[capitainenemo]

I wonder how good the range would be. I was thinking that even if I didn't have the appropriate license, having something like this in a pocket on my backpack would at least give me one more signaling option in an emergency. I could deal with the fines later.

[cactacea]

Generally speaking, line of sight. Assuming you're in the US, the FCC wouldn't come after you for using this in an emergency situation unless you were being absolutely egregious about stomping on other emergency comms, even then I seriously doubt you'd see a fine.

Having said that you're basically going to need enough knowledge to pass the test to make use of this anyway. Why not just take the test and be legal?

[capitainenemo]

Don't you have to register with your personal address in a public database?

[myself248]

Yes. You can use a PO box, but since all past addresses and changes are visible in the database, you have to get the PO box _before_ you get your very first license, in order for it to be meaningful.

[b112]

You mean like virtually everyone did, with phone books?

[capitainenemo]

Well, for white pages, it used to be name to phone number lookup, not, you know, physical address, in almost all cases. Yellow pages were different ofc. And the tide against that turned 20 years ago, which congress banned that for cellphones.

In any case, sounds like "yes".

Not a deal breaker, but concerning. I know folks in my home would be opposed to my doing it.

[quesera]

> not, you know, physical address

White pages had physical address too.

In practice, even today without published phone directories, lookup from name to address is readily accomplished from public records.

If you have put in the effort to avoid all of those vectors, then it's equally possible to use a safe address for your FCC registration.

[capitainenemo]

Sometimes yes, not always, and practice decreased as privacy concerns increased. The old one for our city that was still printed up to about a decade ago did not have them.

And yeah, could probably find some way to spoof.

And yes, people can find things, just makes folks here uncomfortable that it would be readily available to a random nut in a short list linked to a "pseudo" one might be using routinely.

Anyway. It's one more hassle and disincentive. I'm interested in its potential for an emergency out in the woods (I'd be carrying my phone anyway, so a tiny pocket dongle is far less weight than a radio), but if I learn how to use it, I probably won't go for the license.

[PaulHoule]

See https://www.n1fd.org/2019/03/23/tape-measure-yagi/ for a upgrade to a 2 meter HT that will make it into a repeater 100 miles away under ordinary conditions and could go 300 miles under extraordinary conditions.

You need to know the squelch keys for repeaters and get some practice, it never hurts to get to know the people who run the repeaters, check in on the nightly net, know who is listening. So it is worth getting the technician license, there is no Morse code, just a multiple choice test run by friendly hams.

One rainy night I was talking to an amateur storm chaser who was reporting on conditions close to the inlet and asking why the repeater wasn’t so busy during storms like back in the day there were lots of storm chasers and I told him that NOAA advises people not to drive into flooding prone regions so most of us don’t do that because we don’t want to become part of the emergency.

Other times in the rain the air is silent but you know there is at least one ham monitoring who will call 911.

[kanbankaren]

That range depends on the height of the antennaes(sender and receiver). I have been able to hear repeaters 150km away because it is on a hill.

[_whiteCaps_]

VHF / 2m is basically line of sight. But it will go for long distances. I've worked the repeater on the ISS with a 5W handheld radio and a 1/4 wave antenna.

[ac29]

VHF is actually pretty good for non line of sight (at least, better than everything higher frequency).

Its not great for over the horizon communication, but its pretty good at getting through trees and other obstacles.

[sidewndr46]

just get something that transmit on one of the emergency frequencies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_emergency_frequency

so long as you use it for an actual emergency, there are no issues