In article , Alun
writes:

Personally, I don't have a cell phone, so if I lost wired phone service I
would only have ham radio to fall back on. Oddly enough, cell phones have
not yet spread to every man, woman and child, but I don't know anyone who
doesn't have a phone number.

Alun, according to the Census Bureau's data as of 2003, there are
100 million cellular telephone subscriptions in the USA. That's about
one for every three citizens. Rather large "spread," I'd say. :-)

If every licensed amateur in the USA had one useable radio, then the
number of amateur radios would be one per about 430 citizens. Not
as big a "spread."

LHA / WMD