From: cornelius@eisner.decus.org
In article , cornelius@eisner.decus.org (George
Cornelius) writes:
> In article , No
writes:
>> Well now you're talking nonsense. You need an Amateur Radio License to
>> transmit, and you WILL spend thousands of dollars to get started.
[I know, bad form to follow up my own post. But I don't want to just
copy all the clutter and negative comments - and I do want to revise
mine.]
After rereading your initial post I have decided that in a number of
ways the other posters are correct.
You want to be what the people in amateur radio call an appliance
operator. You want minimal investment of time and energy and then
want a solution that just, out of the box, solves all of your
evergency connectivity problems. You ask for us to keep the price
low, but do not provide any particular target range, while there really
is a certain minimal investment that is going to be required.
So it's quite possible that amateur radio does not actually solve
your problem as originally posed.
You want to be able to talk around the world. Well, hams do it all
the time. But they don't just pick up a microphone and reach out
to any specific person or any specific location on the planet. That's
what cell phone service is about.
Amateur communications is significantly different. You cannot really
predict that conditions will be right at any specific time to reach
any specific location. You may be able to wait for conditions to be
right, but your remote contact may not be listening at that time.
There are a number of bands - frequency ranges - assigned to amateur
service. Depending on the time of day you may have a good chance of
reaching your friend on some band. Is that where he will be listening?
Do you know what bands are available, what kind of antenna is required
for each band and what kind of propagation is available for that time of
day and that time of year, while also taking into account the current
solar conditions?
Now you are starting to get an idea of what amateur radio is about.
It's not anything like, say, satellite cellular service, which I
know absolutely nothing about but may be a better way to work
around regional cellular bans. For a small country, that is. If
the U.S. were to block various kinds of communications it would find
a way to keep satellite carriers out as well. And, with some effort,
might find ways to seek out and confiscate amateur radio equipment
used to violated whatever new regulations were put into place.
So, please, don't expect to post to a 'prepper' forum some specific
set of amateur radio equipment they can store away for an emergency.
Much of your request may actually be possible. People do it all the
time - e.g., adventurers traveling to remote outposts or sailing around
the world in small craft. But, first, they invest in good equipment -
ordinary run of the mill just won't do. And then they spend many hours
learning to operate their equipment properly. Or they might recruit
someone who has the expertise to begin with.
> You can buy used amateur radio equipment.
I should have qualified this: it's OK if you want to learn the technical
skills to make an odd collection of acquired equipment all work together.
> You can use low power (QRP).
Mea culpa: not really for around the world use. But it is a way
to learn what you actually can achieve with minimal investment in
equipment - and, first and foremost, you are going to have to understand
what your tradeoffs are going to be.
> Either way, you will need a good antenna, and for frequencies that
> reach around the world it's tough to get it into a backpack. If, say,
> you focus on the 20 meter (14 Mhz) amateur radio band you might be
> able to come up with a vertical antenna that is 16' high (shorter
> if it has a loading coil, say something designed for a car bumper).
I am _not_ an active radio operator, although I have had a General
Class license for quite a few years. So I can't speak to any
particular use of the ham radio bands. But 14 Mhz (20 meters) has
a reputation for being very usable across a range of conditions
and might be the closest to a band that is predictably able to
reach large portions of the world's surface at reasonable times of
the day. And since it uses shorter antennas than tend to be needed
at the lower frequency bands you may actually be able to improve your
ability to communicate via lower powered equipment just by acquiring
a directional "beam" antenna and an antenna rotator.
But no, it won't all fit easily into your backpack, and if it does
fit, expect a certain amount of setup time once you get it out and
begin deploying it.
Also, the batteries you'll have to carry to support a 20 meter rig
that can communicate with stations around the world are going to be
on the heavier side: at a minimum, a motorcycle battery and a solar
panel to charge it.
A portable directional antenna is likely to be a wire antenna you
throw up into a tree and arrange so that it has maximum signal in the
direction you are interested in - not too much different from having
a traditional dipole, or vertical antenna, that you carry with you.
[...]
> I recommend the rec.radio.amateur.* newsgroups, various other
> amateur radio forums, or publications of the American Radio Relay
> League.
As you have found, this group is not really too receptive to those
who are interested in amateur radio. It's a shortwave _listeners'_
forum. If you want to invest some up front effort and visit the
appropriate forums, and if you are willing to invest a certain
minimal amount of money, you will find amateur radio will solve a
good portion of your emergency communications requirements, but if
you want everything handed to you on a platter, you may want to look
elsewhere.
George Cornelius
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
|
