Posted: 8/4/2007 10:43:47 PM EDT
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i've been reading about ham a little bit but i'm still kinda confused on with how a ham would be good if your in a sticky situation. i know that most hams talk to each other alot and thats not what i really want it for i want to know if your able to use it in situations were there is no cell phone coverage and be able to "call" for help. an example would be that if you had a hand held ham and were some how stuck in the woods stranded or something. is there park ranger freqs or search and rescue frequencies you could call on? now on that what about if your stuck in the middle of a snow storm and you needed a tow? can you call up a sherif on there freq's and ask for them to call a tow for you??? that would be the most if any reason i would probably transmitt on a freq cause i have a scanner for the weather and to get updated info on local emergencies. |
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I am a 9-1-1 dispatcher... Now that being said, I want you to think just about this... How do you call for help when a natural disaster takes out the Cell towers,phone lines,and knocks out the grid?... Do you know that most of the updated 800mhz stuff that the EMS/Police use work darn near the same way as the system that runs a cell phone, and our towers, and transmit sights are built damn near the same way, or even at the same locations?... There are a hell of a lot more Amature repeater sights than there are cell/Govt sights. Ham radio can be used as a phone with Autopatch running off of private repeaters also. You seem to be asking what is in it for you on a small scale...Well lots, but honestly to a guy like me, HAM is for something much bigger. Im not going to bullshit, I have to laugh at some of the RACES guys in our area, they could not find their way out of wet paper bags when it comes to passing a message, or "Communicating"...But I do it everyday for $$$$, and if the SHTF, and my phones and radio's go out....I cant pass anything bigger then a turd.  |
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any frequency and any mode may be used in an emergency. most amateur radios, out of the box, won't work on any LEO/EMS frequencies. however, you can 'open' some radios up to include such coverage. you could even purchase additional radios that are compatable with LEO/EMS. times are changing though, narrow band and P25 may cripple the hams ability to interop with LEO/EMS, something which, IMHO has been badly overlooked |
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In general, the utility of ham in the emergencies you mentioned is not related to transmitting on other services' frequencies. The simplest ham solution: usually with a little prior planning** you can employ ham repeaters to call for help. This may be by putting out a general call for help on the repeater itself. Other hams hear your call and relay your needs to the appropriate people. Repeaters can be operated by VHF/UHF mobile or handheld radios, the most common being the "2 meter" band. A little less common but more versatile would be repeaters with "Autopatch." Not every repeater has it, but there is usually at least one repeater with a 'patch in most areas. This means you can make a real telephone call with your handheld radio (most handhelds have a "DTMF" numeric keypad that use the same tones as telephones). I used to think "who do you talk to on ham radio?" before I got into it. The irony is that there are more people listening/talking on ham, a licensed service, than any of the unlicensed services combined (I'm thinking of CB, FRS, GMRS, MURS with this claim). **meaning researching the active repeaters in an area using either the printed repeater guide or looking them up ONLINE. I usually test repeaters as I enter a new area so I know what works if I need one. |
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huh i never though of ham like that. kinda like using a call for fire/ request medvac in army tearms for me... as helps not guareenteed but your more than likely to get it? does that aarl ham licensing guide book teach you on how to use use the repeaters to make calls? does it cost money? or do you usually have to be affiliated to a club to use their repeaters? |
A majority if the time the repeater is wide open for anyone to use. However, a lot of clubs require you to be a member to use the autopatch. |
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contact a Amateur Radio club in your area and join. (or check the home town forum in your area to see if you can get a local ARFCOM'er to help) They should take you under their wing and get you an Elmer (someone to show you the ropes) do as you're doing.. ask a lot of questions! eta: doh, didn't see you were over in the box... check with MARS if they have one near your location. |
| Building on what R-32 said, our city's comms are pretty slick. I don't know all the ins and outs but I know they can plug in radios from other entities (Feds, other area cops, etc) and everyone talks together using their own radios. Nothing changes for them. This means if the trunk goes down, they could (or so I'm told) plug in amateur radios and the cops would use their existing radios none the wiser how the comms were being handled on the backend. |
+1 My Grandpa was a Game Biologist for Oregon Fish and Wildlife for many years. One of his jobs was to keep track of animal populations in SE Oregon. To do this he would fly the Piper cub around (this was in the '50's). One time he iced up and crashed in the middle of nowhere. He had his HF rig with him and was able to bounce a signal into Kalifornia. The person in Kali called the correct people to come get him. Saved his bacon. I'm a beliver in HAM for sure. Mark. |
If I have your Freq, and it is loaded up on my Motorola dispatch radio, I can build a patch allowing my 800 mhz type radios to work with whoever I have the info avail for, and no one would be able to know the difference. Where I work, I have access to darn near every radio system talk group on the west coast. I have patches avail where I can talk to you on your Coastguard emergency ch. if I wanted to.....That also means that If I have your Freq avail, and I have the power to patch you into a talk group of mine, I also have the means to listen in on you.
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Centracom Gold Elite I assume? When properly configured that is a VERY powerfull gateway tool. <--911 comm specialest. Radio, phones, and every related toy in between. Nice to know there is at least one dispatcher here! -LTC- |
Yup., Even had the tech's hook me up so I could listen into the Blue Angels practice the last couple days for Seafair. 
 Fire/Med dispatch, I do EMS/LE Calltaking, and am also a Vol FF. and Water Rescue Tech. From the WA ARFcom crew, Myself, SCRIOS, and Shockaday are all 9-1-1 dispatchers |
Glad to hear from you guys! We run primarily on a Motorola SmartZone trunking system however. We have a rack full of conventional gear that we can configure any way we need. I keep the Centracom pre loaded with the neighboring counties comms for interop purposes but those could be reconfigured rapidly to cover every freq from 30MHz to 950MHz (minus the obvious stuff) with pretty much every type of trunking, signaling and digital format we may run into. I am building up a Centracom Gold Elite based ham shack with parts I am buying up off of e-bay right now......... its gonna be sweet! -LTC- |
Here is what I use it for: I was at work during the East coast black out a few years ago; I was working a 16 hr shift. One hour into the shift the black out hit. I had no Idea where my wife and sons where. My cell phone would not work, the place I work has 800Mhz trucking radios, they would not work. I was out in a car 20 miles from home and could not communicate with work or my. family I pulled my small mobile rig out of my bag, along with my Mag mount antenna. plugged it into the cigarette lighter. Called my wife on our simplex frequency, that we have set up. She answered almost at once. Told me she was Ok and was at home running on back up power. She also told me she had talked to my son who was 20 miles away in his car on our simplex frequency. on his way home from school, She also used a wired phone that was still working Checked in for me at work and got instructions to see if I was to continue with what I was doing or not. I continued and finished the night communicating with work through her Via Ham radio, knowing she was OK and when my son got home I know it as well. With out the rig I would have been in the dark and would have had to drive to all the locations. And with the traffic back ups we had that night it would have taken hours. Sm |
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That's probably the single, most unique, part of amateur radio.. It doesn't rely on some other infrastructure to function. It IS what YOU make it. Sure there may be some repeaters go down in an outage or storm but many have their own backup power provided by the person or club that set them up plus the owners will work their tails off to get them back online. ALL hams should know the basics of lashing up an emergency antenna from scratch and making it work. Most hams have some means of backup power in their shacks.. either generator, battery or solar to see them thru when Mr. Edison & Ma. Bell go tits up.. Scout's case is a fine example.. Here's mine.. In Feb 98 we got hit with a bad ice storm here in eastern Maine. The power companies main feed line to the county got hit hard. About 15 miles of hi voltage lines went down through some real remote and hard to access areas. We were without power for over 2 weeks and in some areas even longer. Cellular was just making a showing in the area but that went out as well as many wired lines from trees down to just the weight of the ice on the lines. Suffice it to say it made for a tough situation. There's 3 ham repeaters that serve the county.. of those only one was out for the duration, a second lost its antenna but was repaired in a couple days and the third held up through it all. Local simplex nets sprung up in every town and the needs of the folks were met. Most of the roads were opened within a day or so but until phones, cell, and public services got restored most communications was on the amateur bands. Now this is a geographically large county with a small population ~30K and most folks are somewhat prepared for short term outages etc but this was about the biggest I can recall. Spend a little time reading some of the ARRL archives on hams coming to the rescue. Stories such as this are more common than most folks realize.. Tornadoes, wild fires, hurricanes, blizzards, ice storms, earthquakes or some man made mess.. it doesn't matter.. it WON'T take the infrastructure out of ham radio because there isn't any to take.. and about 700,000 licensed hams here in the US alone will most likely agree. BTW theres ~3 million worldwide in case ya need someone to talk to!! I strongly encourage anyone and everyone to get involved in amateur radio. The tests are NOT that difficult, the gear is NOT that expensive but the knowledge and peace of mind that go with it are priceless. 73..FN |
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If you're never going to hit the PTT until an emergency happens, then I would recommend that you do not bother. It's not just about being able to transmit in an emergency. It is also being able to communicate effectively, being able to search for contacts across frequencies, and preparing ahead of time to be able to know how to get ahold of someone. If you prepare ahead of time, then you'll have the frequencies and locations of all of the reasonably close repeaters for whatever location you're going to. You'll be able to call up those repeaters, and with luck someone will be monitoring them and be able to respond. Typically it is other hams who would place a call for a tow truck or ambulance for you. You can't transmit on public service (sheriff, forest service, etc.) frequencies except in a real emergency. You stuck in a snowstorm probably isn't a "real emergency" unless you're genuinely approaching death, and even then you're going to have to answer for transmitting on a frequency outside of the amateur bands, probably lose your license, and pay a fine, if not face criminal charges for something like "interfering with police communications." |
We had a MacGyver drill for the training portion of one of our ARES meetings several months ago. The group was divided into two teams and each team got a box of stuff. There was a radio body (no battery pack), wire, yardstick, tape, loose AAs, etc. The challenge was to assemble a working radio from the misc parts provided and key the repeater. I had a guy tell me later that he and his wife were disappointed with the training we provide. He said he was at that meeting and didn't need to know useless stuff like that. Since we were on the phone he couldn't see my reaction. 
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| well i'm bitting the bait and am gona learn while i'm deployed to take the test when i get back to the states sometime. the only thing thats kinda confusing is the damn radios. with all the settings and what not. i'm gona have to pick up a couple when i get home to play around with the menus or see if theres a shop that sells em. i took a couple practice tests and did "pass" but barely. |
i'm deployed First let me say thanks for putting your life on the line. For the rest of us. Second I would say try to get your ticket now, and then (unless you have regs not letting you talk from there to the states. ) You could join in on rag chews with guys from home and maby even find a ham that can set up a phone contact with the familey, allthough I would guess if you have the internet you can allready do that .. Back before Al Gore invented the internet we use to hook up guys all the time with familey members via phone patch from our radios. it will be well worth it and you will find you use the stuff you learn in all kinds of non ham related stuff Good luck SM |
| i really can't get it here as i'm in the middle of no were on a combat out post. were theres no px/greenbean coffee or any nice stuff on a fob. that and theres no room for me to get a radio. i share a small room with 5 other people. but i do have time to learn when i get back at the end of the year. i've been looking at a couple different radios and cant decide i'm thinking of a mobile to move between the jeep and house till i can afford more than one radio. whats the difference between a vhf/uhf and getting a 2 meter radio don't the vhf/uhf do 2 meter also? |
the Icom V8000 is one of, if not *the*, best 2M-only radio out there. very much recommended. ar-jedi |
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It is really hard to pick a radio for some one else, if i could only have one rig, I think I would pick, A YAESU - FT-857D I have one in the car, I use it at the BOL and use almost any place I go and it has UHF,VHF,6M and all the HF bands. Kind of covers it all SM |