Dean Arthur ) writes:
So if I come upon a burning house, I may then, and only then, modify my
radio to call for help. IF I have means to do so.

Disabled as I am, I guess I must watch house burn and take occupants
with it.

N'est ce pas?

Yes, because that's the situation most people would be in. Most people
don't walk around with radio transceivers, so they'd run to a phone
and call it in. Or in recent years, use their cellphone.

As ham, you have the advantage of being licensed to use certain frequencies,
and likely have the radio to go with those frequencies. So you can
use it to call for help.

If you can't get through with amateur radio, that license doesn't
give you super-communication privileges.

The bit about "I better modify my radio just in case there's an
emergency" is just the talk of someone playing at emergency communication.
If you didn't have a ham license, you wouldn't be giving any of
this consideration. Yet, because you do, you think you have an absolute
need to call in an emergency, instead of maybe being helpful with
your hobby transceiver. If you can call in an emergency via ham
radio, that's great.

But the minute you go beyond amateur radio, not only do you
suggest that ham radio isn't useful in emergencies, but you step
down to being just like any other citizen. And they don't worry
about having bootleg radios around, just in case of an emergency.
They don't even think in terms of being a "great communicator".

Michael VE2BVW