mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
There is no type acceptance required for amateur transmitters. What the type acceptance is for is the receiver, under Part 15, as an "unintentional radiator".
It ain't working.
How to chose emergency radio
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There is no type acceptance required for amateur transmitters. What the type acceptance is for is the receiver, under Part 15, as an "unintentional radiator".
It ain't working.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
In an emergency I'd recommend doing whatever it takes to save a life.
Don't look for rules saying it's legal, you won't find them, at least not for amateur radio. If you look at the rules, it says you must be licensed or have a licensed control operator there with you.
Rred
Member
When did the FCC drop type acceptance (or certification, whatever the buzzword last was) for ham radios? I missed the memo, apparently.
Anyone can use a ham radio in a "genuine emergency", assuming they have opposable thumbs and can read Arabic numbers, which lets out a lot of people. BUT. Under the letter of the law they will still be liable for unlicensed operation and use. In the US we are actually quite fortunate in that the FCC have a very reasonable and totally unwritten policy of "no harm no foul" when the safety of life and property is at stake. You'd just better be sure you're not calling because there was no cheese on the cheeseburger you just bought. (Honest, women called 911 about that in Florida, maybe 2 years ago, and after several dozen repeat calls, dispatch sent someone out to arrest her.)
OTOH, the NYPD have made it clear that even if you come across an abandoned cop car and see uniformed bodies down the alley, you may NOT touch the police radio under any circumstances. They're not as generous as the FCC.
Anyone can use a ham radio in a "genuine emergency", assuming they have opposable thumbs and can read Arabic numbers, which lets out a lot of people. BUT. Under the letter of the law they will still be liable for unlicensed operation and use. In the US we are actually quite fortunate in that the FCC have a very reasonable and totally unwritten policy of "no harm no foul" when the safety of life and property is at stake. You'd just better be sure you're not calling because there was no cheese on the cheeseburger you just bought. (Honest, women called 911 about that in Florida, maybe 2 years ago, and after several dozen repeat calls, dispatch sent someone out to arrest her.)
OTOH, the NYPD have made it clear that even if you come across an abandoned cop car and see uniformed bodies down the alley, you may NOT touch the police radio under any circumstances. They're not as generous as the FCC.
mmckenna
I ♥ Ø
As far as I know, it's always been that way. I've been an amateur since the late 1980's, so maybe something I'm missing from before then. Amateurs have always been allowed to build their own gear, and that didn't require certification from the FCC. There used to be some rule about the number of kits or something you could build/sell before you needed to chase down the Part 15 certification, I'd have to dig around in Part 15 to find that.
FCC does have some rules regarding certification of amplifiers. It's in the Part 97 rules if you want more details.
Ha! good one, I like that....
rfradioconsult
Member
If I was going to go where I felt the need for a true "emergency" radio it wouldn't be a modified ham transceiver. The best choice would be an aircraft band handheld with a dry battery pack with extra batteries. You would be able to call for help on the internationally recognized distress frequency of 121.5 MHz. You would stand a better chance of being heard by commercial airliners and others. Plus you could talk to rescuers when they come to your aid. A ham transceiver may be modified to transmit on 121.5 but it would be FM. Airband communications are AM, the performance would not be the same.
DPD1
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I remember during the Northridge quake... private landlines were instantly gone, but I found that a nearby public phone DID work. I had somebody tell me they deliberately did that, to keep them open for incident reporting? I have no idea if that's true, I'm not really a phone guy. However, it doesn't really matter now, because pay phones don't exist anymore. But I've always kind of chuckled when people recommend having a land line for emergencies... because at least as far as earthquakes, that's not true. Save yourself a bill.
I noticed something interesting near me, regarding phone systems and power out situations. Years ago they buried a giant vault for phone stuff on the block. I assumed it was part of the big move to fiber. A few years ago, they installed a new street box near me, which had some external power connections. I asked a guy about it, and he confirmed it was a fiber relay box, which then takes it the rest of the way to the B box, for distribution to residences on standard pairs. The interesting part... When power has gone out in the area, a phone company truck has pulled up to the fiber box, plugged in a gen from his truck to the box, and he just sits there... I assume providing power to the box. Of course, the fiber needs independent power to function. Obviously they wouldn't be able to do this in a massive power outage, but apparently they do it for local outages.
I noticed something interesting near me, regarding phone systems and power out situations. Years ago they buried a giant vault for phone stuff on the block. I assumed it was part of the big move to fiber. A few years ago, they installed a new street box near me, which had some external power connections. I asked a guy about it, and he confirmed it was a fiber relay box, which then takes it the rest of the way to the B box, for distribution to residences on standard pairs. The interesting part... When power has gone out in the area, a phone company truck has pulled up to the fiber box, plugged in a gen from his truck to the box, and he just sits there... I assume providing power to the box. Of course, the fiber needs independent power to function. Obviously they wouldn't be able to do this in a massive power outage, but apparently they do it for local outages.
Amazing info here, thanks to everyone posting on this. I've been doing a ton of research, reading books and watching videos and I plan on taking the exam to get us licensed. Some of it's still confusing but I look forward to learning more and being able to operate ham radio.
KC5AKB
Member
Lots of info on grms and ham radio In other areas .
Feel free to drop me a pm will be glad to talk with you. Note you may need a few more
posts before you can send a pm . MMckenna gives very good advice
There is a wealth of good info in the forms.
Later,
Ric kc5akb
Feel free to drop me a pm will be glad to talk with you. Note you may need a few more
posts before you can send a pm . MMckenna gives very good advice
There is a wealth of good info in the forms.
Later,
Ric kc5akb
jim202
Member
Those of us that have AT&T or have move away from AT&t can see their bill go down if they make the change. My home bill was like $75 a month with almost no support. I couldn't even get a simple DSL connection for my computer. AT&T forced me away from them by not even trying to provide the service me and many others have tried to obtain. Calls to their corporate office were met with comments like there are no ports available for a DSL connection and we will not add additional equipment to provide that service.
So the next question if your not going to provide a DSL connection, when will you have fiber to the house. The comment back was we are not planning fiber to your area.
So I went to the cable company and got a 60 MBPS connection for the Internet. Recently I also bundled my telephone to the cable connection. Now it's $59.99 for the Internet connection and $29.99 for the telephone connection with my same number I had with AT&T. So money wise I am ahead on both connections as long as the cable stay intact.
Does this supply me with emergency communication? Probably not, but I also have a large number of radios that can get on many ham frequency bands. So that will be my emergency communications when the cable company outside plant goes dead.
Plus being a member of the local fire department also give me that mode of communications to know what is going on in my local area. When high winds and heavy rain knock down trees all over the region, it really doesn't matter what you have for communications. You probably won't be able to go anyplace regardless what you have for radio communications.
About the best your going to be able to do is pitch in and help out clearing the roads. Then the power company can have access to the streets to put the power lines back into service. That gets your refrigerator back on line and maybe you can make a hot meal on the stove.
Radios are not the first choice for even the Red Cross these days. They rely on using cell phones for the most part as long as the cellular system is working. If not, then they may try looking for a local ham club to provide their communications link between shelters and their local operations center.
So what is the best answer for the original question? Not sure there is a good answer. The best answer may be determined on just where you live. Should you rely on a landline telephone? Again it might depend on who supplies you with your local connection and where you live. When Bell South sold out to AT&T, their telephone service went to crap.
So the next question if your not going to provide a DSL connection, when will you have fiber to the house. The comment back was we are not planning fiber to your area.
So I went to the cable company and got a 60 MBPS connection for the Internet. Recently I also bundled my telephone to the cable connection. Now it's $59.99 for the Internet connection and $29.99 for the telephone connection with my same number I had with AT&T. So money wise I am ahead on both connections as long as the cable stay intact.
Does this supply me with emergency communication? Probably not, but I also have a large number of radios that can get on many ham frequency bands. So that will be my emergency communications when the cable company outside plant goes dead.
Plus being a member of the local fire department also give me that mode of communications to know what is going on in my local area. When high winds and heavy rain knock down trees all over the region, it really doesn't matter what you have for communications. You probably won't be able to go anyplace regardless what you have for radio communications.
About the best your going to be able to do is pitch in and help out clearing the roads. Then the power company can have access to the streets to put the power lines back into service. That gets your refrigerator back on line and maybe you can make a hot meal on the stove.
Radios are not the first choice for even the Red Cross these days. They rely on using cell phones for the most part as long as the cellular system is working. If not, then they may try looking for a local ham club to provide their communications link between shelters and their local operations center.
So what is the best answer for the original question? Not sure there is a good answer. The best answer may be determined on just where you live. Should you rely on a landline telephone? Again it might depend on who supplies you with your local connection and where you live. When Bell South sold out to AT&T, their telephone service went to crap.
Rred
Member
I think the key difference between ham radio and cell phones is that in ham radio, you can always get an answer. (Or often, too many of them.) There's a lot of information and it can be overwhelming, like you have always been able to "bake" Pillsbury buns and now someone asks you to be a pastry chef.
So, you move at your own pace and pick what works for you.
As opposed to cell phones, where any time you have a technical question, the carrier will gladly answer with "We can give you a bargain on a new phone with a two year contract extension!" Ah, no, that's not very useful.
Some years ago I was deployed with a radio team to a shelter. Things were quiet all morning, and then we got a call over the radios "Please have all shelter managers try calling in to the EOC on their cell phones." A certain cell phone company had a sweetheart deal with the city, part of which was that they would sock every shelter kit with a couple of NTIA priority cell phones, charged, with spares, all set to go. And funny thing, when they tried to call in? They all got recordings that the number had been discontinued.
Once they got the carrier working on that, the EOC still sent out another round of orders by radio, to have every incoming shift place calls to make sure the cell phones were working, and to use the obsolete radio comms to report any that weren't.
In the years since then sure, cell phones have become way more robust. But they'll never be as FLEXIBLE as ham comms, and when any infrastructure collapses? Ham radio is like a mule, if you know how to work with one, it gets through. Sooner or later, faster or slower, but it doesn't really care about infrastructure problems.
A steno pad or notebook and some old fashioned NOTES can make it way easier, too.
So, you move at your own pace and pick what works for you.
As opposed to cell phones, where any time you have a technical question, the carrier will gladly answer with "We can give you a bargain on a new phone with a two year contract extension!" Ah, no, that's not very useful.
Some years ago I was deployed with a radio team to a shelter. Things were quiet all morning, and then we got a call over the radios "Please have all shelter managers try calling in to the EOC on their cell phones." A certain cell phone company had a sweetheart deal with the city, part of which was that they would sock every shelter kit with a couple of NTIA priority cell phones, charged, with spares, all set to go. And funny thing, when they tried to call in? They all got recordings that the number had been discontinued.
Once they got the carrier working on that, the EOC still sent out another round of orders by radio, to have every incoming shift place calls to make sure the cell phones were working, and to use the obsolete radio comms to report any that weren't.
In the years since then sure, cell phones have become way more robust. But they'll never be as FLEXIBLE as ham comms, and when any infrastructure collapses? Ham radio is like a mule, if you know how to work with one, it gets through. Sooner or later, faster or slower, but it doesn't really care about infrastructure problems.
A steno pad or notebook and some old fashioned NOTES can make it way easier, too.
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