During emergencies, those amateur radio operators provide serious public service communications. When the cellphones go down - or are overloaded - ham radio comes to the fore. There's a surprising number of hams who organize local and regional communications networks.
Tiny community? 630,000 licensed hams in the USA ... about 2.5 hams for every thousand adults. Very roughly, about the same number of hams as there are police officers in America.
These hams often provide communications to such events as marathons (where people are spread out across a city), regional bike races (which sometimes happen where there's no cell phone service), as well as back-up communications during such troubles as forest fires.
Those hams who check into 2-meter emergency response networks are the people who your community will depend when the phone system croaks.
Tiny community? 630,000 licensed hams in the USA ... about 2.5 hams for every thousand adults. Very roughly, about the same number of hams as there are police officers in America.
These hams often provide communications to such events as marathons (where people are spread out across a city), regional bike races (which sometimes happen where there's no cell phone service), as well as back-up communications during such troubles as forest fires.
Those hams who check into 2-meter emergency response networks are the people who your community will depend when the phone system croaks.