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.I assume you’re talking about HAM radio?
A buddy of mine got really into that. From what he’s told me, yes getting licensed is pretty cheap and straightforward. But getting a rig can be a bit pricey. With even a fairly basic second-hand rig costing hundreds of dollars or more.
It’s something I’m tired with getting into, but I haven’t had much time to really dig into it any further. Do you have any insights or links/resources you can share?
Thanks.
I guess it depends on your aspirations and where you live?
A radio that can hit the bands longer than the 10 meter band is pricey. Which is why Ham has traditionally been the sort of hobby that a distinguished older white gentleman does, not a thing for regular people.
On the other hand, a cheap VHF/UHF handheld radio can be really quite cheap (Baofeng radios being an example). You will only be able to talk to the local area but most areas have a repeater in convenient geographic locations (mountaintops, ideally) that will listen on one frequency and then transmit at higher power on another frequency so that you can reach a wider area. So in my area for the EmComm use-case, there’s a whole organized VHF/UHF system of volunteers.
Oh yeah, and you can also screw around with putting custom firmware on WiFi devices or Meshtastic in Ham mode.
I dono… I’d like to think that there’s useful things especially these days to be done with Ham radio and that it’s not just a thing that is just for distinguished older white gentlemen, but it’s kinda hamstrung (LOL, pun) by the present-day audience that’s preventing people from seeing what it could be.
Thanks for the info and insight.
To add to that, if you learn Morse code, you can use the lowest license level to use all the bands, and talk around the world with quite low power. The radios for this are cheaper, and the whole thing can be made even cheaper with things like 3d printing.
Now I know most people aren’t gonna do that. But it’s interesting that Morse code not only still exists, but is thriving. Right now, as you read this, people are having conversations with Morse code. Literally 24/7 around the world, over radio. Pretty cool stuff.
It’s hard to learn, I’ve technically learned it, but I never got super proficient, and now I’m rusty haha. There are apps for keeping sharp, I should do that.
Pedant’s note: it’s ham radio, not HAM.
Depends how loudly you need to say it I guess. Haha.
But seriously, good point. Thanks.
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
Probably a lot. There’s was (is?) a long productive relationship between Red Cross disaster efforts and amateur radio.
Still is. My brother is a ham radio operator. When certain areas get hard hit, if normal communication towers go down, they will fly in ham radio operators .
He hasn’t been called yet (not sure if he’s on a list to be called) but it wouldn’t surprise me if he is.
And HAM operators near the area helps relaying information from people on the ground
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This. But I will say that during Hurricane Ian, direct hit, my 2m/70cm radio was very useful. Local group is extremely active. Messages to family/friends were passed on until someone with a phone would make a call for them, passing traffic. Hearing the updates of power, gas and aid in what areas was a huge help that news stations just couldn’t give at the speed it was given over radio. Radio operators were stationed in hospitals as backups for first responders and in shelters.
On a day to day basis? Not very useful unless you go HF. Then it’s expensive, even with “cheap” equipment. You don’t have to buy a $5k Kenwood but you’ll still be spending a lot.
TH-9800 and a X50 antenna 25ft in the air gets me 20 miles+ crystal clear. Florida, very flat. ~$300 not including coax cost. A $30 baofang and a slim Jim jpole thrown over a tree branch is enough to hit my local repeater though.
On a fun note that same baofang radio I’ve used for listening to ISS broadcasting to a elementary school and Russian SSTV, decoded with Robot36 on android, pictures from ISS.
It’s been a while, but I always had good luck with a half-wave dipole. It takes some effort to put one up, but it isn’t that hard or expensive. At the time, I was also able to get some ancient used gear for a couple hundred that could handle all the HF bands.
I’ve been thinking about getting back into that, with natural disasters becoming more frequent and severe.
Getting into HF doesn’t have to be that costly. Lots of hams have gotten started on HF with used gear that works just fine … after a century of hamming, there’s a lot of gear out there. And you can inexpensively make your own antennas that -can- perform nearly as well as those big expensive Yagis on a tower.
Do it! It’s great fun. Dipoles work well. I’ve found verticals to be even easier to set up, and perform good enough for POTA
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I didn’t take it as one better than the other. I have my general license but could never afford the equipment…I’ve only messed with them during field days on other people’s equipment.
Are you able to go to a park outside the city and operate? With low noise, you’d be surprised how far you can go with QRP. There are plenty of inexpensive ($100-150) rigs that can do that. Paired with a bit of rope, wire, and coax, you can rig up a cheap antenna pretty easy 👍
Have you heard of the truSDX? It’ll do 5 to 8 watts ish, depending on the band and how you power it.
I bought a big group buy kit and have some left over, if you want one for the cost of the parts plus shipping I can send you one, just DM me. It came to like $50 per unit. In fact if anyone reading this wants in on that just message me, I have a few that I really don’t need to keep holding on to 👍
Edit: additionally, if you want more power, you can try buying something broken and learn to fix it. That’s what I did for my first linear amplifier, an SB 200. Then later I bought a Kenwood TS-530, broken, no transmit. Paid $200 I think? Turns out the switches were just dirty 🤷♂️
The amplifier needed more work though. Probably came out a little behind on that, after upgrading some parts too. But now it’s mine, and I’m never getting rid of it.
Could you run one of these on a generator? Like a small single-family generator with wheels
Yeah, no problem. Most ham radios are set up to use 12 volts so they can be installed in a vehicle. They don’t need a lot of power. But if you’re using it at home with normal 120v power (from the power company or from a generator) you actually have to get a power supply to feed it 12 volts. This is a cheap one: https://www.amazon.com/Regulated-Converter-Interface-Amplifiers-TOPPOWER-PS1330A/dp/B0CZP5C2PY?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&smid=A5JF8YGI5RMR2&gQT=1
You could also hook it up to a 12v battery and use the generator to charge the battery.
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.
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.
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.
One of the reasons why ham radio has been around for so long (without losing -most- of its bandwidth) is that its proven to be so helpful in those scenarios. VHF bands are great for helping people locally, and one of the HF bands will usually be open to in-country and world-wide comms.
Another perk of hamming is getting to know locals, to prepare for emergencies (‘Field Days’ ), and to share ideas for gear, antennas and operations with a usually great gang of fellow hams.
You’ll find a lot of info about all sides of it at the ARRL site: http://arrl.org/
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.
I’m GMRS licensed, it’s like FRS (WalMart radios) with more power and additional channels. I don’t have my tech ham license but will probably get it. I want a GMRS repeater, there are cheap ones out of China that are within reach.
GMRS is good for local communication with your group, and if anyone is around they will certainly be monitoring those frequencies.
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.
HAM radio will only get you so far as it depends on the other end also having power. A CB radio connected to your car would likely be of more use.
?
My brother is a ham radio operator. He’s in Minnesota and can talk to people in Texas.
He can also use satellite systems to bounce his signals further.
Yeah, but talking during a power outage or natural disaster means comnunicating locally.
If you’re trying to help the community, calling Texas isn’t much use. :(
So, yeah, you might have power, but if other local services don’t, you’ll be better able to communicate and organize via CB instead of HAM.
“Isn’t much use to call another state saying” "we have no food and no medical supplies " is of no use?
Correct, because in order to communicate that information locally, you need a local connection.
How do you communicate to the outside world where the survivors are to direct supplies in? How do you communicate locally to tell everyone where and when to expect said supplies?
🤦♂️ without communication lines to the outside there is no help coming. After reading your other comments I guess you figure with a cb radio the help will magically appear. I’m done. Have fun
Help won’t magically appear, it will appear thanks to the governmentally assigned radios doing the work, not amateur radio.
What needs to happen is local coordination. You need to communicate the information to the people around you and that aint happening if you’re the only one with a working radio.
Think of it like this:
Power goes out. I have solar power so my wifi and internet is still on, but nobody else has power.
I can email the governor asking for help, but I can’t email my neighbors. I can go on Nextdoor but it’s a fucking ghost town because nobody else has power.
I need a way to tell my neighborhood “Relax, help is coming, be at x place at y time for the supply trucks.”
The internet aint helping with that, and neither is HAM radio.
Many, many (most?) commercial ham radios are powered by ~12VDC, and can be run directly off of a car battery in many cases (always use a fuse, kids!).
Always use two fuses! Need to fuse the ground lead as well because the antenna is bonded to frame of the car!
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!
