I saw an article online recently saying the state of California has declared HAM radio is no longer a benefit, and they want to dismantle he HAM radio repeater infrastructure. This seems a bit strange, and I'm wondering why? HAM
radio is still useful, isn't it?

http://offgridsurvival.com/california-officials-declare-ham-radio-no-longer-a-b
enefit

Nightfox
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Re: California: HAM no longer a benefit, dismantling repeaters??
By: Nightfox to All on Fri Oct 11 2019 10:10:59

I saw an article online recently saying the state of California has

declared

HAM radio is no longer a benefit, and they want to dismantle he HAM radio repeater infrastructure. This seems a bit strange, and I'm wondering why?

HAM

radio is still useful, isn't it?

It *can* be useful but often isn't. It's not as though emergency responders don't already have their own radio systems that work in basically the same way.
At best, hams can offer communications support to nonprofit groups who don't already have a comms infrastructure.

My understanding is that California wants to remove the amateur radio components of its emergency plans/procedures, and the want hams to remove any repeater equipment from public spaces (mountaintops, etc.) The former seems reasonable enough, not so much the latter.

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Re: California: HAM no longer a benefit, dismantling repeaters??
By: echicken to Nightfox on Fri Oct 11 2019 02:12 pm

It *can* be useful but often isn't. It's not as though emergency responders don't already have their own radio systems that work in basically the same way.
At best, hams can offer communications support to nonprofit groups who don't already have a comms infrastructure.

My understanding is that California wants to remove the amateur radio components of its emergency plans/procedures, and the want hams to remove any repeater equipment from public spaces (mountaintops, etc.) The former seems reasonable enough, not so much the latter.

Aside from emergency situations, I've always thought HAM was also a hobbyist thing, and enabling such a thing always seemed pretty cool to me. HAM radio operators can also participate in events like jogging/bicycling marathons and other sporting events to provide emergency communications services in case something goes wrong, or at least to monitor the event.

HAM radio has been around for a long time and still exists despite newer advances in communications. Since it's still around, I always thought there's still a use for it and interest in it, so I thought it was odd to hear of a place wanting to dismantle the HAM repeater system.

Nightfox
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Re: California: HAM no longer a benefit, dismantling repeaters??
By: Nightfox to echicken on Fri Oct 11 2019 12:41:02

still a use for it and interest in it, so I thought it was odd to hear of

a

place wanting to dismantle the HAM repeater system.

Unless the state is funding it in some way, or providing space / electricity / etc. for the repeaters to operate, I don't think it's really theirs to dismantle. If they are paying for it or have some official relationship with some ham groups, they should be free to sever those ties if they want.

advances in communications. Since it's still around, I always thought

there's

still a use for it and interest in it, so I thought it was odd to hear of

a

I think the point is that it isn't doing anything useful for the state. If it's not costing them anything or causing them any trouble, they should leave it be. Perhaps they've had some trouble with the equipment or the emergency communications groups (these people *are* amateurs, sometimes overzealous, sometimes inept, sometimes both - although they can also be skilled and helpful).

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Re: California: HAM no longer a benefit, dismantling repeaters??
By: echicken to Nightfox on Fri Oct 11 2019 04:01 pm

I think the point is that it isn't doing anything useful for the state. If it's not costing them anything or causing them any trouble, they should leave it be. Perhaps they've had some trouble with the equipment or the emergency communications groups (these people *are* amateurs, sometimes overzealous, sometimes inept, sometimes both - although they can also be skilled and helpful).

True.. It might not be useful for the state, but I figured a lot of the HAM infrastructure out there was privately owned & funded (though I'm not sure).

Nightfox
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When I was in the Army, stationed overseas, making phone calls was not really practical... or cheap.

But on every base, there was a MARS station where you could call via the
Radio and talk with people at home... and it was free (You could donate). I used the hell out of MARS.

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On 11 Oct 2019, garycrunk said the following...

When I was in the Army, stationed overseas, making phone calls was not really practical... or cheap.

But on every base, there was a MARS station where you could call via the Radio and talk with people at home... and it was free (You could
donate). I used the hell out of MARS.

When I was with the DoD, I used to call my friends who were deployed to the
far flung reaches of the globe that were stationed on Navy ships via the Autovon.

It was really kinda kewl, coz when a telephone call came in on a warship it
had a certain priority, and there really wasn't a problem with me making the call, but a couple of my friends were disciplined for abusing the system, as they weren't actually supposed to be entitled to use that network.

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Used that myself whilest in South Korea :)

Tim N
admin@f4fbbs.com

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