Do you REALLY need that ham license?

[Jonas]

Do you REALLY need that ham license?

I've read numerous posts on numerous "prepper" forums with the theme "after the SHTF, a license won't mean diddly" and "I'll just get my equipment now and wait for things to fall apart before I use my transceiver". Unfortunately, that license will still be important, and familiarity with your transceiver (or, in "ham-speak", a "rig") will be vital.

Most hams that I know (including me) have a logging program with a database on a dedicated computer next to their rigs. If I punch in your call-sign, your name, address, and Maidenhead grid location immediately show on my monitor screen and in my station log. If you don't give me a call-sign, I won't respond to you unless you're calling "mayday", and then it better be a real emergency with an immediate threat to human life!. If you give me a bogus call-sign, you better have the name, address, grid, and location down pat. If I ask for your QTH, the correct answer is not "Huh? Wat?". In other words, the minute you make that first transmission, hams will know you aren't for real.

There's a learning curve here. Folks are telling me that they'll have the gear and when the SHTF they'll just power up, set the proper band, frequency, and mode, key the microphone, and transmit with no problem tuning their antenna, setting the filters, or adjusting the microphone gain and transmitting power. Great! Then following that logic, I can buy a shotgun and a few boxes of ammo and leave them all on a shelf until I need them, then somehow strip and clean the shotgun, load it, and hit the first five clay targets with my first five shots! You and I both know that ain't gonna happen...

So why add to the comms problems in a SHTF scenario when you can be part of the solution. Get your license and get on the air now. Get familiar with your rig and the procedures and the protocols in use. Join your local ham club. Check into a "traffic net" and get familiar with passing traffic. Hone your skills. When you really need them, the skills will be there!

[Highlander]

I am not sure I agree with you,.. for a start off, many people enjoy simply listening to amateur radio broadcasts, you dont need a license to do that.

If we are talking about after an event, then many people will simply switch on to find out whats going on, even if they are only covering the lower frequencies and listening to commercial radio stations, many will not want to broadcast at all, but still understand that a good radio is they best way to gather knowledge about what has happened/is happening

For those that want to broadcast after an event, then I doubt very much that radio protocol is going to mean much,.. you might not want to answer a none call-sign operator, but there are many more that would

Just to add, that I dont hold a license, but I am sitting next to a HF all mode Yaesu FT-902DM transceiver, that I listen to often,... and I also have another amateur radio in a Faraday cage

[Skean Dhude]

I understad what you are saying but I don't agree with your conclusions.

The way I see it;

1) After TSHTF I doubt any hams will be wanting to verify my license. They will know that i am new and that we are looking to communicate for both our benefits. To find out information and/or make arrangements.

2) There may be a learning curve. There is with most things but I'll pick it up. How difficult can it be? I just want to talk and there are manuals to learn from.

3) I just don't have the time to spend hours playing with something I may never need. I have several other things I can't squeeze time for, such as aquaponics, and they are more important than hams to me.

[Marcus]

Well folks i'm 50/50 on this I dont have a license but have 2m and 70cm kit plus other freq comms gear i'm ex forces and have training for Signals so understand how things work and how to get the best out of an antenna but that is with military kit not ham radio gear

Like other bits of kit I think training is important so that you can get the best out of your gear that you may have spent lots of £$ buying and hiding the real value from the other half (pssst dont tell my wife)

Everybody plans and trains for their own shtf I do feel that comms for security both for my group and village is important so this year i'm going to get a license so that I can set my gear up and test it fully testing range and repeaters in my area

On the otherside of the coin part of me would like to keep under the radar and not let HMG know that I have the kit yes some folk will listen only others will want to talk but this site worked out a comms plan freq ect how many joe public will be using Ham gear I feel very little may be the 446 type but real radio kit not alot

[Tartar Horde]

You guys obviously know what you are talking about here, and to be honest you have lost me
For people like me who have never used any radio equipment, how easy would one be to operate if I came across a set up SHTF. I'm getting the impression that it is far from a matter of switching the set on a keying the mike. How do I proceed if I find one please.

[Marcus]

TH you are 100% correct not every set or freq band are the same but having basic training on Ham gear would be a start HMG spent £ks training me how to use comms kit and how to make do and mend when on my own away from support but i'm lacking on the Ham side

Most CB or 446 little bubble pack family radios are the same and not hard to work out so you may be able to switch on and play

The RSGB site gives some great advice and all I would say is training always pays off in the long term but comms are not vital water, food and shelter are our main needs comms is a luxury

[Highlander]

@...TH,... lets say that you came across a set after an event.....

Many sets can look very complicated, I am sitting next to one like this



but the chances are the set would be set up before you came across it,...so all you would probably need to know would be ... find the power switch [ left side middle ] = set on,... and the frequency dial is easy to find the big knob with a window showing numbers in it

Then your best bet would be to turn up the RF gain [ bottom right = volume ] and roam the frequencies,.. you will see a knob with different `Bands` [lower right],...go through them all

I dont personally think that people would need training to listen in to radio traffic, training is good if you want to get distant transmissions, or to pick up foreign stations,... the average person after the shtf would only want to get information that was relative to him,.. i.e. what is going on within this country and probably only within a few hundred miles

... by spending some time just floating around, he is likely to pick up the traffic he is looking for by doing just what I have suggested above,.. there is nothing to say that if the person has time they couldn't experiment with the set

[Jonas]

   

(12 April 2013, 12:49)Tartar Horde Wrote: You guys obviously know what you are talking about here, and to be honest you have lost me
For people like me who have never used any radio equipment, how easy would one be to operate if I came across a set up SHTF. I'm getting the impression that it is far from a matter of switching the set on a keying the mike. How do I proceed if I find one please.

TH, you just nailed it! Even if you just want to listen, you need SSB capability, plus a good antenna and antenna tuner if you want to get the maximum out of your receiver. The good news is that anyone who really wants to should be able to get their amateur license in three to six months, and there's a bunch of used gear out there for sale so your bank account won't look like you banked in Cyprus. First step: find your local ham club. If you (or anyone on the board) have questions or need help, PM or email me. I'm glad to help!

Highlander, That's a nice rig - a whole lot fancier than mine! I have a Kenwood TS480SAT     and run "barefoot" at 100 watts into a Gap Titan DX Vertical antenna using commercial power from an Astron 33M power supply and a Tigertronics Signalink interface to my computer.. What kind of an antenna are you using? Vertical? Beam? How about an antenna tuner? What bands and frequencies are you listening on? Which bands are phone USB and which are phone LSB? How about reading data transmissions like PSK31? How about CW? Do you have (or can you cobble together) a radio-to-computer interface? If you've already got the gear, then contact your local ham club, learn the material, and get the license. If I can do it, anyone can.

Skean Dhude, I don't know the laws in the UK, but here it's against the law for me to communicate with an unlicensed person on the amateur frequencies except in case of emergency with immediate threat to human life. I can't speak for all hams, but I can speak for the vast majority of hams that I know. Especially in an emergency or SHTF situation (listen to 14.300.00 USB for examples), about 99% of us WILL NOT talk with an unlicensed station or a station using a bogus call sign, and we have the ability to identify such a station very quickly and with very little effort on our parts.

[Highlander]

I also have this set, but at the moment its in a Faraday cage and will hopefully never see the light of day for a while



Reference the Yaesu,.. I have a vertical antenna at the moment, but I do have plans to put up a center fed antenna soon,. the tuner is a MFJ Versa tuner, I listen to all sorts, whats going down at the time, except CW,... thats a bit beyond me, although if it is very, very slow I can understand a little of it,.. depends a lot on the user,... haven't bothered with radio to computer

[Skean Dhude]

(12 April 2013, 18:30)Jonas Wrote: Skean Dhude, I don't know the laws in the UK, but here it's against the law for me to communicate with an unlicensed person on the amateur frequencies except in case of emergency with immediate threat to human life. I can't speak for all hams, but I can speak for the vast majority of hams that I know. Especially in an emergency or SHTF situation (listen to 14.300.00 USB for examples), about 99% of us WILL NOT talk with an unlicensed station or a station using a bogus call sign, and we have the ability to identify such a station very quickly and with very little effort on our parts.

Jonas, You started this thread with after TSHTF and the law disappears somy comments still stand.

This is the UK. Almost everything we want to do is illegal here. So communicating with a ham is illegal too. I'll just have to stick with people that want to work with me.

As I said though. It's for after an event and I have no interest in a hobby just a tool.