I have recently become more aware of and generally interested in electronics and amateur radio, and it got me thinking. What advantage, if any, would there be to having amateur radio experience, over a simple disaster crank radio/flashlight, in the event of a major natural disaster or some other emergency that leads to a longer delay in power being restored? For the sake of argument, let’s assume you have a generator or battery bank to supply your own electricity.
Huge advantages. So much so that multiple government agencies will actively rely on amateur operators to get status reports and communications in and out of disaster zones. There are organizations dedicated to training and indexing operators too, both independent and government run.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio_emergency_communications
http://www.arrl.org/amateur-radio-emergency-communicationFor personal communications it’s not that great of course, but you can become an invaluable asset to your nearby community by having a radio during a disaster.
Typical mobile amateur radio kits can be operated on tens of watts at most, and will effectively run indefinitely from small solar panels or an idling car. And you can reach out quite far just by tossing an aerial wire up in a tree anywhere.
If you’re interested in getting into amateur radio I highly recommend it. It’s super fun to chase signals and see what parts of the world you can talk to. Definitely worth getting licensed as it’s not a terribly expensive hobby to get into either (although the cost ceiling can be… very high haha).
You don’t need a license to listen, only transmit, so if you don’t want to committ you can grab a cheap radio and some wire for a poor man’s listening station.Very cool! I had no idea this was a thing! Very up my alley - I’m going to dig in some more, thanks for sharing
Funny you ask because I literally just got my ham license because of this.
Radio works without infrastructure. Okay there’s some ham stuff that is internet-connected et al but overall you are just spewing radio waves into the ether with a variety of simple encodings and someone else can pick them up. So powering a few radios off of a dinky solar panel and battery combo is no biggie, whereas powering cell towers, routing infrastructure, et al is a bunch of generators that need to be fueled and whatnot.
Like… you can hit the 20-meter-and-longer wavelengths with a radio and a random bit of wire and some ingenuity and get your signal all over the place. And the maximum power you are ever allowed is 1500 watts and most folks can make do with far less power than that.
Also, amateur radio has fun stuff to do other than mere EmComm needs. Part of why Twitter used to be handy in a pinch for lesser-disasters in days past was that it could be used for EmComm needs but also had other fun stuff to be done with it. Things that are “just” for EmComm infrastructure tend to get forgotten about and abandoned and rot away to nothingness.
A lot of areas in the US have ARES/RACES orgs to provide an already organized group of people… but some of the fun games that hams play like POTA/SOTA, Field Days, et al also serve to make it fun to have a portable setup.
POTA is fun. Everyone is so chill. I only get out a few times a year these days, but I love setting up in the woods. I should do it more.
So I’ve got a different perspective that might help. During the hurricane disaster this year in the mountains of NC there was a big hub bub about getting starlink and internet services deployed into the area. I couldn’t fathom it, like people’s houses are gone and are picking up debris to try and survive, we’re really prioritizing communication over survival?!?
Then I saw interview after interview that finally made it click. People are creatures of habit, disconnecting them completely throws them off. Countless stories of not even knowing what day it was, scared because they can’t contact family, just general chaos because the entire routine of day to day life is gone. Internet access/communication strangely helps everyone calm the fuck down.
You might be stressed in a disaster area, but being able to radio someone outside to just talk to for a while would probably be a blessing. Having the ability to reach out to loved ones of neighbors through a radio contact just to let them know everyone is alive would be stress relieving for everyone involved. I think now that it is important to have a connection-line out of the area not just for safety, but just general normality during a time nothing seems normal.
We are social creatures, communication is a need not a desire.
This is a nice article about recent amateur radio utilization during a hurricane: Through Hurricanes Helene and Milton, Amateur Radio Triumphs When All Else Fails.
Basically, it can be useful for relaying information for first responders, calling for help, and relaying communications between families and communities.
I don’t know about major coordination, but I keep a couple sets of walkies that use CB band channels around for just such a purpose. It’s comforting to have coms available that don’t rely on a central infrastructure.
That’s good. A big thing people forget though, is practice. If you’ve only ever used them a few times, it can be hard to remember the details of how they work or if they work, and what to expect from them when they’re working.
That’s what makes ham radio so great, you practice at least semi regularly, or as much as you want. Plus the distances you’re capable of are much larger, if that’s important to you. Sometimes local is more important.
I was able to communicate with some 170 miles away. This was using no infrastructure using only my wire antenna, a radio and a half dead regular 9v battery. I would say ham radio would come in handy if shit hits the fan.
Honestly I think it depends. I’ve got my license and the only people I’ve really contacted have been old farts in the surrounding communities. Ham radio has a ton of potential but I think a limiting factor people aren’t thinking about is who is going to be on the other side that is actually capable of helping you.
That being said it’s an option you didn’t have before and the barrier to entry is pretty low in terms of effort and cost so I say give it a shot!
Well, a ham radio transmitter will let you transmit. If you can reach someone else who has power and a ham radio rig, you can get a message to them
A disaster radio will receive. You can receive mass-broadcasted information.
For the vast majority of people out there, I doubt that either is all that critical for most scenarios in 2024.
Internet access basically replaces both of them.
Not to mention broadcast cell alert service, which is available in the US (though not, as I understand, globally).
Just about everyone has a cell phone that has both a radio receiver and transmitter and has global routing already in place, so all that’s necessary to provide communications to pretty much everyone in an area is to get cell coverage up, and provides on-demand information. Getting cell service functioning after a disaster is a priority, and there are trucks with generators and satellite uplinks that get deployed.
So if you’re using AM/FM radio or ham radio, it’s likely just going to be as a backup to that.
There are places where I’d want some kind of voice radio transmitter. If I lived somewhere very remote that didn’t have cell coverage or on a remote island, say, with only a small number of people, where getting cell coverage back up might not be as high a priority, then I think that it’d make a more-reasonable backup. But if you live near civilization, you probably already have stuff that in place that handles the job.
Anyone who has a car probably has a generator-backed AM/FM radio with a large, charged battery anyway, so getting another one is as a backup to that backup.
I’m not convinced on the cell phone thing. Every time there’s even a minor thing around where I am, like a dinky little power outage, everybody grabs their cellphone and my service goes to crap, so much so that when I’ve tried to work through a power outage with my phone, I’ve worked out of my wife’s car after having driven somewhere that does have power.
Also, a standard ham radio uses a lot less power than the entire chain of phone plus network equipment. So, sure, there’s cell tower trucks with generators but a ham rig needs a dinky little solar panel.
Pretty useful. I’ve got a bunch of handhelds, and if the cell towers are out, it would be nice to keep in touch with my wife if she goes out shopping (of course that would also require the stores to be open still). Keep in mind, at the power level you can transmit for just basic GMRS (50 watts max), you can only communicate a few miles in a suburban landscape. Also, both base stations have to be able to transmit at that power to have two way communication.
