Comment on What if the Internet Goes Down? - 15 Jan, 7PM CET
JackbyDev@programming.dev 1 day agoI bring FRS radios (normal ol’ walkie talkies) to the local Renaissance festival which has awful to no cell reception. It works great.
But yeah the barrier to even getting a technician license is too high. You get people that get excited and wanna do stuff and then they’re told they can’t. So things like meshtastic where they actually can do radio related things without a license are great.
rumba@lemmy.zip 23 hours ago
The question pool is so small you can memorize it :)
9/10 of the tech test is common sense or courtesy, and the bare minimum to make contact
JackbyDev@programming.dev 22 hours ago
I get you, it’s pretty easy, but I’m just saying trying to get somebody into a hobby, and then saying “actually you can’t talk to people until you schedule a test” is a huge barrier.
rumba@lemmy.zip 21 hours ago
It’s likely why the hobby is dying.
That said, ham equipment is generally able to be operated in a way that could interfere with police, fire, and air traffic. If you’re operating bigger stuff, you can end up with RF exposure or even exposing your neighbors. It’s all fun and games till you burn out Mrs. Johnsons pacemaker :)
I’d say they should make some safer HT’s that don’t step on emergency bands and do a scouts honor web test, but those bands are so poorly defined, and GMRS/FRS is already in that headspace.
JackbyDev@programming.dev 21 hours ago
There’s no restriction to purchase this stuff, so licensing will only stop accidents, not intentional bad actors. Even Baofengs can be put into a “ham mode” so they don’t transmit out of band. I don’t think we’d see it happen, but a license class under technician targeted at getting people legally able to use lower power handhelds super quickly would be nice. Even the technician question bank has questions about things that ultimately don’t really matter for making sure people operate in band as they should. The metaphor I give folks is like if your driver’s license test asked you questions about how to build engines. (And part of the reason we won’t ever see that is because amateur radio licenses allow you to construct and use your own equipment, as opposed to things like FRS where the part itself has to be certified.)