequency for emergency use is not illegal, (you can almost get away with broadcasting on anything if you're in an emergency) however this action wouldn't be approved by the FCC.

 

In laymans terms, you can listen to this particular frequency in your car if you wanted..

 

EXHIBIT 2: Dayz

Dayz features a walkie talkie that broadcasts on 'car radio' bands shown in this picture!

Walkie talkies like these ones in the game broadcast on UHF bands.

462.562 MHz & 462.587 are examples of Channel 1 and 2 on your typical bubble pack radios. Not 87.8 MHz or 102.5 MHz! Those are in my car!

I noticed the PZ mod Apcom talkie mod did this as well, but I'll let him escape my wrath as he did create one of my favorite mods in the world.

 

My final point:

Reading this mondoid, I noticed something.

 

 

Look! you're operating television sets on the same radio frequencies you'd use on a desk radio or in your car! I believe that this should be addressed, as one day, my favourite game developers are going to get a kick in the pants by some other bothered person!

I believe this is simply a mistake, and I wish to be corrected, just as I wish to correct if I see something that can be more accurate!

 

You see, Ham Radio and television work on a certain FCC-allocated band, just as the radio in your car does. Keep in mind I am using FCC allocations because the game is set in the united states, in kentucky, where these rules do apply.

 

 

Television radio bands are in the VHF spectrum - usually the wal-mart radios (as I like to call them, although really they are GMRS and FRS operation radios) would not be able to operate on these same frequencies, as none of their frequencies are in the band. in fact, they are in the UHF spectrum.

I'm trying to open the eyes of the developers of these things.

I am aware that these features are work in progress. However It's better that I tell you this now rather than let it go so far as to confuse somebody later on, such as in DayZ.

I appreciate your reading and I apologize for my hastily written and bad english here.

Thank you!

[Gustav]

What?

[Gordonfleaman]

What?

The television set in the screenshot from the mondoid is operating at a frequency that it would not usually be able to receive from.

Channel 1, channel 2, channel 3, all assigned frequencies that you would be able to tune into from the radio in your car, or from a radio set.

They should be operating at different frequencies, if one is to speak technically of it.

Take a look here for some frequencies a Television tower would broadcast on

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_television_frequencies#VHF_band

Not a good source website, but those numbers are true.

[Realmkeeper]

Nice.

As a bit of a perfectionist myself, I can appreciate what you're trying to communicate through this suggestion, though I think the vast majority of PZ players will not notice nor care what frequencies broadcasts are on.

 

That's not to say this shouldn't be implemented though, I think the little things like this would be what makes PZ even more attractive to those niche audiences.

I think this is a great suggestion, and doesn't ruin (or really even affect) the balance of realism to gamification the Devs are going for. If anything, it quite cleverly attributes the gamer's traits to their in-game character - knowing what frequencies are used for specific purposes IRL and experimenting with those frequencies in the game.

[Gordonfleaman]

Nice.

As a bit of a perfectionist myself, I can appreciate what you're trying to communicate through this suggestion, though I think the vast majority of PZ players will not notice nor care what frequencies broadcasts are on.

 

That's not to say this shouldn't be implemented though, I think the little things like this would be what makes PZ even more attractive to those niche audiences.

I think this is a great suggestion, and doesn't ruin (or really even affect) the balance of realism to gamification the Devs are going for. If anything, it quite cleverly attributes the gamer's traits to their in-game character - knowing what frequencies are used for specific purposes IRL and experimenting with those frequencies in the game.

Cheers Realmkeeper!

[Johnny]

What?

I have to agree with you... What? 

[Suomiboi]

So could you maybe put it a bit more simply so that it'd be clear for us dumb folk and maybe help the devs make the changes without extensive study? Maybe a nice chart?

 

Which frequencies should each of the medium be? TV, car radio, HAM, walkie talkie etc.?

[deprav]

As Realmkeeper said, I think I'm one of the vast majority who couldn't care less about what frequencies TV channels and radios broadcast on ! Imo that's a detail, and it IS just a game afterall.

Though, I don't see any reason to go against more fidelity to actual frequencies, if the devs have the time and knowledge (which you just gave them ^^), those are just a few numbers to change afterall.



Also, totally off-topic
 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_television_frequencies#VHF_band

Not a good source website, but those numbers are true.

 

Wikipedia is a good source website when it comes to science and "non-debatable" subjects, dates, numeral values etc... but Wikipedia articles about politics, history and current events need to be "taken with a pinch of salt", some details can be "influenced" by the author(s)' opinion(s), or false.

[Batsphinx]

Thanks Mister Fleaman!

 

I'll make sure that TurboTuTone sees this, but ultimately it'll come down to what's fun and readily understandable to the player - as opposed to what's slavishly realistic. 

 

Then again, it's good to know that there's an expert in our midst that we can consult if we hit any difficulties in establishing a balance between the two

[Svarog]

I think unless the character has a skill in electronics (or something along those lines, I assume we'll get more skills one day) frequencies shouldn't be even visible on radios and TVs, even with walkie talkies the only option available at start should be "Turn the thingy randomly until non-static sound comes out" unless the character was given a specific frequency and only be able to pick specific frequencies after finding them, or having heard about them on TV or commercial radio stations.

It's numbers and technicalities, I'm not an expert but I do appreciate the little things even if I don't understand them. At best it makes me want to learn at worst I ignore the feature and work around it which itself is kind of nice.