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.
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.
What are you talking about?
HAM radio operators can talk between continents.
CB has nowhere near enough power to do that.
They also have two vastly different usecases.
CB can be used as a dispatch system for cars and trucks, great for coordination of local vehicles.
HAM would be used for relaying data between physical sites, data about status of people, food, housing, water, power.
Both are important, but HAM is more important.
See my other comment, if the stated purpose is to help your community during a power outage or natural disaster, and you’re the only one in your community with power, it doesn’t do much good.
Calling Texas over HAM doesn’t help communicate and coordinate local efforts.
You can only communicate, locally, to other people who have power.
A CB radio lets you talk to anyone with a CB in their vehicle.
Umm… Where are you getting the idea that a CB can be powered by a vehicle, but a ham radio can’t?
You realize that if you call Texas you can also reach someone locally.
A lot of ham equipment can be run off of batteries, generators, solar power, vehicles, etc. for some hams, that’s even a big part of what interests them- going out into the woods or other remote areas to see who they can make contact with from there.
There are official policies in place for ham radio operators to work with local emergency services. ARES & RACES, for example. I know that my $20 baofeng can even be used directly on some emergency frequencies (depending on what sort of radio system they’re using)
As an example of how it might work
If cell and landline phones are inoperable, you might instead have volunteer ham operators posted at various places around the community- probably schools, government buildings, hospitals, recreation centers, etc. places where people might gather, where aide is being distributed, that might have backup generators, etc.
And you also have them or professional radio operators at police/fire/ambulance stations, 911 dispatch centers.
Someone having an emergency would let the local ham operator know and have them relay the info to the station or dispatch center so they could send help
Less efficient than just calling 911 of course, but better than nothing.
I work in a 911 dispatch center, we have a small room full of ham equipment that we can send out or use for these sorts of situations (luckily we’re not in an area prone to major natural disasters, so it’s rare that we ever have to use it if ever, but we’re prepared if it ever happens)
CB radio is very low power and limited range. I had a CB in my Jeep for offroading. It wasn’t an ideal installation or an ideal antenna, but it was basically what most people driving a normal vehicle and not really serious about CB-ing would install.
It was good enough for the trail where I was 100 yards from friends but going down the interstate listening to trucks, I was basically limited to trucks I could see within a half mile or so.
With a 2 meter ham radio, the most common band that even beginners can use, and a lot simpler to install than CB, I can talk 20 miles fairly easily, twice that to reach some repeaters in the mountains.
If you are the one with power in your local community with power, then HAM is far, far, far more important than CB.
If your local community is out of power then you won’t really have many more people in the local area to communicate with, but with HAM you can reach across vast distances and manage way more resources between different local communities to deal with the crisis.
In a local community, radio comms is a nice to have, over vast distances it is critical.
?
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?
Are you under the impression that ham radio is not capable of being powered by a car?
Are you aware that virtually all ham radio equipment is portable, and designed to operate on 12v power sources?
It CAN be, but OP is talking about batteries and generators, meaning a fixed installation and not a mobile one.
I don’t think you actually understand what a ham radio is. Here’s a typical one:
A (legal) CB radio puts out 4 watts of RF energy in the 11-meter (26-27MHz) band. The legal limits on ham radio are 200 watts for HF, and 1500 watts for VHF/UHF.
That particular radio I linked puts out 50 watts in the 2M and 70CM (144MHz and 440MHz) bands, which are the most popular VHF and UHF bands in the US. It is designed to be installed in a vehicle, just like a CB. It has a detachable faceplate, allowing the main body to be located under a seat, or in the trunk, while the control panel can be placed near the driver’s seat. It’s also capable of being “installed” in a backpack, or an ammo can. It can be powered from a car battery, a cigarette lighter, a “jump pack”, a cordless drill battery, etc. Radios like that are commonly used for fixed or mobile stations, and is often used in “go” kits for setting up temporary fixed stations.
“HTs” are walkie-talkie sized radios, putting out 5 to 8 watts in the same bands. Baofeng UV5 and UV82 are some of the most popular models.
In addition, Hams can use the 6-Meter (54MHz), 10-Meter (29MHz), 20-Meter (14MHz), 40-Meter (7MHz), and 80-Meter (3.5Mhz) bands, with similar transceivers.
OP is talking about batteries and generators, meaning a fixed installation and not a mobile one.
Batteries are portable. That rig I mentioned above? I can run that all day on a couple drill batteries.
Generators are portable. That’s kinda their shtick: you can load them up and take power wherever you need it to be.
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!).
