On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 15:32:40 GMT, Delphic
wrote:

well,... I guess i can add this question. is your wired phone
attached to Cable? i understand that in alot of metro areas, the
cable companies are now offering phone service across their lines. I
don't know anything about the equipment but this could be a issue if
the power goes out.

Cable has a small box for translation with very limited backup
battery. Once power goes to either the head end or the VOIP
translation box.. you are screwed.

There is also sutff like Vonage and the other voice over IP
"appliances" you attach to your broadband connection for phone
service, however VONAGE over something like DirecWay satellite would
be a good emergency backup, as long as you could provide your own
power.

With vonage, you can pick the 911 PSAP, so you can even dial 911, and
it ends up in the right jurisdiction.

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 03:03:05 GMT, "mad amoeba" wrote:

i have both cordless phone and an old type phone in my house where the
handset is connected to the base station. Neiher one was working. If I
had
to contact either cops or amublance i would have no way of doing that
except
of standing on the street and waiting for the cop car to pass by. That's
why
i asked the question of how one would keep a line of communications if
the
regular ones were out.
snip

Interesting. My phone, an old type, worked just fine. Some places I did
not get an answer and some numbers, when first tried, I got a recording that
all lines were tied up.

Only lost power for about 5 hours., took a nap for most of that.

JonquilJan

Learn something new every day
As long as you are learning, you are living
When you stop learning, you start dying

Tim May wrote:

Cellular phones didn't work either.

This is also mostly not true. Most cell systems were overloaded, but
the carrier signals were largely still operating, due to back up
batteries and generators.

In other words, they weren't working.

--
Joe Bramblett, KD5NRH

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 00:12:21 GMT, "mad amoeba" wrote:

I was affected by the recent blackout in North East. That got me thinking of
how would
one communicate during such an event. Electricity including phones were
out.
Cellular phones didn't work either. So the only way of receiving informaiton
was by radio.
My old Sony wm-gx670 did quite nicely. But what if I would need to
communicate with
my relatives or even cops to let them know of an emmergency. If
telephone/cellular/internet
are not available what are my other options? Let's say people I want to
communicate with
are more than several miles away in an urban area. That makes CB radio
useless--right? So
then as far as I understand using ham radio is my only option. With that you
can either get in
touch with your relatives directly, provided they have ham radio as well, or
you can call
some person in an area without blackout and tell them to call
police/ambulance etc if that's
what you need.

Not knowing much myself about scanners/shortwaves/hams myself I want to ask
you guys
with more experience if the below piece of equipment is what I need.

As far as I understand this is an handheld ham radio which also functions as
a scanner and
can also receive on a shortwave band. So it will allow me to communicate
with people
far away even in urban setting, it is portable and it will also allow me to
monitor news as
well as police/firefighters etc. Am I right?

Yaesu VX-2R
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/ht/0176.html

the price is kind of steep but for all-in-one product I would be willing to
pay it.

Find the local ham club and discuss what you are looking for with one
of them. In my area, you could listen to emergency services.
However, non of them have gone to trunked systems. During
catastrophic events such as hurricanes and ice storms, we provide
interagency communications where there is no common frequency. For
example, we have ridden with the National Guard picking up people
stranded in homes when those people called 911.

Since normal protocol for us it to establish a presence at the
Emergency Communications Center at the request of the County Emergency
Manager, a ham could call for help if needed. Several repeaters in
the area have battery/generator backup, so loss of power is not an
immediate matter for concern. I've seen us without power to the
repeaters for up to two weeks and we kept them going.

So, if you were in my area I'd say to go for it. However, ham radio
is not government sponsored. All of those repeaters are installed,
maintained, and supported by the hams who use them. Therefore,
conditions vary a lot from area to area. For example, my home town
has one repeater and it's at a hams home, maintained by him, and has
no back up power supply. There are three hams that live in the area.
He and his wife are two of them. The radio that you are looking at is
way underpowered for simplex communications between two units. I'd
look at a used two meter mobile and keep my scanner. You can pick up
an older used two meter mobile for less than $100.

I have a lot of advice and opinions, but I'd rather defer to the local
hams in your area who know the specifics of their systems. Give them
a call. Most all hams love to help someone get into the hobby.

"mad amoeba" wrote in message
. net...
I was affected by the recent blackout in North East. That got me thinking
of
how would
one communicate during such an event. Electricity including phones were
out.

In our area (Detroit and suburbs), the phones are powered by the phone
companies and were not out. Apparently the phone companies do have some
type of backup power. However, if all a person had was a cordless phone,
then it did not do any good since those have to be plugged in to external
power to operate. The non-cordless variety doesn't need that. After
swapping my phone over, I was able to call my daughter to check to see if
she was OK since she was stuck at a friend's house until gasoline pumps were
operational.

Cell phone coverage here was erratic either because of overload or because
the cell sites lost power too without sufficient backup power.

My best means of tracking the situation was ham radio. I got a lot more
detail on exactly where and when power came became available and where and
when it would be possible to get gas for the car and generator. Commercial
radio broadcasting did not give very good or timely information on these
aspects of the situation. They would state that "power is back on in parts
of xxx" with no further detail. Via ham radio, I was able to find out what
parts were back up so I could assess whether to go try to find gasoline or
wait a bit longer.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE

My best means of tracking the situation was ham radio. I got a lot more
detail on exactly where and when power came became available and where and
when it would be possible to get gas for the car and generator.
Commercial
radio broadcasting did not give very good or timely information on these
aspects of the situation. They would state that "power is back on in
parts
of xxx" with no further detail. Via ham radio, I was able to find out
what
parts were back up so I could assess whether to go try to find gasoline or
wait a bit longer.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE


If this is the case then why doesn't one of the local amateur radio
operators make themselves available to the local news anchor, much like
cellular users report traffic problems on a normal day, and that way the
generalpublic could be better informed.

Bill Main

Most all the hand-held amateur radio equipment, is almost useless without
the aid of a repeater station. I don't know how many repeaters are backed
up by emergency power supplies. I would hope most of them, but if they're
not, don't plan on reaching anyone more than a couple miles away.

H.F. equipment, on the other hand, is usually at least 50~100 watts, and has
the ability to reach extremely long distances, without the need of a
repeater.

When you think about it, standard C.B. radio equipment should do well,
providing there is someone available on the other end.

Bill Crocker


"mad amoeba" wrote in message
. net...
I was affected by the recent blackout in North East. That got me thinking
of
how would
one communicate during such an event. Electricity including phones were
out.
Cellular phones didn't work either. So the only way of receiving
informaiton
was by radio.
My old Sony wm-gx670 did quite nicely. But what if I would need to
communicate with
my relatives or even cops to let them know of an emmergency. If
telephone/cellular/internet
are not available what are my other options? Let's say people I want to
communicate with
are more than several miles away in an urban area. That makes CB radio
useless--right? So
then as far as I understand using ham radio is my only option. With that
you
can either get in
touch with your relatives directly, provided they have ham radio as well,
or
you can call
some person in an area without blackout and tell them to call
police/ambulance etc if that's
what you need.

Not knowing much myself about scanners/shortwaves/hams myself I want to
ask
you guys
with more experience if the below piece of equipment is what I need.

As far as I understand this is an handheld ham radio which also functions
as
a scanner and
can also receive on a shortwave band. So it will allow me to communicate
with people
far away even in urban setting, it is portable and it will also allow me
to
monitor news as
well as police/firefighters etc. Am I right?

Yaesu VX-2R
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/ht/0176.html

the price is kind of steep but for all-in-one product I would be willing
to
pay it.

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 17:47:57 -0400, "Bill Crocker"
wrote:

Most all the hand-held amateur radio equipment, is almost useless without
the aid of a repeater station.

That is a rather broad statement. It depends greatly on where you
live (or are) in relation to where you want to talk to. I live in a
very ham dense area and can make dozens of contacts on simplex.

I don't know how many repeaters are backed
up by emergency power supplies. I would hope most of them, but if they're
not, don't plan on reaching anyone more than a couple miles away.

Glancing through the repeater directory, I'd guess about a third of
them.
How do you define, "a couple of miles"? My Icom T2H (a 7 Watt hand
held) can make it from my house to the repeater 18 miles away. If I
can hit that repeater then I can talk to anyone between it and me on
simplex, and that is with the rubber duck antenna. Using a home made
twin-lead J-Pole antenna I talked on the repeater from downtown
Chicago which is a 36 miles trip.
On 2 Meters, get your antenna high and you can really reach out.
Height is Might.


H.F. equipment, on the other hand, is usually at least 50~100 watts, and has
the ability to reach extremely long distances, without the need of a
repeater.

Wattage doesn't mean a whole lot with HF because it isn't the power
that enables the longer distances. My 2 Meter rigs at home are 50
Watts. Actually, most HF rigs are 5 to 10 Watts and an external amp
will be used to increase power. Depending on conditions, you can talk
all 50 states with 10 Watts on HF.


When you think about it, standard C.B. radio equipment should do well,
providing there is someone available on the other end.

IF you are in an area with CB users and IF they are helpful and not
just kids wanting to screw around. Also, CB, being limited to 4 Watts
is typicallty very short range. If you are in an area with a lot of
CB users that are 'adult' and use it as a tool then it may be the
proper answer. Same for FRS and GMRS. Where I am, CB is worthless
due to the people that use it. If you can't top someone elses signal
then you aren't going to talk.


Bill Crocker

KB9WFK



"You are behaving like a troll, disguising your attacks as reasonable
discussion."
'Alan Connor'

In rec.radio.scanner KB9WFK wrote:
(snip)
: How do you define, "a couple of miles"? My Icom T2H (a 7 Watt hand
: held) can make it from my house to the repeater 18 miles away. If I
: can hit that repeater then I can talk to anyone between it and me on
: simplex, and that is with the rubber duck antenna. Using a home made
: twin-lead J-Pole antenna I talked on the repeater from downtown
: Chicago which is a 36 miles trip.
: On 2 Meters, get your antenna high and you can really reach out.
: Height is Might.
(snip)

Yes, but ... not everyone has a "high" antenna .. and many of those will
be closer to you than that "repeater 18 miles away" and yet, you *won't*
be able to talk with them. Because they won't hear you and/or you won't
hear them.

Richard in Boston, MA, USA

In rec.radio.scanner mad amoeba wrote:
(all of it snipped)

Sorry, if this has been mentioned (I can't read all 60 replies) but ..

While the radio in question can recieve shortwave, it can't transmit
there (and even if you could modify it to .. it would still only be FM and
low powered)

Without "repeaters" a hand held ham radio is very, very limited in range.

There are other possibilites .. such as the Yaesu 817, but you'd need a
higher class of ham licence and (realistically) a bigger, better antenna
(and a lot of luck) for HF (High Frequency .. aka 'shortwave')
communications.

Richard in Boston, MA, USA