I have recently become more aware of and generally interested in electronics and amateur radio, and it got me thinking. What advantage, if any, would there be to having amateur radio experience, over a simple disaster crank radio/flashlight, in the event of a major natural disaster or some other emergency that leads to a longer delay in power being restored? For the sake of argument, let’s assume you have a generator or battery bank to supply your own electricity.
?
My brother is a ham radio operator. He’s in Minnesota and can talk to people in Texas.
He can also use satellite systems to bounce his signals further.
Yeah, but talking during a power outage or natural disaster means comnunicating locally.
If you’re trying to help the community, calling Texas isn’t much use. :(
So, yeah, you might have power, but if other local services don’t, you’ll be better able to communicate and organize via CB instead of HAM.
“Isn’t much use to call another state saying” "we have no food and no medical supplies " is of no use?
Correct, because in order to communicate that information locally, you need a local connection.
How do you communicate to the outside world where the survivors are to direct supplies in? How do you communicate locally to tell everyone where and when to expect said supplies?
🤦♂️ without communication lines to the outside there is no help coming. After reading your other comments I guess you figure with a cb radio the help will magically appear. I’m done. Have fun
Help won’t magically appear, it will appear thanks to the governmentally assigned radios doing the work, not amateur radio.
What needs to happen is local coordination. You need to communicate the information to the people around you and that aint happening if you’re the only one with a working radio.
Think of it like this:
Power goes out. I have solar power so my wifi and internet is still on, but nobody else has power.
I can email the governor asking for help, but I can’t email my neighbors. I can go on Nextdoor but it’s a fucking ghost town because nobody else has power.
I need a way to tell my neighborhood “Relax, help is coming, be at x place at y time for the supply trucks.”
The internet aint helping with that, and neither is HAM radio.