When there is an immediate threat to life or property, anyone can legally use
anything to summon help. I'm talking about things like a heart attack or fire
here. On the high seas, it would be a Mayday call.

I don't think it's practical, though, to carry an unauthorized ham rig or
police radio for an emergency that will probably not happen. But use of an
authorized person's radio, when that person is incapacitated, is okay.

By the way... Cingular service in the Galveston area is still overloaded. I
guess the Houston hub continues to be busy.

Bill, K5BY
T2GB040061

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 10:25:21 -0700, Trooperdude Trooperdude in rec.radio.scanner - :

There is also sutff like Vonage and the other voice over IP
"appliances" you attach to your broadband connection for phone
service, however VONAGE over something like DirecWay satellite would
be a good emergency backup, as long as you could provide your own
power.



I hope this was suppose to be a joke, cause it is funny as hell trying to
imagine VOIP going on through a DirecWay.

And in the end the governments of the world will sell off the bands.
Thanks to all the loosers!


Heck, It will give the cranky old farts more time to complain about their
hemorrhoids on the internet.

Offbreed ...

^ Frank wrote:
^ Markeau ...
^ ^ Would the FCC prosecute someone for using a ham rig
^ ^ without a license if there were no other way to
^ ^ communicate that ... "emergency" help was needed?
^ A radio tuned to your local police department would get
^ quicker help.

^ Come up on a cop freq?
^
^ That's not *all* you'll get.

You'll get the same if you came up on any frequency you aren't licensed to
transmit on. Cop frequencies are no different, except that you'll get help
faster.

Frank

In rec.radio.scanner mad amoeba wrote:
(all of it snipped)

Sorry, if this has been mentioned (I can't read all 60 replies) but ..

While the radio in question can recieve shortwave, it can't transmit
there (and even if you could modify it to .. it would still only be FM and
low powered)

Without "repeaters" a hand held ham radio is very, very limited in range.

There are other possibilites .. such as the Yaesu 817, but you'd need a
higher class of ham licence and (realistically) a bigger, better antenna
(and a lot of luck) for HF (High Frequency .. aka 'shortwave')
communications.

Richard in Boston, MA, USA

On Mon, 18 Aug 2003 02:57:20 GMT, KB9WFK wrote:

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 12:21:51 -0500, "Markeau"
wrote:

"Frank Dresser" wrote in message

You need a license if you want to transmit legally.

Would the FCC prosecute someone for using a ham rig without a license
if there were no other way to communicate that someone was injured or
other "emergency" help was needed? Seems like a mobile ham rig would
be a nice backup in such cases.

As long as it is a true emergency then anyone can use any frequency
available to them. Just 'injured' may not be enough, but any life
threatening situation will justify it. That includes police freqs.

AFIK, that is correct.

However, as has been pointed out before, "the devil is in the
details".

Can you "prove" that you needed to use these frequencies? If you
stop to help a victim of a road accident, can you "prove" that it was
necessary to move him? [Yeah, he may have run into a tree, his car
is on fire, but can you safely drag him out? Depends on whether your
state has a "Good Samaritan Law" perhaps?]

Can person "A" legally kill person "B"? Depends on the
circumstances, actually.

"You are behaving like a troll, disguising your attacks as reasonable
discussion."
'Alan Connor'

Ah well, whatever you think I suppose. How long have you posted on
misc.survivalism?

erniegalts

On Mon, 18 Aug 2003 03:01:27 GMT, erniegalts
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 20:30:33 -0400, Bob Brock
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 22:13:23 GMT, erniegalts
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 04:07:28 -0400, Bob Brock
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 07:51:40 GMT, erniegalts
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 06:54:36 GMT, Hagbard Celine
wrote:

Bob Brock wrote:

General Class license still requires a Morse Code test. Morse has not
been "wiped." It has however, been lowered for the two higher class
licenses from 13 and 20 wpm to 5 wpm for both licenses. Morse is not
required for the Technician license which give full priviliges on
VHF/UHF.

So, once again ernie, you are wrong.

Not required here for some years now, at least for what you are
calling a "Technician license" which covers 2 metres and is useful for
communication in that band.

Are you going to call me wrong on this issue???

Please advise.

Which issue do you want me to call you wrong on ernie? The first
piece of inaccurate information that you posted of this metamorphisis
of it?

On your initial statement, yes you were wrong. In case you forgot
this was your initial statement...

"Not difficult to get an amateur license these days now that the code
requirement has been wiped. Anyone who knows a bit about radio should
be able to study the regs and pass an exam allowing VHF operation on 2
metres, and the "general class" [ or "full call" ] exam is not that
much harder."


Don't know the siatuation there, Brock, but the requirement has been
wiped here

So, you are telling the guy in the NE US to move to Oz to get his
license? BTW, that news article was only a month ago. Does the
government in Oz move that fast? I don't think so....

Dunno if they have or not, haven't bothered to check. The issue is
that you have accused me of being in error, and I have proved you
wrong.

No you haven't ernie. Morse Code is still required for amatuer HF in
the US where he lived.

You cannot logically blame me if you refuse to keep up with current
news on such issues, and this was more than a month ago.

Perhaps you don't belong to the ARRL, or perhaps they haven't
mentioned this issue?

Or perhaps since neither he nor I live in Oz, I simply don't care
ernie. You are so binary in your thinking.

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 17:47:57 -0400, "Bill Crocker"
wrote:

Most all the hand-held amateur radio equipment, is almost useless without
the aid of a repeater station.

That is a rather broad statement. It depends greatly on where you
live (or are) in relation to where you want to talk to. I live in a
very ham dense area and can make dozens of contacts on simplex.

I don't know how many repeaters are backed
up by emergency power supplies. I would hope most of them, but if they're
not, don't plan on reaching anyone more than a couple miles away.

Glancing through the repeater directory, I'd guess about a third of
them.
How do you define, "a couple of miles"? My Icom T2H (a 7 Watt hand
held) can make it from my house to the repeater 18 miles away. If I
can hit that repeater then I can talk to anyone between it and me on
simplex, and that is with the rubber duck antenna. Using a home made
twin-lead J-Pole antenna I talked on the repeater from downtown
Chicago which is a 36 miles trip.
On 2 Meters, get your antenna high and you can really reach out.
Height is Might.


H.F. equipment, on the other hand, is usually at least 50~100 watts, and has
the ability to reach extremely long distances, without the need of a
repeater.

Wattage doesn't mean a whole lot with HF because it isn't the power
that enables the longer distances. My 2 Meter rigs at home are 50
Watts. Actually, most HF rigs are 5 to 10 Watts and an external amp
will be used to increase power. Depending on conditions, you can talk
all 50 states with 10 Watts on HF.


When you think about it, standard C.B. radio equipment should do well,
providing there is someone available on the other end.

IF you are in an area with CB users and IF they are helpful and not
just kids wanting to screw around. Also, CB, being limited to 4 Watts
is typicallty very short range. If you are in an area with a lot of
CB users that are 'adult' and use it as a tool then it may be the
proper answer. Same for FRS and GMRS. Where I am, CB is worthless
due to the people that use it. If you can't top someone elses signal
then you aren't going to talk.


Bill Crocker

KB9WFK



"You are behaving like a troll, disguising your attacks as reasonable
discussion."
'Alan Connor'

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 18:08:19 -0400, Rex Tincher
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 00:12:21 GMT, "mad amoeba" wrote:

snip
As far as I understand this is an handheld ham radio

So it requires a ham radio license. Scroll down the page at
http://www.arrl.org/hamradio.html
for info on getting a ham license.

which also functions as
a scanner and
can also receive on a shortwave band. So it will allow me to communicate
with people
far away even in urban setting, it is portable and it will also allow me to
monitor news as
well as police/firefighters etc. Am I right?

Yes. Except that 2 meter and 440 MHz radios, especially small ones,
have limited range of only a few miles. They depend on repeaters to
relay their messages long distances, and the repeaters run on electric
power.

How do you define "a few miles"? Like I said in another post, I can
go 18 miles on my 7 Watt 2 Meter HT. Put a decent antenna on it and I
can talk a lot further. Our club repeater has over a 50 mile range
and only puts out 25 Watts.
Depending on usage, our repeater can go 4 or 5 days with no outside
power.

KB9WFK


Yaesu VX-2R
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/ht/0176.html
snip

"You are behaving like a troll, disguising your attacks as reasonable
discussion."
'Alan Connor'

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 20:30:33 -0400, Bob Brock
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 22:13:23 GMT, erniegalts
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 04:07:28 -0400, Bob Brock
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 07:51:40 GMT, erniegalts
wrote:

On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 06:54:36 GMT, Hagbard Celine
wrote:

Bob Brock wrote:

General Class license still requires a Morse Code test. Morse has not
been "wiped." It has however, been lowered for the two higher class
licenses from 13 and 20 wpm to 5 wpm for both licenses. Morse is not
required for the Technician license which give full priviliges on
VHF/UHF.

So, once again ernie, you are wrong.

Not required here for some years now, at least for what you are
calling a "Technician license" which covers 2 metres and is useful for
communication in that band.

Are you going to call me wrong on this issue???

Please advise.

Which issue do you want me to call you wrong on ernie? The first
piece of inaccurate information that you posted of this metamorphisis
of it?

On your initial statement, yes you were wrong. In case you forgot
this was your initial statement...

"Not difficult to get an amateur license these days now that the code
requirement has been wiped. Anyone who knows a bit about radio should
be able to study the regs and pass an exam allowing VHF operation on 2
metres, and the "general class" [ or "full call" ] exam is not that
much harder."


Don't know the siatuation there, Brock, but the requirement has been
wiped here

So, you are telling the guy in the NE US to move to Oz to get his
license? BTW, that news article was only a month ago. Does the
government in Oz move that fast? I don't think so....


Me either, and I doubt they would take it upon themselves to go
against international treaty to do so.


"You are behaving like a troll, disguising your attacks as reasonable
discussion."
'Alan Connor'