• California: HAM no longer a benefit, dismantling repeaters??

    From Nightfox@VERT/DIGDIST to All on Fri Oct 11 10:10:59 2019
    I saw an article online recently saying the state of California has declared HAM radio is no longer a benefit, and they want to dismantle he HAM radio repeater infrastructure. This seems a bit strange, and I'm wondering why? HAM radio is still useful, isn't it?

    http://offgridsurvival.com/california-officials-declare-ham-radio-no-longer-a-b enefit

    Nightfox

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  • From Nodoka Hanamura@VERT/NEOCINCI to Nightfox on Sat Oct 12 05:53:00 2019
    On 11 Oct 2019, Nightfox said the following...

    I saw an article online recently saying the state of California has declar
    radio is no longer a benefit, and they want to dismantle he HAM radio rep infrastructure. This seems a bit strange, and I'm wondering why? HAM rad still useful, i http://offgridsurvival.com/california-officials-declare-ham-radio-no-longe enefit

    Nightfox

    I'm not a HAM operator (But I know one from my younger days, he operates out
    of Taft, CA), but I saw this crop up on a friend's twitter feed. The part
    about how the Fed's replacing HAM with this government broadband network, FirstNet, is hilarious when I look into it: They're replacing HAM Radio, a trusted communications standard - with this shoddy network that doesn't even work and isn't even fully operational, 7 years into its' life. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/09/the-47-billion-network-tha ts-already-obsolete/492764/

    I swear, I'm thankful I haven't paid taxes on anything but FICA and local taxes (I'm on SSDI and have only worked under the annual income limit), because If this was what my hard earned money from working a grueling fast food job
    was going towards, I'd be demanding my senator hung and quartered
    Caesar's Legion style.

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  • From Ash@VERT/FLUFFY to Nightfox on Sat Oct 12 19:11:37 2019
    Re: California: HAM no longer a benefit, dismantling repeaters??
    By: Nightfox to All on Fri Oct 11 2019 10:10:59

    I saw an article online recently saying the state of California has declared HAM radio is no longer a benefit, and they want to dismantle he HAM radio repeater infrastructure. This seems a bit strange, and I'm wondering why? HAM radio is still useful, isn't it?

    Over in the UK, we have issues where emergency services would get knocked out if the main telephone exchanges are disabled in some way. Have a natural diaster like some flooding in an exchange, suddenly police and ambulance radios are no longer functioning. I wouldn't be too suprised if a similar thing would happen over in California, which makes the idea of dismantling a fallback (they tend to be battery backed over here) to be rather negative.

    I am though really curious what the motivations are behind this. Because, I don't believe this is actually costing the county anything, is it?
    ~Ash ù UwU ù Don't read everything you believe!

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  • From Grease@VERT/DARKMATT to Nightfox on Sat Oct 12 11:12:00 2019
    Nightfox wrote to All <=-

    I saw an article online recently saying the state of California has declared HAM radio is no longer a benefit, and they want to dismantle
    he HAM radio repeater infrastructure. This seems a bit strange, and
    I'm wondering why? HAM radio is still useful, isn't it?

    Not if you want to remove independent forms of communication.

    Grease
    ... A phaser is the universal communicator. þ Worf
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