Time for a “full factory reset”

Tuross Head Rural Fire Brigade report:

There was much apprehension last night in Tuross Head and it’s surrounds when the much predicted southerly buster actually arrived on time and outdoor furniture started being randomly rearranged. But perhaps the most disconcerting phenomena was that the now totally relied upon “Fires Near Me” app decided to go a bit haywire and failed to update or even display one of our “local” fires with the catchy name of “Badja Forest Road, Countegany”. Several Facebook devotees remarked on this lack of information as they were also reporting on the ferocity of the wind.

While this disappearance of critical information, when required most, hasn’t exactly been unusual, it surely served as a timely reminder to us all not to rely solely on modern IT solutions but to have one or more fall back options. Perhaps the most useful over the years has been the old battery operated transistor radio (yes, the “tranny”) and of course this means the old reliable ABC, affectionally known as Aunty ... but wait, what happened to the ABC? Well, apparently the ABC isn’t impervious to its environment and so has also suffered during the fires, with TV AND RADIO OUTAGES! They have advised us that ABC Radio National, ABC Local Radio and ABC News on Radio services in Batemans Bay/Moruya from the transmission site at Mt. Wandera have now been restored but are operating at reduced power due to damage sustained by the bushfires at the transmitter site while ABC Classic service will apparently remain off as repair work continues. They felt the need to “apologise for the disruption to our service” ... ah, some of you may recall a sincere voice from the past saying those very words! A temporary Batemans Bay Moruya transmission service that has been established for Local Radio service has been re-tuned to 101.9 FM. A temporary ABC TV service has been established at Batemans Bay which reliably covers Batemans Bay and Moruya and as power restores across the community the extent of coverage will continue to be assessed. Furthermore our “Aunty” recommends that if we aren’t receiving this service, we should “perform a full factory reset on our digital equipment and a rescan” (Mercy! Does anyone remember how to do that?). Alternatively, we can live stream the ABC broadcasts by following the links: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/abc-nsw-live-stream https://www.abc.net.au/radio/southeastnsw/live/ https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/live/ https://www.abc.net.au/classic/ https://radio.abc.net.au/stations/news/live.

Ok, now we’re all full bottle on how to get up-to-date information about the fires, but when will normality return to our lives? Well all predictions are that this isn’t going to happen anytime soon so perhaps we should perform our own “full factory reset” and try to get out and about and support our local businesses. All businesses have been doing it tough, but we can surely help them stay afloat during this difficult time.