"William" wrote in message
om...
Alun wrote in message
. ..
(William) wrote in
m:

Alun wrote in message
. ..
(William) wrote in
om:

Question: Are there more cell towers in America than there are
Amateur Radio Licensees?


Don't know, but if we fall over in an eartquake we just get back
up...

Hah, funny one. I've seen amateur towers fall over. It can be months
or years if they're ever replaced at all.


I wasn't talking about our towers, though, was I? I have one I've never
put
up. The point is that, for example, we can communicate in and out of a
disaster area on HF SSB, for example, without needing a tower. Doesn't
happen every day, but that's something to be thankful for.

True enough. People might be able to use cellular phones to do the same.

Probably not though. The cell phone system is only set up to handle normal
levels of usage. It gets bogged down when traffic levels rise dramatically
as they do in emergencies. If any cell sites are lost in the emergency that
either cuts off that area from cell service entirely or further overloads
the system. In the case of 9/11, calls placed via landlines and/or cell
phones took 30 minutes or more to get through and some did not get through
at all.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE