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How useful would amateur radio knowledge be in an extended power outage or natural disaster? (slrpnk.net)

submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/asklemmy

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I have recently become more aware of and generally interested in electronics and amateur radio, and it got me thinking. What advantage, if any, would there be to having amateur radio experience, over a simple disaster crank radio/flashlight, in the event of a major natural disaster or some other emergency that leads to a longer delay in power being restored? For the sake of argument, let’s assume you have a generator or battery bank to supply your own electricity.

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[–] RattlerSix 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

I didn't mean to imply one was better than the other, just that someone interested in getting into it should know it's not all the same.

I actually prefer VHF/UHF, there's just something about the mobility of it that I like so much more. But I live in an area where storms or tornadoes are the main threat, not hurricanes. If we have a disaster, we just need to coordinate, or maybe ask for help from the next town.

If something widespread hits us, I know guys who often get up at 3am because some HF band is supposed to be open. I'll let them handle that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I didn't take it as one better than the other. I have my general license but could never afford the equipment...I've only messed with them during field days on other people's equipment.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Are you able to go to a park outside the city and operate? With low noise, you'd be surprised how far you can go with QRP. There are plenty of inexpensive ($100-150) rigs that can do that. Paired with a bit of rope, wire, and coax, you can rig up a cheap antenna pretty easy 👍

Have you heard of the truSDX? It'll do 5 to 8 watts ish, depending on the band and how you power it.

I bought a big group buy kit and have some left over, if you want one for the cost of the parts plus shipping I can send you one, just DM me. It came to like $50 per unit. In fact if anyone reading this wants in on that just message me, I have a few that I really don't need to keep holding on to 👍

Edit: additionally, if you want more power, you can try buying something broken and learn to fix it. That's what I did for my first linear amplifier, an SB 200. Then later I bought a Kenwood TS-530, broken, no transmit. Paid $200 I think? Turns out the switches were just dirty 🤷‍♂️

The amplifier needed more work though. Probably came out a little behind on that, after upgrading some parts too. But now it's mine, and I'm never getting rid of it.