Comment by zitterbewegung
8 years ago
If you want to use a communication system that will work if the Cell towers, local internet, and the phone system are offline get an Amateur Radio Licence.
If you want to talk to some random person in Australia using a system which routes your radio through the internet get an Amateur radio Licence.
If you want to help out in a disaster then get an Amateur radio licence.
You can talk to someone in Australia without routing through the internet. Through HF radio (3MHz-30MHz), you can bounce radio signals off of the Earth's ionosphere and talk all around the world.
There are lots of interesting hobbyist/hacker/maker projects as well, like the sdr chips, HF kits like uBitX, and FaradayRF. One of my coworkers has his license to track model rockets with a small transmitter that sends GPS telemetry. Lots of cool stuff!
I (Amateur Extra) ordered a BitX40 and about a month later they announced the uBitX... so I've ordered one of those, and not only going to hack the firmware and do some upgrades but also learn about 3D printing to make a case :)
Also literally anything that Travis Goodspeed has done. He's basically the lord and savior of amateur radio.
In the second point, did you mean "not through the internet"?
No, the endpoints are communicated through radio but they are linked using a system similar to VOIP.
Then why don't you just use the internet in the first place, and skip the license and expensive equipment?
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