Kodiak at The Kodiak Files is a prepper. He's also a HAM operator, and so (as you'd expect) he has some interesting thoughts on emergency communications:
I have found that communication in emergencies is with out compare one of the MOST important tasks to cover. Cell phones will save your butt in a pinch, but what happens when the cell network goes down? When you need help bad and the little gadget that you take for granted every day doesn't work, well.... it sucks..I have to say that I hadn't thought about this before.
When my home town flooded a few years back there was zero cell service. There was also no Internet or land line phones. I luckily had the fortune of being a HAM operator and was able to call my parents and let them know what was going on.
Old NFO needs no introduction to many of you. You should check out his comment on his thoughts on the fairer sex. Heh.
Daddy Bear is another gun totin', libertarianish IT guy. I guess we run in packs or something. He brings validation to Old NFO's update on the fairer sex, and points out that our military takes a dim view of breakdowns in the chain of command. Especially that way. Boy, howdy.
Welcome to the blogroll! More coming tomorrow, and sorry for the delay. If anyone has be on their blogroll, I'm happy to add you here. If I haven't, it's either because I'm lazy (mea culpa) or I haven't noticed (sorry). Send me an email or leave a comment here and I'll get you into the blogroll.
I actually just added you Friday, after realizing I had never done it.
ReplyDeleteOops.
Thanks! I've actually noticed how many people in science and technology of one sort or another both lean libertarian and are interested in guns.
ReplyDeleteI learned the lesson about communications during the various hurrcanes we have had down here. When Hurrican Charley hit in 2005, we had problems with spotty or nonexistant cell service for several weeks afterwards.
ReplyDeleteI got my HAM ticket, and now we have 2 meter (146 mHz) handhelds and we also have dual band 2meter/440mHz radios in the home and vehicles.
Talking direct, the handhelds have about a 2 mile range, the vehicle/base radios reach about 11 miles. If you can reach a repeater (there are 30 of them within 50 miles of my house), especially one connected to the internet, range is effectively unlimited.
It was affordable. The 2m handhelds were about $100 each, and the vehicle/base radios were about $250 apiece.
Nudge nudge ;)
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