No cellphone? No problem! The vintage radio enthusiasts prepping for disaster

[iMONITOR]

I ran across this on the internet this morning. I can't claim to be a "Prepper" by definition but I have been giving a lot of thought to preparing alternative methods of communication due to a cellular phone system outage. I'm sure most of us are concerned with all that is going on today that the need could present itself at any moment. We should all be prepared!

No cellphone? No problem! The vintage radio enthusiasts prepping for disaster

No cellphone? No problem! The vintage radio enthusiasts prepping for disaster

Ham radio users – from teenagers to eightysomethings – are ready to communicate in the next crisis

www.theguardian.com

 

[iMONITOR]

NOTE: Please ignore the plea for donations by The Guardian, I didn't notice it prior to posting this. But the story is a good read.

 

[popnokick]

... and an interesting read even if you're not into the "prepper" aspects of the Amateur Radio hobby. There are a couple of older ham radio B&W photos in the article and other interesting mentions. The writer (Amanda Ulrich) understood the ham radio subject very well.

 

[iMONITOR]

I liked seeing the DRAKE R7 receiver, always wanted one in the worse way! I see them now and then on Ebay but I'd really be concerned with things like failing parts and solder joints.

 

[GlobalNorth]

Apologies to iMonitor...

If the cell phone system stops operating, I'll be pleased for a time. Nothing annoys me more than getting spam calls about vehicle warranties, windshield repairs, cold calls for investing, etc.

It would also be nice to drive through a parking lot without some mentally detached pedestrian walking towards their vehicle with zero situational awareness.

Do 2m/70cm repeaters even have auto-patch capabilities any more?

 

[AK9R]

Do 2m/70cm repeaters even have auto-patch capabilities any more?

I'm treasurer of a club that owns and maintains 4 repeaters. We maintained an autopatch on one of our repeaters until just a few years ago. Our thinking was that in a disaster, the cell phone systems will likely be overloaded, but the POTS phone system might still work. A phone patch would give users access to the phone system. But, AT&T kept treating it as a business phone line and ran the price up to the point where we dropped it.

 

[mrweather]

Same. My club maintained an autopatch until about a decade ago after we'd had enough of the local phone company jacking up landline rates on an annual basis.

 

[mmckenna]

A well written article. Nice to see someone do their research and get it right.

 

[nd5y]

AT&T kept treating it as a business phone line and ran the price up to the point where we dropped it.

There was a club in Texas that had a phone patch at a tower, which was not a residence, so AT&T said it was a business line. I forgot if they sued or just had a lawyer write them a letter. It was explained to them that ham radio can't be used for commercial purposes. AT&T had to give them the residential rate and partial refund for all the years they were charged the business rate.

 

[VA3WEX]

Youtuber OH8STN has been experimenting and proving the usefulness of NVIS antennas and Winlink to keep in contact with your friends and family via email over radio in case of power failure or cell service failure. Not exactly telephone, but still a "grid down" way of contacting people.