It's a shame your first (and I'll presume only) contact with a ham happened to be with someone who may well be a jerk. Many others would have been willing to help.
Sadly, "Anonymous Coward" is the victim of some heavy interference which rendered about $200.00 of his equipment ineffective. These are devices which, by his own admission, he does not need, but desires. (Substitution of a wired phone works, although not really what is wanted... and a Cat 5 LAN COULD substitute for 802.11...) It sounds to me like "Anonymous Coward" has found the solution to his interference problem- get rid of wireless.
Read a few of the other posts... the ham world isn't tiny, and has contributed more than you'd ever realize to the world economy and humanity in general.
I'll address why the hams have concerns over BPL first, then answer your questions.
BPL is a 'dirty' technology, which would run over a pretty old & dirty infrastructure. Other countries, such as Japan, have already rejected BPL due to the problems it creates. BPL literally wipes out large portions of the radio spectrum between 2 MHz and 80 MHz. (This segment includes Shortwave, "CB," the Public Safety VHF Low Band (it's still heavily used...), the lower VHF TV channels, Radio Remote Control, and Paging ("Beeper") frequencies. Hams are worried about the effects BPL will have on ALL users of the HF radio Spectrum, which includes broadcasters, Government (both admin and Military), the airlines, Public Safety, etc., and of course the ham bands.
Now, about the hams:
Numbers: Approx. 600,000 people in the US are licensed to use ham radio; Globally, it's in the millions, and new hams enter the hobby daily.
As for who "relies" on ham radio, you can count the Office of Homeland Security, FEMA, Emergency Management offices in every state, the American Red Cross and other disaster relief agencies among the agencies which literally do rely on ham radio in times of crisis. "When all else fails..." has become something of a slogan for Ham Radio, simply because when something does go horribly wrong, ham radio is the one technology that does work. In the aftermath of major storms, there is typically no power, no phone service, and no functioning ISP connections for days, weeks, and sometimes longer. Hams, with portable gear, often fill the communications voids. (Personal Experience: the WTC attack Sept. 11th, 2001- NO wired telephone service south of Canal Street, Manhattan; No Cell service in a 30 mile radius of the WTC due to equipment destruction at Telco facilities in the WTC neighborhood, and general system overload. Officials had closed all bridges and tunnels due to further possible threats. Hams working with Emergency Management officials relayed information from NJ Transit/Rail and Port Authority TransHudson into NYC as precious few other links were available for many hours. Using ham radio, I was able to gather information about which Hudson River crossing was open, and was able to lead a couple of hundred fellow New Jersians out of Manhattan that afternoon. Hams were also provided communications directly to - and "interoperations" communications between - relief agencies, e.g. the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and National Guard staging and logistics areas, for several MONTHS after the actual attack.)
As for "moving to something a little more modern," hams have been doing digital communications for decades & image communications (FAX, pictures, whatever) for almost as long. By tying a GPS to a microcomputer and a radio, hams developed something called APRS - Auto Position Reporting System - long before the commercial interests released AVL - Automatic Vehicle Location. Hams fly their own earth-orbiting satellites, and have voice and data equipment aboard the International Space Station. Hams have been experimenting with digital broadband on 2.4 GHz (and higher) for years. (Would you care to guess who thought of the "Pringles Can Antenna" or the use of 'surplus' 18-in. TVRO dishes to extend the range of WAP's and Wireless BroadBand routers?)
Once "Ham Radio" is understood, it's difficult to split "current technology" from the techniques used by hams. Sure, sometimes basic old Morse Code is used, but don't forget we hams have many, many 'modes,' including digital data and voice, in our bag of tricks... and one advantage is how some hams have made this technology quite portable and independent.
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It's a shame your first (and I'll presume only) contact with a ham happened to be with someone who may well be a jerk. Many others would have been willing to help.
Sadly, "Anonymous Coward" is the victim of some heavy interference which rendered about $200.00 of his equipment ineffective. These are devices which, by his own admission, he does not need, but desires. (Substitution of a wired phone works, although not really what is wanted... and a Cat 5 LAN COULD substitute for 802.11...) It sounds to me like "Anonymous Coward" has found the solution to his interference problem- get rid of wireless.
Read a few of the other posts... the ham world isn't tiny, and has contributed more than you'd ever realize to the world economy and humanity in general.
I'll address why the hams have concerns over BPL first, then answer your questions.
BPL is a 'dirty' technology, which would run over a pretty old & dirty infrastructure. Other countries, such as Japan, have already rejected BPL due to the problems it creates. BPL literally wipes out large portions of the radio spectrum between 2 MHz and 80 MHz. (This segment includes Shortwave, "CB," the Public Safety VHF Low Band (it's still heavily used...), the lower VHF TV channels, Radio Remote Control, and Paging ("Beeper") frequencies. Hams are worried about the effects BPL will have on ALL users of the HF radio Spectrum, which includes broadcasters, Government (both admin and Military), the airlines, Public Safety, etc., and of course the ham bands.
Now, about the hams:
Numbers: Approx. 600,000 people in the US are licensed to use ham radio; Globally, it's in the millions, and new hams enter the hobby daily.
As for who "relies" on ham radio, you can count the Office of Homeland Security, FEMA, Emergency Management offices in every state, the American Red Cross and other disaster relief agencies among the agencies which literally do rely on ham radio in times of crisis. "When all else fails..." has become something of a slogan for Ham Radio, simply because when something does go horribly wrong, ham radio is the one technology that does work. In the aftermath of major storms, there is typically no power, no phone service, and no functioning ISP connections for days, weeks, and sometimes longer. Hams, with portable gear, often fill the communications voids. (Personal Experience: the WTC attack Sept. 11th, 2001- NO wired telephone service south of Canal Street, Manhattan; No Cell service in a 30 mile radius of the WTC due to equipment destruction at Telco facilities in the WTC neighborhood, and general system overload. Officials had closed all bridges and tunnels due to further possible threats. Hams working with Emergency Management officials relayed information from NJ Transit/Rail and Port Authority TransHudson into NYC as precious few other links were available for many hours. Using ham radio, I was able to gather information about which Hudson River crossing was open, and was able to lead a couple of hundred fellow New Jersians out of Manhattan that afternoon. Hams were also provided communications directly to - and "interoperations" communications between - relief agencies, e.g. the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and National Guard staging and logistics areas, for several MONTHS after the actual attack.)
As for "moving to something a little more modern," hams have been doing digital communications for decades & image communications (FAX, pictures, whatever) for almost as long. By tying a GPS to a microcomputer and a radio, hams developed something called APRS - Auto Position Reporting System - long before the commercial interests released AVL - Automatic Vehicle Location. Hams fly their own earth-orbiting satellites, and have voice and data equipment aboard the International Space Station. Hams have been experimenting with digital broadband on 2.4 GHz (and higher) for years. (Would you care to guess who thought of the "Pringles Can Antenna" or the use of 'surplus' 18-in. TVRO dishes to extend the range of WAP's and Wireless BroadBand routers?)
Once "Ham Radio" is understood, it's difficult to split "current technology" from the techniques used by hams. Sure, sometimes basic old Morse Code is used, but don't forget we hams have many, many 'modes,' including digital data and voice, in our bag of tricks... and one advantage is how some hams have made this technology quite portable and independent.