I have recently become more aware of and generally interested in electronics and amateur radio, and it got me thinking. What advantage, if any, would there be to having amateur radio experience, over a simple disaster crank radio/flashlight, in the event of a major natural disaster or some other emergency that leads to a longer delay in power being restored? For the sake of argument, let’s assume you have a generator or battery bank to supply your own electricity.
Pretty useful. I’ve got a bunch of handhelds, and if the cell towers are out, it would be nice to keep in touch with my wife if she goes out shopping (of course that would also require the stores to be open still). Keep in mind, at the power level you can transmit for just basic GMRS (50 watts max), you can only communicate a few miles in a suburban landscape. Also, both base stations have to be able to transmit at that power to have two way communication.
