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Reply to: Tracking food supplies off-grid with ham radio and JS8Call Posted October 22, 2020

It doesn’t need to be the “end of days” to use EmComm style communications. I’m part of a ham community here in Southern California that uses radio for outdoor / mountain portable use. The people in our group are pretty diverse and tech savvy, utilizing digital modes, cell phone or computer to radio integrations, homebrew equipment, etc. We have over a hundred members and are growing almost daily. Learning is the only constant. We also have search and rescue members in our group from various teams across the state. I have personally been either directly or indirectly involved in ham radio being used in midst of power outages in mountain communities, wilderness emergency scenarios, people at sea needing assistance, etc. Mind you that I have only been a ham operator for about a year now. If those examples weren’t enough, the recent fires here in California are a perfect example to show that our cell infrastructure is indeed susceptible to disasters: https://www.govtech.com/em/disaster/Cellphone-Outages-During-Fires-are-a-Preview-of-Life-After-a-Big-Quake.html Even if cell towers remain up, the flood of traffic immediately following an earthquake or natural disaster renders cell phone communications useless. I’ve experienced this myself after a recent earthquake. And yes, the barriers to entry to become a ham operator have largely been removed. No more 20WPM CW extra exam, and yes the questions are available online. And no wonder – people no longer need to build their radios largely from scratch and modern hams operate their equipement from a much higher layer of abstraction than people did 30 years ago. Case in point: the use of CW, after the CW requirement was done away with, is making a major comeback as indicated by Internet search trends, YouTube videos, etc. I am working on 20WPM profiency with CW, and refuse to take my Amateur Extra test without first passing one of the old code tests, but that is my personal preference. So I would have to agree with Gideon that my experience with ham radio has been quite different than yours. That being said, I do see the segment of ham operators on the air that you are talking about, but in 15 years, it’s going to be people like the author that will remain, and they’ll be the ones to determine the future direction of ham radio.

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Reply to: Tracking food supplies off-grid with ham radio and JS8Call Posted October 22, 2020

It doesn’t need to be the “end of days” to use EmComm style communications. I’m part of a ham community here in Southern California that uses radio for outdoor / mountain portable use. The people in our group are pretty diverse and tech savvy, utilizing digital modes, cell phone or computer to radio integrations, homebrew equipment, etc. We have over a hundred members and are growing almost daily. Learning is the only constant. We also have search and rescue members in our group from various teams across the state. I have personally been either directly or indirectly involved in ham radio being used in midst of power outages in mountain communities, wilderness emergency scenarios, people at sea needing assistance, etc. Mind you that I have only been a ham operator for about a year now. If those examples weren’t enough, the recent fires here in California are a perfect example to show that our cell infrastructure is indeed susceptible to disasters: https://www.govtech.com/em/disaster/Cellphone-Outages-During-Fires-are-a-Preview-of-Life-After-a-Big-Quake.html Even if cell towers remain up, the flood of traffic immediately following an earthquake or natural disaster renders cell phone communications useless. I’ve experienced this myself after a recent earthquake. And yes, the barriers to entry to become a ham operator have largely been removed. No more 20WPM CW extra exam, and yes the questions are available online. And no wonder – people no longer need to build their radios largely from scratch and modern hams operate their equipement from a much higher layer of abstraction than people did 30 years ago. Case in point: the use of CW, after the CW requirement was done away with, is making a major comeback as indicated by Internet search trends, YouTube videos, etc. I am working on 20WPM profiency with CW, and refuse to take my Amateur Extra test without first passing one of the old code tests, but that is my personal preference. So I would have to agree with Gideon that my experience with ham radio has been quite different than yours. That being said, I do see the segment of ham operators on the air that you are talking about, but in 15 years, it’s going to be people like the author that will remain, and they’ll be the ones to determine the future direction of ham radio.