Amazingly Easy to Take Out Entire Internet in USA

a reply to: Pilgrum

Thanks Pilgrum, that's what I thought.

The IRA (Independent Repeater Association) runs the repeater nearest to myself. I've heard it when it went down during wind storms a couple of times since last August. I don't have a Ham license, but I do have a cheap hand held Bao Feng VHF/UHF transceiver and monitor the bands for ems, fire and local police who still use analog two-way.

There is barely any conversations on the repeaters I can hear across Michigan from that repeater. In all reality, I hear far more information on the CB from truck drivers and "skip" when conditions are good. Obviously there are more people using CB than shortwave for local communications and that makes me believe getting a ham license just puts you on the FCC list and makes you part of the exclusive ham club. The range on most VHF/UHF two-ways is really no better than a CB anyways. That's way I advocate using unlicensed two-ways for communicating during a grid down situation.

As far as wireless digital communications, with so many people using wireless, even in my rural area, a "meshnet" using the "ad hoc" feature would work for an open source internet system independent of the normal internet if it were to go down. People just need to know the alternatives and be prepared like I point out in my ATS thread and the website I put up for that purpose.