[Badeye]

Everything you stated in your post is true, RD. While I’ve never been a ‘ham operator’ I did grow up with a CB base station, and was a Radioman in the Navy for four years.

(And I’ve slept at a Holiday Inn Express)

The one part you fail to address is the simple fact that if everything goes down the tubes to the point only ham operators are ‘up and running’ nobody but other ham operators will hear them....(chuckle)

If Romney buys a ham radio, eats a ham sandwich, shows up wearing a nice set of headphones on Leno, installs large attena’s at every home he currently owns, every home he passes by over the next six months while campaigning (he could afford you know) falls to his knees and then taps out Morse Code for ‘please forgive me my hammy friends’ will you reconsider?

Just wondering.....

[Rick.Donaldson]

The one part you fail to address is the simple fact that if everything goes down the tubes to the point only ham operators are ‘up and running’ nobody but other ham operators will hear them....(chuckle)

It wasn't the point of the article nor of my comments to "address this issue", but you're incorrect. When emergency communication is required, it's not relevant who is hearing the hams, what IS relevant is that hams hear one another -- AND they get the messages through.

I've personally passed emergency traffic, health-and-welfare traffic and other forms of data to people looking for their loved ones after a disaster. I've passed simple "greetings" messages along (that during times of a non-emergency could easily have been passed on a telephone), but it certainly gives us practice to do so, and when a youngster gets a "telegram" from their granny through a Ham Radio Operator - their eyes light up.

It's about service to the community. I was a "Radioman" for 26 in the Air Force and not to denigrate CB, there simply is nothing for a CBer to do these days on their little 2 Mhz wide bandwidth, other than listen to cussing and screaming and noise. /shrug.

As for your remarks about Romney doing those things.. no, I'd certainly reconsider if he simply admitted that 1) He was ignorant at the time of INFRASTRUCTURE failures around the country where hams save the day and 2) simply apologized for his remarks to the Amateurs of his STATE (You know the place where he was GOVERNOR!?)

[JoeFromSidney]

if everything goes down the tubes to the point only ham operators are ‘up and running’ nobody but other ham operators will hear them

It doesn't work that way. Ham operators will be working with public officials, hospitals, etc., to link them together.

Just as an example, there's an annual half-marathon race run near here. Some years ago, one of the runners collapsed and there was no way to get word back to the race organizers. A Ham was asked to organize fellow hams to support the race. We now put operators at every water point, and communicate with race headquarters. The other people at the water points, the driver of the "sag wagon," and those at race headquarters, don't listen to the ham radios. Each is assisted by a ham operator who handles their message traffic.

The point is that ham operators handle message traffic for people who are not themselves hams, but who need to communicate. Supporting this race is simply practice for us hams, to be ready for a real emergency. We can provide communications even when everything else is down, because we have (and pay for) our own backup power, our own radios, etc.