4 ms·

I think shortwave (and a strong group of local hams ahead of time) is a possibly better approach The hams in my area are routinely involved with disasters big

I think shortwave (and a strong group of local hams ahead of time) is a possibly better approach The hams in my area are routinely involved with disasters big and small. They've responded quickly in disasters with volunteer patrols and stations. They routinely help out at events like marathons, fairs, and more. When a fire took down a place's cell towers, they were there to facilitate communication. When the 911 call system went offline, they were around the city to help out (i.e., could place direct emergency calls for folks)

ethanbond 10y ago
That'd be great for a subset of the reasons you might need actual data connectivity. Not sure you can download maps and whatnot over ham...
Steltek 10y ago
Ehhh, I'm gonna have to disagree on the HF bit. Ham modes haven't kept up with the times: there needs to be a good and flexible HF packet system in place to enable scale. PACTORIII is proprietary garbage and Winlink seems to be just for email? And neither is very widespread anyway. Short range, "walkie-talkie" stuff is fine but when you move up to the regional level, it's going to be a super bottleneck. Unfortunately, the majority of hams seem to be content to just do contesting using SSB or CW. There needs to be a huge, directed push to innovate here.
- LeoPanthera 10y ago
  VHF or UHF to your local internet-connected repeater tower would work fine. It doesn't need to be HF. Towers can have battery backup, and even in a wide-scale disaster, chances are one of them would maintain an internet connection.
kalleboo 10y ago
HAMs are great but imagine if everyone had a shortwave transmitter after a disaster - if 4G networks can't handle the traffic, amateur radio would be pure noise. Getting wifi and mobile data working means everyone has a shot at communicating
- Steltek 10y ago
  If you could funnel local traffic into more sparsely distributed HF packet-based transceivers, it might not be too bad. You wouldn't be relaying general Internet traffic, just disaster related info. Think 1990's web form for family contacts and medical status.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
monkmartinez 10y ago
We haven't had the need to use local HAM's in our emergency response system. I wonder though, are they trained on the incident command system(ICS)?
- wiml 10y ago
  In the US at least there is ARES/RACES, and many cities/areas have some kind of liaison, periodic net checkins or drills, lightweight training, etc., so that hams can work effectively with the local incident response.

ethanbond 10y ago

That'd be great for a subset of the reasons you might need actual data connectivity. Not sure you can download maps and whatnot over ham...

Steltek 10y ago

Ehhh, I'm gonna have to disagree on the HF bit. Ham modes haven't kept up with the times: there needs to be a good and flexible HF packet system in place to enable scale. PACTORIII is proprietary garbage and Winlink seems to be just for email? And neither is very widespread anyway. Short range, "walkie-talkie" stuff is fine but when you move up to the regional level, it's going to be a super bottleneck. Unfortunately, the majority of hams seem to be content to just do contesting using SSB or CW. There needs to be a huge, directed push to innovate here.

LeoPanthera 10y ago
VHF or UHF to your local internet-connected repeater tower would work fine. It doesn't need to be HF. Towers can have battery backup, and even in a wide-scale disaster, chances are one of them would maintain an internet connection.

kalleboo 10y ago

HAMs are great but imagine if everyone had a shortwave transmitter after a disaster - if 4G networks can't handle the traffic, amateur radio would be pure noise. Getting wifi and mobile data working means everyone has a shot at communicating

Steltek 10y ago
If you could funnel local traffic into more sparsely distributed HF packet-based transceivers, it might not be too bad. You wouldn't be relaying general Internet traffic, just disaster related info. Think 1990's web form for family contacts and medical status.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

monkmartinez 10y ago

We haven't had the need to use local HAM's in our emergency response system. I wonder though, are they trained on the incident command system(ICS)?

wiml 10y ago
In the US at least there is ARES/RACES, and many cities/areas have some kind of liaison, periodic net checkins or drills, lightweight training, etc., so that hams can work effectively with the local incident response.