expeditionradio wrote: > Automatic operation is essential to HF emcomm. It is certainly not > asking too much that 10% of each ham band be devoted to one of the > primary purposes for the existence of the Amateur Radio Service. > > Greg, where is your volunteer force of non-automatic operators > providing 24/7 emergency service on HF?
I have participated in numerous emergency communications scenarios, through several earthquakes and fires. Never, not once, was automatic operation even involved in passing emergency traffic. 95% of it was done either on HF SSB or FM repeaters or simplex for short-range communications. Mostly the latter. Where is the 24/7 volunteer force? Red Cross, RACES, and other "minuteman" style ham volunteer groups. Not on Winlink. Automatic operation is mainly a way for boaters and RVers to use the ham bands for cheap internet access. This is not a valid use of our amateur spectrum and is probably illegal since most of this traffic is business-related. de Roger W6VZV
