Communication During Blackout
 

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 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.



In truth, a hot rodded cb would work wonders.

==========
"Being diabetic is alot like having an un-invited
guest at a picnic, who keeps pointing out the potato
salad may have gone bad."--W.B. Willis

"Destiny has a strange sense of humor..." K. Honeycutt
----------
http://www.geocities.com/swl_yb400pe
http://www.geocities.com/swl_yb400pe/psychedelic.htm
http://www.geocities.com/swl_yb400pe/slinkypage.html

"He not busy being born is busy dying..." B. Dylan


=======================

"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.



You need a license if you want to transmit legally. The Amatuer Radio Relay
League has some information on getting licensed. Here's a couple of pages
you might find interesting:

http://www.arrl.org/hamradio.html

http://www.remote.arrl.org/news/stor...8/15/102/?nc=1

Frank Dresser

In article , 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.

This is not true. There were long lines to use payphones, and most home
and business phones worked.

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.

--Tim May

were i am none of the public phones worked and most of the cellular phones
didnt worked either--ie verizon.

"Tim May" wrote in message
...

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 00:53:44 GMT, "mad amoeba" wrote:

were i am none of the public phones worked and most of the cellular phones
didnt worked either--ie verizon.

"Tim May" wrote in message
t...

Just to clairify in my mind, neither analog nor digital [CMDA, etc] ?

Rather limits the usefulness of mobiles if a mere power failure can
take them out.

However, is 2 metres any better?

erniegalts




"_Magna est veritas et praevalebit"_
(Truth is mighty and will prevail).
{erniegalts}
{Australia}
{misc.survivalism}

Tim May ) writes:
In article , 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.

This is not true. There were long lines to use payphones, and most home
and business phones worked.

I wasn't in the blackout area, but one thing I heard on the radio here
was that people did suffer from lack of phones, because they had only
cordless phones, which of course need power from the AC line. They
couldn't use those phones, and likely some/many thought the phone
lines were down. Only people who had real phones, that get their
limited power needs from the phone line, would know that the phones
were in fact running. I know cordless phones are pretty widespread
at this point, but I have no idea how many households have nothing but
a cordless phone.

Even if phone systems weren't working, one of the things to remember
is that other things come into play in an urban area. If the phone doesn't
work, then you have your neighbors to talk to. If the phones don't work,
then emergency systems will come into effect, so there will be means of
getting welfare traffic out. For that matter, emergency systems will come
into play to handle local emergency calls.

I think it's a bit of a myth to suggest that amateur radio is a means
for the individual to keep in communication during an emergency.
Amateur radios place in an emergency has always been in terms of
organized help.

So hams work with the Red Cross to supply non-emergency communication to
get around faults and blockades. It's not the place for "help me" messages,
it's the welfare messages "I am fine, don't worry" or maybe even "I won't
be coming this weekend, the airports are closed" things that might be
important but not of high priority.

And if the emergency warrants it, hams can supply local communcation as
an auxiliary to emergency services. So in some cases, hams could
be a way of providing some sort of replacement for phone lines, with
them placed in important points where it's known people can get to
if they need to communicate.

It's also quite organized, and those hams working in such public
service work prepare for emergencies. Ham radio is not a utility,
so unless the emergency framework is in place, someone getting a license
"in case of an emergency" may not find it all that useful, because as
mentioned the familiar people you want to talk to likely aren't licensed,
and in an emergency one might find the bands crowded with the organized
communication, and for instance, someone doing phone patches may not
feel like dealing with some guy off the street.

In a rural area, I suspect the benefits of amateur radio to the individual
may increase significantly, but then that's the case when there's no
emergency.

And if someone is interested in emergency work, then it probably is
worthwhile getting a ham license, because that will mean one more person
who can help out when an emergency comes up.

Michael

Wired telephones worked well for contact of distant family during the
blackout as long as they have hardwired phones on the other end. Too many
cordless units lack base units with battery backup. I ran my house on a 5kw
generator until the power came back. The first 30 minutes I ran the radios
and computers on a 2000 VA UPS

N2UBP

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 00:53:50 -0000, "core_dump"
wrote:

Delphic wrote in
:


In addition, it is more powerful (5+ watts). Can be modified
(although void warranty and in illegal) to transmit out of its
designed bands (Ham).


AFAIK, it's legal to modify ham radio equipment if you have a license, just
not to transmit there.

This is true.

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.

"Michael Black" wrote in message
...
Tim May ) writes:
In article , 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.

This is not true. There were long lines to use payphones, and most home
and business phones worked.

I wasn't in the blackout area, but one thing I heard on the radio here
was that people did suffer from lack of phones, because they had only
cordless phones, which of course need power from the AC line. They
couldn't use those phones, and likely some/many thought the phone
lines were down. Only people who had real phones, that get their
limited power needs from the phone line, would know that the phones
were in fact running. I know cordless phones are pretty widespread
at this point, but I have no idea how many households have nothing but
a cordless phone.

Even if phone systems weren't working, one of the things to remember
is that other things come into play in an urban area. If the phone
doesn't
work, then you have your neighbors to talk to. If the phones don't work,
then emergency systems will come into effect, so there will be means of
getting welfare traffic out. For that matter, emergency systems will come
into play to handle local emergency calls.

I think it's a bit of a myth to suggest that amateur radio is a means
for the individual to keep in communication during an emergency.
Amateur radios place in an emergency has always been in terms of
organized help.

So hams work with the Red Cross to supply non-emergency communication to
get around faults and blockades. It's not the place for "help me"
messages,
it's the welfare messages "I am fine, don't worry" or maybe even "I won't
be coming this weekend, the airports are closed" things that might be
important but not of high priority.

And if the emergency warrants it, hams can supply local communcation as
an auxiliary to emergency services. So in some cases, hams could
be a way of providing some sort of replacement for phone lines, with
them placed in important points where it's known people can get to
if they need to communicate.

It's also quite organized, and those hams working in such public
service work prepare for emergencies. Ham radio is not a utility,
so unless the emergency framework is in place, someone getting a license
"in case of an emergency" may not find it all that useful, because as
mentioned the familiar people you want to talk to likely aren't licensed,
and in an emergency one might find the bands crowded with the organized
communication, and for instance, someone doing phone patches may not
feel like dealing with some guy off the street.

In a rural area, I suspect the benefits of amateur radio to the individual
may increase significantly, but then that's the case when there's no
emergency.

And if someone is interested in emergency work, then it probably is
worthwhile getting a ham license, because that will mean one more person
who can help out when an emergency comes up.

Michael