Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David A Jones on September 27, 2009 at 9:55pm

I was not there.

Not exactly sure what hams would have been doing for support. As far as reporting locations and activities of either side, a couple of FRS radios would do the same, and anyone can operate those, not just licensed ham operators.

I'm also not certain what you mean when you say, "This calls for Civil Emergency communications." As far as I can tell, there are only a few, at most, licensed hams on this site, and 2 of us are working toward creating a net here in the center of the country, but as with everything, it takes time.

As a side note, it is nice that the G20 clowns want to spend 10's of millions, if not billions, not to mention the fuel wasted, so they can meet and discuss gore bull warming. I've still not figured out if these hypocrites actually believe their bullshit, or if they think I am too stupid to recognize it. Makes as much sense as the Sierra Club inviting a thousand semis out to one of their pet projects to discuss how to keep the area pristine.

oh well, oh well
jonesey65244
KC0OUF

Permalink Reply by JED on October 2, 2009 at 6:04pm

The internet was as effective as any high level ham activity could have been. Any info would have needed to come from hams in the Pittsburgh area and would have been (for the most part) limited to verbal. Any video on the ham bands would come from high level hams with a larger investment in equipment than most of us can make. The people on the ground who took video of what happened in various locations, and posted the video on the net, did more than any of us could have with 2 meter ham radios or FRS radios. Both of those have limited range.

Ham radio excels when it shows that it's the only thing that keeps communications open when everything else has failed. When the power grid goes down, hams will still be operating. When the rest of the communication grid goes down, hams can still provide information unavailable elsewhere. Doesn't matter whether these problems are caused by natural disaster, or due to government oppression in times of civil unrest or martial law. Hams acquire and learn to use equipment that allows them to transmit and receive under the worst of circumstances, from an assortment of locations.

Permalink Reply by Ross on October 20, 2009 at 11:46am

Yea you got the wrong idea about ham radio. It's not here to provide civil disobedience, just a portal to it to the rest of the world. We aren't here to provide, we are here to react.