Imagine, you’re in an earthquake zone and you just had an earthquake… the internet and cell phones are out, power is spotty… or… Imagine you live in an hurricane prone area you just had a hurricane roll through… 95% of the cell towers were destroyed, downed trees have knocked out power over a wide area and it’s going to be at least 2 weeks, likely longer, before the power is back… in either case you have no way of letting friends or family know you’re ok.
This problem could be overcome by amateur radio. Who would you talk to? If you have a specific person you want to talk to verbally, you’d both need to be on the same frequency, it would have to be at the same time with little or no coordination, and band conditions would have to cooperate. If any of these things don’t line up, you fail to get your message out. This is why ham radio operators train… to know when things are optimal. Having a schedule and a plan makes it easy but you have to have a license to play.
On the digital side, if you have a decent radio and a system that runs on batteries like a laptop or tablet, You could send out an email (or text message via email) to family/friends on the other side of the country via Winlink to let them know you’re ok. Or you could conduct a keyboard-to-keyboard chat on 5 watts JS8 anywhere on the planet highlighted in green or yellow (propagation) on the map below. Propagation changes as the day progresses and is dependent on solar conditions.
A feature in JS8Call is that one station to act as a bulletin board or message box on air 24×7. This would allow you to operate without having to have both people on the air at the same time.
Winlink is a network of radio message stations that allow you to connect and send email to anyone on the planet (as long as they have email) or even an email to text. Say your brother or sister lives 5 states away and you need to let them know you’re ok… send a text. It’s easy but you need to practice!
The point, in my mind anyway, is amateur radio isn’t just about firing up a radio and talking to random strangers, although it could just be that. My point is it can be a tool that can be used to keep in touch when there is no other way to communicate over a great distances, Easy to say, hard to do… THAT takes practice. I invite anyone interested to take the plunge. It’s fun unless you don’t see the challenge as fun… then it’s boring and that’s a different story.