It's all good and all modes have uses. When I teach emergency communications, I emphasize the importance of understanding the advantages and limitations of ALL forms of communications and utilizing them to their best advantage. For example, if you need to send a list of names or prescriptions, it is going to make much more sense to send them in some sort of email/text-based format than by voice...and if the POTS is up, fax is much more secure for HIPAA info, but if you need to interface with other agencies, CB or GRMS might make more sense. When I was escorting water trucks in Mississippi, I used my HF rig on CB to talk to the trucks I was showing around to fill up the water cubes and when we were on the rooftop in downtown New Orleans evacuating Tulane Hospital, we were on aircraft frequencies to talk to the choppers
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Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary
- Cellphones are like taxis. You rely on the service provided. When it goes out you can't do anything about it.
- CB and GMRS are like driving your own car.
- Amateur radio is like driving the does-all, goes-anywhere SUV as you can even use it to tie into phone lines or send text messages or emails and the like. If the all internet, power and phone lines go out, with Amateur radio I can still contact anyone that receives text messages or emails outside of the affected area via amateur radio.
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