We're in a Golden Age for Amateur Radio

Re:We're in a Golden Age for Amateur Radio by vitaflo on Wednesday November 07, 2018 @10:09PM (#18404103)

After I got my license I also got a Skywarn license (that has to be renewed every 2 years) so I can do storm spotting. It's basically a volunteer effort for the National Weather Service. Licensed spotters get called out to go spot severe weather and report back in on the ham bands to the Weather Net. I installed a ham radio in my car for this very purpose.

There are a million different areas in this hobby. Chatting with random people is just the most obvious (and boring) one.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:We're in a Golden Age for Amateur Radio by jiggunjer on Thursday November 08, 2018 @03:12AM (#18404981)

voice reports over radio seems a rather strange way of collecting weather data? A text-based form on the web seems more practical?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:We're in a Golden Age for Amateur Radio by falcolas on Thursday November 08, 2018 @08:38AM (#18406117)

Voice reports have a few major advantages:

They can be made while your hands are otherwise occupied (driving, flying, etc.)

They don't require web access (can be done while in the middle of a forest, or 10,000 feet above the ground)

They lessen the chance of being DDOSed by a bored teenager

Doing them while within range of the internet may be less efficient, but they're also not limited by the internet.

[ Parent | on HN ]