In an emergency you are allowed to transmit without a license. There were plenty of unlicensed calls going to the Mt. Mitchell repeater.
All that being said, I am definitely getting my license once this is over.
You can also talk without a license, who's going to stop you? Especially in an emergency situation.
Would there be any risks associated with increased “free for all” amounts of radio traffic going around during a natural disaster like this? Couldn’t specific channels become cluttered to the point where signal is too disrupted to read, or is that not quite how it works?
aren't wired headphones increasingly unsupported in newer phones?
Some phones even used to have TV tuners in them, though I don't think any of them were sold in the US.
The original model did come with an external anthena, and the latest model is from 2015, no anthena needed
Connectivity was knocked out from Black Mountain all the way to the Tennessee and Georgia borders. I'd be surprised if many people even have shitty 3G back yet. What I know is remaining in touch with people who live there has been hard.