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Alexander, DL4NO's avatar

Better justification, VHF / UHF bands: A bunch of Starlink Minis can do wide band much better than we can. Especially this is fully compatible Internet, not some AREDN etc. island. But we have other advantages we should use to our advantage.

We are many and we have knowledge. Remember the role hams have played in the US military for more than a century. For example after WW2 hams among the GIs were asked to contact the next signal corps in Germany or Korea for potential emergency communication. In Germany, the first ham radio legislation was introduced before the Federal Republic of Germany was founded - obviously to legalize ham radio in the military from the beginning of a German state. License tests for Germans were introduced much later.

It is very easy to get some batteries so you can operate your handheld for a week or two. Emergency power supplies of repeaters can be easy if you reduce the standby power consumption. When the grid goes down, shut down the the complete electronics of the repeater. Connect a handheld TRX to the antenna that feeds its audio to a Arduino system or so.

The Arduino can power up the relay from the emergency power supply. Use it creatively, perhaps together with a Meshtastic side channel. Or upload bulletins through the handheld to the Arduino that are then sent periodically through the handheld and the relay antenna. In standby such a system would have a power consumption of perhaps 2 W.

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Douglas Datwyler's avatar

The article on disintermediation was eye opening. So many ways that the common ham can learn and grow.

The comments on the new administration and ham radio are enlightening and disturbing. It goes to show that if there is money as motive, even long ignored (high frequency trading) could be reality.

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