The Dawn Soliloquy wrote:


Do you find your mouth a more useful implement than your ears? I have gleaned
quite a bit of useful data during storms and other emergencies in my area
simply by listening to public service radio. I have avoided roads and
situations by these means that would have been inconvenient or dangerous. One
could easily imagine that careful listening to HAMs and others during
emergencies might likewise yield useful information.

Certainly with the current state of education in America, and the requirements
that people have at least a modicum of knowledge before they can legally take
to the airwaves, this would significantly reduce the percentage of Americans
becoming involved in Amateur Radio.

Are you one of the HAMs that seek to preserve the HAM bands for your own use
or do you acknowledge that other Americans, just like yourself, can avail
themselves of these privileges if properly educated and equipped?

Your post may be a bit more telling then you realize.

He's got a point-whenever there's a blackout in my area (northcentral
California, so they're relatively rare) the 911 lines are jammed with
people wanting to know when the power will be back on. The same effect
would apply if those morons had HF transcievers. I guess there could be
"designated amateur disaster stations" which would be local hams that
would be trained in disaster comms. The whole neighborhood could listen
in via Part 15 FM tx, but only the designated ham could do HF comms. I
should note that my DX396 can't process SSB (like most portables) so
that listening in to the ham bands during a blackout would be
impossible. (My Yaesu has tunable SSB, but it's 120vAC.)


Regards.


In article ,
(RHF) wrote:
KC2HMZ,

The simple reality is that 1/3 to 1/2 of the USA population has
Celphones.

The HAM Bands and the Amateur Radio Systems could not support 100-150
Million Users all trying to "Get A Radio Check".

Never say never.
Nothing is absolute.