I've been texting friends and loved ones in Florida today. No issues.

Sat phones: The phone itself isn't too very costly (a nice ruggedized one will cost about a grand). The problem is the service. You can buy a pre-paid plan with limited minutes (like 60 or 120 minutes). But there's ALWAYS a time limit from the time you activate the plan in which you must use those minutes.

So, you buy the phone, you buy a pre-paid card for 60 minutes of talk time that's good for only 30 days. You have to call the company to activate the plan, or do it via the internet.

So, it's not really practical to toss a cell phone in your BOB "just in case" an event occurs (how would you activate it in the midst of a disaster)... unless you plan to activate your pre-paid plan in the run-up to the event.

Several different vendors sell phones and prepaid cards on Amazon. There are different phones for different satellite networks.

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
I've been threatening to take the technician license for a bit. I've got two ham books that I've been pursuing for a few months, and have looked up the test dates a few times, but...inertia...

At the technician level, if I wanted to communicate to Florida, say 500 miles, would I be limited to Morse code over HF unless I upgraded to General? Or do technicians have access to any voice transmissions that would reliably make that? Barring some miracle alignment of repeaters.

Somebody else already pointed out that a Technician licensee can operate SSB (voice) on part of the 10M band. 500 miles is well within the capability of that, even with the 200W power restriction. I do it with 100W regularly (or did until my antenna got torn down in a windstorm last year - been lazy about getting it repaired). Speaking of antennas, HF antennas are larger than VHF/UHF (2M/70CM bands) antennas and tend to be constructed of wire or metal elements that are, IMO, more susceptible to being torn down in a hurricane or even a tropical storm than a shorter 2M antenna.

While 2M is line-of-sight, a repeater can extend its range significantly. Also, in many areas they have repeaters linked together via IP so that if you can hit a local repeater you can work a contact several hundred miles away even though the local repeater can't reach that far. Of course, the IP connections are probably about as susceptible to damage as the cell towers are. The repeaters themselves can be knocked out due to power failure / generator fuel exhaustion, or physical damage from wind or flooding, landslide, etc. No communications link is completely immune to something like a hurricane.

Finally, although it's true that they don't require a code test any more (at least for Tech and General, not sure about Extra), it's still a supported and active mode, and will generally be more reliable at lower power levels than voice. But you're not restricted to code by regulation.

quote:

Originally posted by Expert308:
Speaking of antennas, HF antennas are larger than VHF/UHF (2M/70CM bands) antennas and tend to be constructed of wire or metal elements that are, IMO, more susceptible to being torn down in a hurricane or even a tropical storm than a shorter 2M antenna.

Already set up HF antennas would absolutely be more susceptible to damage, but the good news is that you can make a perfectly good new HF antenna from a spool of wire.

quote:

Originally posted by Expert308:
Finally, although it's true that they don't require a code test any more (at least for Tech and General, not sure about Extra), it's still a supported and active mode, and will generally be more reliable at lower power levels than voice. But you're not restricted to code by regulation.

There isn't a code test for any current license, including Amateur Extra.

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:

quote:

Originally posted by Expert308:
Speaking of antennas, HF antennas are larger than VHF/UHF (2M/70CM bands) antennas and tend to be constructed of wire or metal elements that are, IMO, more susceptible to being torn down in a hurricane or even a tropical storm than a shorter 2M antenna.

Already set up HF antennas would absolutely be more susceptible to damage, but the good news is that you can make a perfectly good new HF antenna from a spool of wire.

Very true! Quick recovery.

From the Miami Herald today:
No internet after Irma means no work and no fun. When will I be online again?
BY NANCY DAHLBERG
ndahlberg@miamiherald.com



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SEPTEMBER 18, 2017 1:37 PM

Internet outages are now rolling into Day 10 for hundreds of thousands of residents and businesses in South Florida. And for many, no internet means no business gets done.

Statewide, 893,409 people statewide were without Internet or cable services, down from 1.1 million on Sunday and 1.3 million on Saturday. The numbers are not broken down by county, according to data the carriers reported to the Federal Communications Commission. But judging by the frustration being vented on social media by AT&T, Comcast and Atlantic Broadband customers in South Florida, many of the outages are clearly in South Florida.

Since Hurricane Irma sideswiped our region with tropical-storm-force winds more than a week ago, the carriers have not released outage numbers by county. Nor have they released specific causes or estimated times of recovery to the media or to their customers in South Florida.

For many consumers who have taken their frustrations to social media, doing business without the internet has ranged from a challenge to the impossible. Restaurants and fast-food eateries such as some McDonald’s restaurants have become cash-only enterprises because they don’t have the internet access required for credit-card payments. Some car dealerships reportedly have been able to take customers on test drives but have been unable to execute sales without the internet access needed for processing.


SURVEY: Rate your cell, internet providers’ Irma performance

That was the case for Warren Henry’s South Dade dealership until Friday, when Comcast service was restored, said Samantha Jacobson, director of marketing. “Without the internet we were not able to do deals because our sales platforms are over the internet,” she said. The Key West location is still down.

Also suffering are the thousands who work at home, such as Michelle Bielecki, a freelance copywriter in Kendall. She also has a toddler under toe — who is demanding Netflix.

“I've tried being reasonable with AT&T, but they don't know anything, continually lie, and then recommended downloading their app or buying the new iPhone,” she said in a phone interview Monday.

LINK:http://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article173954151.html

Ahhh yes, the mantra of Amazon, Microsoft, et al: Put all your apps and data up in the cloud, where they're secure and easy to get at.

And just how, pray tell, did car dealerships ever manage to do business before Al Gore?

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
I've been threatening to take the technician license for a bit. I've got two ham books that I've been pursuing for a few months, and have looked up the test dates a few times, but...inertia...

At the technician level, if I wanted to communicate to Florida, say 500 miles, would I be limited to Morse code over HF unless I upgraded to General? Or do technicians have access to any voice transmissions that would reliably make that? Barring some miracle alignment of repeaters.

chongo, use hamstudy.org. Make a free account and use the 'Study Flash Cards' function. Their algorithms work, you'll be General exam-ready in very little time and then you can spend some time learning by doing. I swear by the place.

With Verizon, I never had any issues with phone calls or texts on my cell. However mobile internet was way slow for about 5 days.....