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During Blackout, Ham Radio Shined
Mark Cantrell writes "An interesting bit on AP through Yahoo today. Seems that ham radio (which recently had a bit of backlash here on Slashdot from a few people thinking it was useless, outdated technology), really shined through during the blackouts. When the power went, ham radio operators, using battery backup power, were able to help coordinate emergency workers while the cell phone networks were overloaded. For anyone wondering why interference due to power line broadband is considered a bad thing, well, there ya go."
Being a slashdotter means never having to say you're sorry when you ostracize a seemingly archaic, yet dependable, technology that shows its worth when all else fails.
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
...data can never have too many multiple, redundant backups.
Carousel is a lie!
sorry, ran out of space in the subject line...
Many cell towers are equiped with UPSs to work for a couple hours or so, but hardly enough to cover an outage like what we've seen. We've concentrated on building these things cheap. I can't say I blame them -- who expects a two-day-long outage? Even so, many of the backups didn't even work. You could argue that they should have generators for backup, solar panels, gerbil-wheels, or what not, but its our capitalist nature to try and build these things as cheaply as possible.
I'd argue that, instead of relying on grungy old men with ham radios, that emergency personel should have access to ham radios. It'd probably cost a lot less to do that than to create a telecommunications infrastructure resistant to blackouts.
But they DO generate a lot of interference. Makes the radio unlistenable. Some smacktard in the other thread was going on about how a few peoples hobby wasn't important. Well, guess what fuckhole, it is. Amateur radio saved your worthless ass. There would be no amateur radio left if the FCC continues with their stupidity.
...and you cause people to not get involved. Less involvement means that the system will fall apart.
If no one is left using the technology because of problems under normal conditions, these people won't be there to save your ass when you need paramedics called and the phones don't work.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Also, there have been disasters that hams have been involved in providing services for where communications were greatly disrupted, but power was not out. September 11, 2001 New York city had a major communications disruption that hams played a very important part in getting health and welfare messages out of and across the city when the phone system was significantly impacted.
But your post also shows an extreme shortsightedness. Do you expect hams to keep maintaining equipment and buying new equipment, and new hams to come into the hobby, if normally the RF interference is so bad that they could only use that equipment in the event of a massive power failure? When lives are lost because the ranks of the ham radio operators have dwindled because they were pushed off the bands (and they certainly have saved many lives) perhaps you can make your little joke again.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
II. It's the most dependable emergency communcation network in the world.
III. It requires practicaly NO INFRASTRUCTURE!
IV. It's CHEAP (total cost to implement, see III)!
V. It's reliable. It will be operational when all other methods of long distance communication fail.(See II)
VI. It's democratic.
VII. It is the first worldwide hacker community.
IX. It teaches science and technology without being onerous.
X. It is altruistic (people use their rigs to provide emergency communications for people who could care less about ham radio).
XI. Unlike commercial broadcasting, it serves the community at all times.
Those are just a few of the many reasons I admire and apreciate ham radio operators. We should all fight to preserve a portion of the spectrum for the use of these fine folks.
I haven't keyed up a radio in a few years, but when my license expires in March of 2004, I'm renewing it.
It's just one of those things - you never know when you'll need it, but you'll be glad you had it...
---
KE6FTH
The interference from power-line broadband is capable of travelling hundreds of miles, from places that do have power. This is A Bad Thing.
HAM requires one to pass an exam to receive an FCC issued callsign, and there are specific rules as to what classes of licenses are allowed as far as frequency, power, transmission type, and the like. HAM radio operators can lose their licenses if they violate the rules, and have their equipment confinscated. The exam for the entry level operator class, "Technician", is 35 questions, and you must answer 26 correctly to pass. It's an easy test, costs $10, and applies your license for ten years before another $10 renewal (for ten more years) is required. There is next a Technician Plus Code class, which gives access to an additional frequency over Technician, and then General, which is higher yet, and more difficult, followed by Amateur-Extra, which is the top license, where you get all HAM-allowed privileges.
CB, on the other hand, has some 40 "channels", is technically restricted in power to something like one watt or somesuch, and simply requires you to get in line at Radioshack to buy the kit. You are in theory not allowed to talk to someone that you know is more than a certain distance away from you, CB is designed for local communcation only. CB is not allowed repeaters, and those that have tried setting up CB repeater networks have found themselves in trouble with the FCC. The "Channels" are set frequencies that CB operates on, not actual raw stuff like HAM operators deal with. HAM operators get a significantly larger piece of spectrum, with stuff as low as 10Hz, and up in the GHz range at the top, with all kinds of pieces in between. CB gets it's one section around 10m or 11m or something like that.
Basically, HAM Radio requires you to follow some rules in exchange for significant privileges, CB is a toy.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
On a more serious note:
A lot of people seem to say "Its much more valuable to have thousands of people get broadband internet access than to have ham radio. After all, most of the time, hams just chat and aren't helping with emergencies. Plus, powerline broadband would only affect HF."
However, the general chit-chat that ham operators do IS valuable. Without it, ham radio would become worthless. People aren't going to buy thousand dollar radios "just in case" if they have huge amounts of interference to deal with so they can't chat. Similarly, would YOU pay for internet service that had 99% downtime? Furthermore, current operators will be less willing to keep an operational station if theres nothing to do with it. That radio will just sit in the attic, and if there's an emergency, too bad. Also, people aren't going to be able to do anything even if they have a working station if they haven't ever been able to practice.
Its not that ham-radio is old and more reliable than newer technologies, its that nothing yet can easily replace ham-radio(try to think of something that really can), and seeing how the internet has been turned into a marketing/media tool, there may not be anything for a while. Ham radio is simple, long-range, portable, versatile/flexible, and most importantly, independant of other services.
Cell-phone nets get overloaded with callers.
The internet has no long range portability, and is dependent on physical networks.
Sattelite phones are WAY too expensive and limited.
Etc...
You only need HAM radio once in a while, but there is no substitute for it's low-tech ability to keep communicating.
Another great thing about plain old analogue radio is that it can be implemented using discrete componets in a military-grade package for around 20 lbs. Repariablilty of such a solution is far superior to integrated electronics.
Might not make a difference under normal circumstances, but when faced with things blowing to bits right and left you sure are glad you don't have to locate IC637247 (random name there) to repair the damn thing!
.: Max Romantschuk
In any case, that's not the point... If the broadband signal pushes ham users out of their 'hobby' then, when the power goes out, there won't be any hams with working radios to help coordinate the saving of your unlit butt.
Reminds me of a parable...
The ham system is rather like an insurance policy. It often seems like a waste -- until the day you really need it. Of course, the day you really need it, is the wrong time to put it together.Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
I think you have no understanding of the nature of emergency services. At it's best, emergency services are controlled chaos. Under "other than normal" circumstances it's a complete crapshoot. Having the assistance of *trained* citizens is invaluable, and is a lot more common than you obviously think. The emergency services are there to help you, not wipe your ass for you.
And, quite frankly, all these ultra-high tech communications systems the emergency services use are really nice under normal circumstances, but are completely friggin useless when the main systems fail. Many modern vehicle radios *cannot* talk directly to another mobile unit (multi-frequency). The transmission is sent to a tower, and relayed to the other vehicle/handheld. If the tower fails, every radio in the field becomes a high-dollar piece of junk.
Yes, I do know what I'm talking about, I worked eight years in emergency services, and my wife has over 17 years, and is still working in in the field.
All the technology that you quote apart from satellites requires considerable infrastructure that simply doesn't work or is overloaded during an emergency. Satellite terminals work very well in open country, but they don't like high buildings. A friend of mine had a portable INMARSAT terminal to provide emergency communications. He had to go onto a roof to use it. LEO (Iridium-style) is better, but it still has problems amongst the 'canyon walls' formed by high-rise buildings.
You accuse hams of being stuck in the past. Please remember that the hobby is tightly regulated by the FCC. The fights to even get packet radio accepted took a lot of time.
Yes, the training aspect that you mention is important, but the ability of amateurs to provide emergency support is probably still their best justification for the EM spectrum they occupy.
See my journal, I write things there
I've got a few karma points to burn, and you need to be beaten with a clue stick. I suggest you start with the ARRL.
To call amateur radio operators simply hobbiests does them a disservice. They're licensed by the FCC. Listen on your local repeater the next time some severe thunderstorms roll through. I bet you'll hear a SKYWARN net, courtesy of your local ARES group. What's ARES? This is. They are volunteers that work closely with the National Weather Service. If you're lucky enough to still have an active RACES group in your area, I suggest you go look at that site. FEMA, or the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is the governing body that provides assistance to the local governing bodies, specifically the civil defence bodies that sponsor RACES groups.
Enough examples? No?
Check out an Army or Navy MARS site and note that you can pass a MARSGRAM to any service member, anywhere, through the network of MARS operators. As an amateur radio operator, it was pretty cool to sit (once) at the MARS gateway in Frankfurt, Germany while I was in the Army. More than a handful of messages that came through were on their way to soldiers in Bosnia.
If your metro area lost traditional communications, your local hams would post themselves at the Red Cross, any hospitals, police and fire stations and keep communications going. In fact, this is what they did in New York after the towers came down.
Guess what else. We're volunteers. We don't get paid. In fact, we CAN'T get paid for our radio services. Go read the rules: 47 CFR 97.113(2)
P.S. It says no radio transmissions for hire.
That means every radio operator is out there during emergencies because they want to be. They take an active interest in the community they're serving. They invest in their own rigs and the generators to run them so that they might one day HELP YOU, as well as give them an outlet for their interests. That's a damn sight more dedicated than your whiny, milktoast ass.
-- I'd say your post was about 3 monkeys, 18 minutes.