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King Wants To Sell Out Ham Radio
An anonymous reader writes "Rep. Peter King (R-NY), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has introduced HR 607, the 'Broadband for First Responders Act of 2011,' which has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee (which handles telecommunications legislation). The bill would create a nationwide Public Safety broadband network using the so-called 'D-Block' of spectrum in the 700 MHz range for Public Safety use. But to pay for it, he wants to sell off 420-440 MHz, currently heavily used by the military, satellites and Amateur Radio operators."
I hear this a lot, that Ham radio is useful in disasters, but can anyone give some examples?
Is it useful to someone trapped in an earthquake zone for them to be able to contact someone outside their area? Surely nowadays everything around the world is pretty well monitored, isn't it? I'm think of things like the big tsunami a few years back, and the Australian flooding which we in the USA saw pretty much every detail of.
Aren't the circumstances where Ham radio is useful and no other form of modern communication technology would work also the same circumstances where nobody could help anyway?
I have friends who are into Ham radio, and I think it's kind of a neat hobby, but isn't the disaster recovery aspect of it kind of overstated?
That being said, selling off spectrum that's allocated internationally sounds like a non-starter. It's just not going to happen.
Putting moderation advice in your
Give me a break. A large proportion of terrorists these days are Muslim, and claim to be motivated by their faith. This is a simple fact. If King wants to investigate the ramifications flowing from this as regards US homeland security, that doesn't add up to an "anti-Islamic hate campaign". If you want everyone to turn a blind eye to what a tiny but dangerous faction of the Muslim community is doing, I think you're crazy.
Would you please sign in so I can add you to my hate list? That's where everyone who feels the need to be "special" and use a different font for no apparent reason goes.