Illegal use of HAM

[DerBiermeister]

May be a dumb question, but I have thought of it often.

Let's say the SHTF has really happened. The grid is down, the government is nowhere to be found. Even your local police and Fire and Rescue have long hit the trail.

You and yours are maybe running to someplace or escaping from someplace. Or maybe you are trying to ride it out at your home. There has been no cellphone or any form of electronic communications for quite some time.

But -- you DO have stuck away, a handheld HAM radio. At this point in time, with anarchy reigning all around you and the country, would you worry about transmitting on the HAM radio without having a HAM license? Who is going to come and arrest your butt? And on the other side of the coin -- at this stage of the game, with the world collapsing all around, would most HAM operators take offense at talking with some jerk who knows dick about radio etiquette and is not licensed?

While I fully intend to get my license, I do wonder about these things -- I mean it all could go south tomorrow.

[RWalls]

I wouldn't even really worry about it now.

[James m]

What level of disaster are we talking about. It may sound dumb but the government uses these people to communicate during disasters, you may get more than you bargained for. In a zombie apocalypse scenario grid down long term with bodies in the streets, who do you need to talk to?

[DerBiermeister]

What level of disaster are we talking about. It may sound dumb but the government uses these people to communicate during disasters, you may get more than you bargained for. In a zombie apocalypse scenario grid down long term with bodies in the streets, who do you need to talk to?


The level where the government is no longer really active. It is pretty much everyman for himself. And you are trying to establish connections to -- hopefully - a civilized group of people.

[James m]

The government has bunkers for their people. The government isn't going away any time soon. If you contact someone it may just be raiders looking to steal supplies. It's all bad news. Don't announce your location. Sorry.

[MI.oldguy]

LOL,I would presume all the older HAMs would come hunt you down,take your rig and burn you at the stake.at least,from my affilitaion with them,thats their plan in general,if you dont have a license.no license,no call letters=illeagle ham.

[Deebo]

Only Muslims believe ham is illegal.
Wonder if in a real scenario, the govt would send out tax collectors?

[DerBiermeister]

LOL,I would presume all the older HAMs would come hunt you down,take your rig and burn you at the stake.at least,from my affilitaion with them,thats their plan in general,if you dont have a license.no license,no call letters=illeagle ham.

I would hope they would be just as terror-stricken as I would be and looking to establish contact with "the good guys".

[Tks]

I have a handheld too with no license currently. I'd talk to you 😎

[James m]

I have two handhelds with no license and live next to the army's and the world's largest communications base. :-/ knock knock :-/

[MI.oldguy]

I would hope they would be just as terror-stricken as I would be and looking to establish contact with "the good guys".

I think they would only trust their good guys.the old ham dx'ers their networks.

[Reptilicus]

License??? I don't need no Stinking license!!! SHTF/WROL means I'm now in charge of this small piece of earth and I will decide who needs a license!!! Besides, to find out whether I have a license or not means they would have to make it past the outer perimeter first, then the inner perimeter second, then cross a very open no man's land just to ask to see my license!!! Good luck on doing all that and still be breathing!!! Ohh... I forgot to mention the inner inner perimeter also!! Opps..... can't forget my cute LITTLE puppies either!!! LOL

[Inor]

I would just be transmitting and receiving data, no voice, via HAM frequencies. I would also be transmitting from towers that are nowhere near me physically, so good luck trying to find me.

[OSFG]

I wouldn't give a rats behind on the legalities of it. But depending on the band your transmitting on you could be talking to someone in the next town or further with repeaters, but I assume they would be down. If your in the 10 to 160 meter bands you could talk around the world with only fear of someone finding you if they are with in 30 miles or less (depending on your transmit power. But with the right antenna you could transmit 100's to 1000's of miles with little power and use directional antennas reduce your emitted signal to all directions but the one you want to radiate in.

NVIS - Near Vertical Incidental Skywave is harder to DF but is good out to about 500 miles of transmit range (bouncing it of the F1/F2 Ionosphere layers. but you can generally only use frequencies between 1.8MHz and 30 MHz (varies throughout the day and night time) other wise the RF just passes right on through the F1/2 layers and has a better chance of being heard by martians than by the folks 100 miles away.

I am not a HAM operator...I was an SF Commo sergeant, but I have heard some folks say they have transmitted 1000 miles using higher frequencies (10GHz)....with out a repeater I Don't know bout that, maybe someone can enlighten me, but simple rules have always been true to me...The higher the frequency, the greater the loss....which means if you have structure or earth, trees between your antenna and the one your talking to it will get absorbed or blocked over a shorter distance than a lower frequency will. And since 1000 miles in definitely over the horizon you would have to transmit through the earth...and to my knowledge only ELF (extremely Low Frequencies 3-30 hz) can transmit through the earth. The only other way I can think to do that is to moon bounce the 10 GHz frequency. Anyway...not the topic so I will cease walking this tangent I'm on....LOL

[RWalls]

10 meter no repeater, when the band is open you can skip across the ocean on 100W.

[BucketBack]

What level of disaster are we talking about. It may sound dumb but the government uses these people to communicate during disasters, you may get more than you bargained for. In a zombie apocalypse scenario grid down long term with bodies in the streets, who do you need to talk to?

Other people in your group?

[OSFG]

10 meter no repeater, when the band is open you can skip across the ocean on 100W.

roger that,,,,I have made 7,000 Km shots on 20 watts in the 10-160 meter band, which is in that 30MHz- 1.8MHz range. But 10GHz is not gonna propagate over the horizon...so maybe he meant 10 Meter...not 10 GHz.