Sure, you can pick up a telephone and use it under normal conditions. But what happens if everyone wants to use the phone at the same time? What happens if the phone company’s local office is destroyed or loses power? What happens if the streets are blocked off and you can’t drive and tell someone? Local infrastructure can be destroyed or disrupted, but there’s no way to destroy the radio spectrum from DC to daylight. That’s where amateur radio operators come through.
I can destroy the radio spectrum very easily, especially HF. Just transmit at a higher amplitude. Or better spoof the communicators and transmit false information. You will need code books, etc. That all takes time.
But my point is not to disparage HF operation, it certainly has its place. My point is that HF is not handy for mass communicating in the modern world, because so few people would be taking part.
CB radios would be handy, but few still have them, and of course, they are very limited in range.
The internet and cell phones allow people to communicate information to directly to hundreds/thousands/millions of individual people regardless of distance. That is very powerful to instantly organize. HF doesn’t do that.
For the purposes of
Yes, this is exactly where everyone will scramble to find information in a crisis. When the Deep Water Horizon disaster happened, in the early days of trying to sort out the explosion, the failed BOP, the bad cement pour, the status of the leak and the plight of the victims, we went to ship-to-shore radio transmissions to listen to reports from fishing and pleasure boats in the area. It was slow going at times but thrilling. Some captains were able to monitor some Coast Guard channels and relay that information as well. I'd say to count on this method to be the best, and perhaps only, way to get up-to-date info when all other communication has failed.
On another related topic, I hope if someone reads this far they might think about this notion I had last night: I've been hearing about an "October surprise" and various investigative reports have posited that "something" is going to happen in America just before the election that will change things. Some are pointing to the increase sightings of tanks rolling down city streets, stockpiles of ammunition and so forth. What could be coming that HS would know about in advance?
It occurred to me a good possibility is massive union strikes. A very cursory search for "union contract expires" gave results that were rather alarming. A score of unions, including postal workers, communication workers, SEIU, nurses, teacher and other worker contracts seem to have upcoming contract expiration dates. (Now, I realize this is probably true at any given time one goes to search for same.)
Here is another angle in the article titled,
Is Union Busting to Blame for Power Outages in D.C.?
Maybe we will see a series of strikes popping up across the country, starting in September after "labor" day and escalating as we head into October. I am not familiar with Unions, but I hope someone who is might do more specific research. It would make for an interesting story. Because if contracts and extensions are expiring, and we see a trend that negotiations are stalling or grievances are taken to the streets, we might start to take this October surprise more seriously. I can envision the current admin swooping in to be seen as the Great Negotiator.
After all, isn't the goal of the proletariat to displace the capitalist system with the dictatorship of the proletariat? You know, Workers of the World... I'm just sayin'...