[sverige]

One advantage of a trained ham radio operator is that false reports such as you've described are sifted much more thoroughly before being broadcast. Limiting access to the communication channels by requiring licensing is a great way to improve signal to noise ratio.

[doodlebugging]

I agree that trained operators improve the system's ability to handle false input. I'm not sure that requiring licensing for situations like natural disasters is the answer. There will always be people on the ground locally with some of the skills needed to coordinate with dedicated first responders and all of the first-hand knowledge about the status of local infrastructure. Having open, public communication channels for this information to be disseminated probably improves the ability of first responders to direct resources where they are most needed. I think you will always have people ready to inject false or over-hyped reports or who just get emotional and blow things out of proportion. The more people on the ground who can make a report, the easier it will be for a trained first responder to spot and filter reports that clearly are outliers.

Ham operators, I hope, will always be a critical part of the infrastructure. Their ability to relay information when other options are unavailable is very important.

[justin66]

Where there isn't amateur radio available, there's always citizens band. That has a truly terrible (metaphorical) signal-to-noise ratio but it's probably monitored by local police during disasters, not to mention a lot of regular people.

[jes5199]

in theory, sure, but unlicensed Ham-capable radios are so cheap nowadays that public repeaters suffer from spam and harassment, just like every other medium.

[sverige]

I have not witnessed much of that, although the couple of cases that I know about were bad for a time.