[iamnothere]

You don’t actually need a license to use the ham bands in a true emergency.

Where I’m at a Baofeng can hit the local repeaters just fine. I handed them out to my family when we had a major multiday communication outage (cellular and internet were down) and set them up to listen to the repeater. I told them if there’s a life threatening emergency they can transmit. It made everyone feel a little safer.

While I personally have a better radio, they are great as cheap backups.

[ajsnigrutin]

(assuming you're american)

Legally you do, that exception only applies to amateur station, not unlicenced users.

Why not get a gmrs licence instead, and give them gmrs type-accepted radios that they can use and try out and get experienced with even when not in an emergency? It's like buying cheap cars to give to people to drive for the first time in an active emergency... dangerous both to them and to others.

[iamnothere]

I’m afraid you are misinformed, FCC Part 97.403 allows unrestricted use in a true life threatening emergency. The words “amateur station” may be misleading here, they apply to the equipment not the licensed individual. See this discussion for more information: https://old.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/1fyhp9f/lets_...

GMRS may not be an option if there are no repeaters in your area.

[ajsnigrutin]

No, the equipment is the "apparatus". Only when used by a licenced ("duly authorized") individual for the use of (...), that equipment becomes an amateur station.

For example, a part 90 type-accepted business radio is just a business radio, part 97 has no ruling over it nor the user nor nothing related to that radio. Once a licenced amateur uses it for amateur radio stuff (so that radio is in amateur service), it becomes an amateur station and governed by the rules in part 97.

[iamnothere]

The regulations are vague, I agree, but it’s generally accepted that emergency use is allowed. I challenge you to find one single example of where someone in a real life threatening emergency is later fined for using the ham bands to get assistance. Besides, better to catch a (highly unlikely) fine than die, especially if there’s no good alternative communication methods in the area and within your family’s price range.

It’s sort of the ultimate “sad ham” position to insist that someone in a real emergency shouldn’t use a radio because they are unlicensed.

[ajsnigrutin]

They're not vague, everyone who can read can understand them, but people who can't pass a simple exam, that 10yo kids regularly pass, tend to misinterpret them.

No, it's not a "sad ham" position, it's debunking a myth of ham radios being "emergency radios". If you go hiking into some remote area (no cell signal), and you listen to advice like yours, you buy a baofeng. Should you get licenced? Why? That dude on HN says the possible fine doesn't matter. And then you slip, fall down a ditch and break your leg. You take out your radio from the bag and do what exactly? The preprogrammed channels are useless [0], you scream for help, no one hears you. Did you manage to google emergency frequencies? Probably not. But hey, maybe you did! The first google result is 121.500MHz... AM, FM, who knows what that is, you scream for help, and still nothing. What then? You die. There are no emergency frequencies. No one is listening. No one is inside simplex range. You didn't get licenced and didn't test the equipment in advance and you don't know that.. you trusted that guy on HN, and now you're dead with a chinese piece of plastic that's useless. You're in the middle of nowhere and dying.

Some people get licenced, they take their radios into a park and try to do a pota activation, figure out no one hears them at all, and know that their radio is useless in those situations. Preppers watching youtubers and people listening to you don't.

Now, if you listened to a "sad ham", you would've bought a satellite messenger (if your phone doesn't support that already), something like a garmin inreach, you'd send an sos message, with your location, via a satellite to a person paid to read it and contact the proper authorities. You'd get saved. But nope, you bought a baofeng because of that prepper dude on youtube and that "sad-ham caller" on HN.

Youtubers earn percentages of every sold baofeng, they'll shill them as best radios ever, then they'll try to sell your "survival cards" as the best thing ever too [1], it's all you need in an emergency!

[0] https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/CCR_Default_Freque...

[1] https://www.sosproducts.com/11-in-1-survival-credit-card-mul...

[iamnothere]

A cheap radio is better than nothing, and for many of lesser means those are the two options.

For the record, I don’t think it’s a good idea to go hiking with a radio that you don’t know how to use. Having extra radios that you can pass out to family and neighbors in an emergency (assuming you can quickly teach them the basics) is a good thing.