Speaker 1: Hey, before we get started, be sure to head over
Speaker 1: to ham Radio two dot com forward slash email dash
Speaker 1: sign up to join my email list of over nineteen
Speaker 1: thousand subscribers, where I like to send emails about upcoming events,
Speaker 1: upcoming shopping deals, keep you updated with all the stuff
Speaker 1: going on with my videos. Once that list reaches twenty thousand,
Speaker 1: I will be doing a giveaway of another HF radio
Speaker 1: sign up today and thank you for the support. Which
Speaker 1: one works more often? Ham Radio or really any radio
Speaker 1: service at all, Ham Radio, GMRS Radio, CB radio or
Speaker 1: your cell phone or your smartphone? Which one do you
Speaker 1: think actually works more consistently, more regularly, more often than
Speaker 1: the other. I have some thoughts about this, and you
Speaker 1: might be surprised by them, and I'm curious to see
Speaker 1: what you might have to say. Yellowstone National Park. Here,
Speaker 1: it's some geysers, and man, it's a good looking truck.
Speaker 1: And we're here with five or six guys. I have
Speaker 1: at and T, Robert has Verizon, Kyle has T Mobile.
Speaker 1: This is a short video of short vertical video that
Speaker 1: I recorded when we were activating one of the times
Speaker 1: we were activating Yellowstone National Park on PODA in July
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty four. There is no cell service in
Speaker 1: the area, but you know what works.
Speaker 2: Quilo nine India. Charlie popa five nine Wyoming copy of
Speaker 2: the five seven Indiana. Thank you for the contact seventy three.
Speaker 2: This is Keilo Mike nine call qrs it.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, what's the point getting radio when you have
Speaker 1: cell phones? So a little bit of sarcasm there, but
Speaker 1: on honest an opinion, an honest opinion. We were at
Speaker 1: Yellowstone National Park and we spent I don't know there,
Speaker 1: I think it was. And then after Yellowstone, of course
Speaker 1: that's in Wyoming that we were in the Wyoming part. Okay,
Speaker 1: after we left Yellowstone, we wanted, several of us wanted
Speaker 1: to drive and activate Montana because we wanted the Montana
Speaker 1: activation in our PoTA blog book. I myself have said
Speaker 1: numerous times on the channel that I want to activate
Speaker 1: one park in every state. I want to get all
Speaker 1: fifty states, and I didn't have Montana. So Frank and
Speaker 1: I and Kyle and Rob all drove to Montana, and
Speaker 1: a couple of days after that, Frank and Rob flew
Speaker 1: out of Billions Montana back home, and Kyle and I
Speaker 1: continued our road trip and activated some more states after that,
Speaker 1: throughout after we left Yellowstone Park. The reason I'm telling
Speaker 1: you that after we left Yellowstone National Park there was
Speaker 1: not much cell service throughout the state of Wyoming. I
Speaker 1: had AT and T. Rob had Verizon, Kyle had t Mobile.
Speaker 1: So we had all three, all of the big three
Speaker 1: networks in the USA represented during that trip. And let
Speaker 1: me tell you something that once you got inside of
Speaker 1: the national I kind of understand that you don't have
Speaker 1: you know, okay, because they don't put up cell towers
Speaker 1: in national parks. They think they're ugly, they're kind of right.
Speaker 1: I understand that. I get that, okay. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Once we left the park, we had the same type
Speaker 1: of trouble in northern Wyoming, northwest northeastern Wyoming. Driving into
Speaker 1: Montana had the same type of trouble. In Montana, we
Speaker 1: drove the Beartooth Highway, the Beartooth Parkway, which is a
Speaker 1: scenic drive, very beautiful drive. You ever get a chance
Speaker 1: to do it, I highly recommend it. So we're driving
Speaker 1: that and there's two or three national for probably more
Speaker 1: than that that National forests that it passes through or
Speaker 1: passes very close to, and of course those are all
Speaker 1: PoTA spots. Well, once we got into Montana, the group
Speaker 1: of us that wanted to act, well pretty much all
Speaker 1: of us wanted to activate Montana. We found a National
Speaker 1: forest pulled over to the side of road did in activation.
Speaker 1: Had no cell service to spot ourselves. Rob's verizon eventually worked.
Speaker 1: I think it took him like between five and ten
Speaker 1: minutes after posting us on the PoTA website for it
Speaker 1: actually to show up. So it kind of worked. Sort of, yeah,
Speaker 1: it kind of works. But AT and T and T Mobile,
Speaker 1: we're dead. My road trip that I took in July,
Speaker 1: where I drove throughout Utah, Wyoming, Montana, we came into
Speaker 1: South Dakota, drove south through Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma back to Texas.
Speaker 1: A few more places than that, but that's basically what
Speaker 1: we did. I didn't have cell service much in the
Speaker 1: whole state of Wyoming or Montana with AT and T,
Speaker 1: so I put up that video or recorded it while
Speaker 1: we're out there. Put that video up, and then I
Speaker 1: and then I get a couple of pretty good comments.
Speaker 1: And I got this one comment, and this comment here
Speaker 1: is why I'm making today's video. This is a good comment.
Speaker 1: Is a good comment. I think that he was trying
Speaker 1: to refute what I was saying, or rebuttal what I
Speaker 1: was saying, or contradict me. But I think he's proven
Speaker 1: my point here. Okay, broke prepper, that's a good name,
Speaker 1: broke prepper. Okay, more often quotes is certainly relative. Lol.
Speaker 1: Cell phone's absolutely, without a doubt work more often, do they? Okay,
Speaker 1: not because the are more reliable, but because I can
Speaker 1: transmit all day long and not get a single response
Speaker 1: with the range I have with a cell phone. No,
Speaker 1: he means with a radio, but he's not very clear
Speaker 1: with that statement. I'm in the mountains and the nearest
Speaker 1: repeater is fifty miles away, which never has any traffic
Speaker 1: on it that I can tell. In order for me
Speaker 1: to reach anyone, I would have to have a hell
Speaker 1: of a setup. I can afford a handheld. That's about it.
Speaker 1: I keep four of them for emergencies and weather, for
Speaker 1: my weather as in storms, for my family to be
Speaker 1: able to communicate with each other. Now, Okay, so number one,
Speaker 1: first and foremost point here. When I first read that,
Speaker 1: I was like, Yeah, of course, of course your cell
Speaker 1: phone's going to work more often. That's not really my point.
Speaker 1: My point is that the radio is going to work
Speaker 1: when the cell phone doesn't. And then I got to
Speaker 1: thinking about it, I thought, no, no, that's not right,
Speaker 1: that's not right. I contradicted my own thought process there. Okay,
Speaker 1: but first, he's talking about two things here. Let me
Speaker 1: make something very clear. Okay, he's talking about king repeaters
Speaker 1: and not getting response. He's not talking about the radio
Speaker 1: working or not working. So the radio work if you're
Speaker 1: keying the repeater and hearing the courtesy tone and squotch
Speaker 1: tale of the repeater coming back to you. Guess what.
Speaker 1: Your radio is working. Your radio is working. Okay, Just
Speaker 1: because you don't get a response doesn't mean the radio's work.
Speaker 1: Repeaters being inactive or dead has nothing to do with
Speaker 1: whether the radio is actually working or not. There's two
Speaker 1: separate issues here, and I've addressed the repeater issue, and
Speaker 1: I have more videos coming soon about the repeater issue.
Speaker 1: Key up your local repeaters, get more activity on repeaters.
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of trying to get the repeaters
Speaker 1: more alive, more connected, more used, more active throughout the
Speaker 1: United States and the world. But you're missing the point here.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that the radio is inactive. I'm saying
Speaker 1: that the radio works more often than your smartphone does.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to tell you why I think that
Speaker 1: here in just a second. First, I want to tell
Speaker 1: you about today's sponsor and the important of amateur radio's
Speaker 1: national organization that A Double RAL, the American Radio Relay League.
Speaker 1: The A Double Ral represented the interests of amateur radio
Speaker 1: operators in Washington for one hundred years. In fact, this
Speaker 1: past September, they filed an opposition to the FCC against
Speaker 1: a corporate interest who wants to completely reconfigure the nine
Speaker 1: hundred megahertz ban for commercial use, leaving hundreds, if not more,
Speaker 1: amateur radio operators without important band spectrum for things like
Speaker 1: digital mesh networks that are crucial to the digital communications
Speaker 1: design and experimentation, which is becoming increasingly useful in emergency communications.
Speaker 1: In fact, if the FCC gives the whole nine hundred
Speaker 1: megahertz band to a commercial entity, there goes mesh tastic,
Speaker 1: There goes your its ITSM band, There goes your nine
Speaker 1: hundred megahertz. Anything you're using, any kind of commercial nine
Speaker 1: hundred megahertz is gone. Depending on how they write the bill,
Speaker 1: depending on which sections of the spectrum they give commercially,
Speaker 1: but it could be that Meshtastic might just simply go
Speaker 1: away because we wouldn't be able to use that band anymore.
Speaker 1: Membership into the league is only fifty nine dollars per
Speaker 1: year right now. When you join, you can use the
Speaker 1: code of JAS one for Jason one and you will
Speaker 1: receive this jungle Booney bucket hat embroidered with the A
Speaker 1: double L logo. These hats are made from lightweight, breathable
Speaker 1: cotton blended material and feature a snap buttons to help
Speaker 1: with airflow. The A doubleurl does not offer these on
Speaker 1: their store. They're offered exclusively to you Ham Radio two
Speaker 1: point zero subscribers, so this is the only way to
Speaker 1: get one is to renew your membership today. Use the
Speaker 1: code of JAS one and receive the hat for free.
Speaker 1: Besides this really cool hat, you get access to other
Speaker 1: member benefits, including their four digital magazines like On the
Speaker 1: Air magazine, a great resource for new intermediate Hams. You
Speaker 1: also get qex QST and a couple of other magazine brochures.
Speaker 1: So be sure to support the A DOUBLEURL. I put
Speaker 1: a link in the description blow use the coupon code
Speaker 1: of JS one if you renew and thank them if
Speaker 1: you do renew and see them at a hamphest thank
Speaker 1: them for sponsoring Ham Radio two point zero. So I
Speaker 1: just want to make sure that we're on the same
Speaker 1: page when I say radio more often. I'm not talking
Speaker 1: about the lack of activity on repeaters. Now here's the
Speaker 1: next comment, the next comment in this and this guy
Speaker 1: signed his he signed his call sign in the comment. Okay,
Speaker 1: and this is on this comment's on a public video
Speaker 1: on my YouTube channel. So I don't really enjoy I'm
Speaker 1: not really about internet shaming people. But this guy kind
Speaker 1: of shoots himself in the foot on a public comment,
Speaker 1: and I'm just gonna kind of let him that's this.
Speaker 1: Yet he says, yep, I wouldn't put my life online
Speaker 1: with a Ham rig today. There are four Ham repeaters
Speaker 1: in my area around fifty and around fifty Hams County wide.
Speaker 1: Guess what, almost no repeater activity. I trust the cell
Speaker 1: phone any day to a bunch of radio wannabes. Okay,
Speaker 1: you're missing the point. You're missing the point. Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: not talking about the activity on a repeater or the
Speaker 1: lack thereof. I'm talking about whether the radio is working.
Speaker 1: If you're able to key up your repeaters and get
Speaker 1: a courtesy tone and a squelch tale from the repeater,
Speaker 1: then your repeater and your radio are both working. It's working.
Speaker 1: It's able to be. And check out all of the
Speaker 1: videos that I've posted on this channel within the last
Speaker 1: month about the repeater on Mount Mitchell in North Carolina
Speaker 1: that's been one of the only ways to pass traffic
Speaker 1: into and out of that area devastated by Hurricane Helene.
Speaker 1: For two to three weeks. That's been the only communications
Speaker 1: method because both cell phone networks and internet and power
Speaker 1: in many places have been down. He goes on to
Speaker 1: say he has Verizon as well, and it works fine
Speaker 1: in my part of Wyoming. Well, I would assume it worked.
Speaker 1: I didn't travel the entire state of at Wyoming. Surely
Speaker 1: it worked somewhere, Okay, I just found that it didn't
Speaker 1: work much in where we were. Had a friend that
Speaker 1: just went across the state line into Colorado. Guess what,
Speaker 1: He put his call out several times along the way,
Speaker 1: No joy until he hit the Denver area. So why
Speaker 1: bother with hand radio in that case? Again, you're missing
Speaker 1: the point. It's not the point I'm trying to make today.
Speaker 1: But that's it. And several of the towns he passed
Speaker 1: through do have ham repeaters, just like must have forgotten it,
Speaker 1: just people must have forgotten used them. Just some thoughts.
Speaker 1: Seventy three. This is my response to the original commentor
Speaker 1: and then I made later on I made a response
Speaker 1: to the second comment or the guy we just looked
Speaker 1: at because I was like, you're missing the point. You're
Speaker 1: not getting what I'm saying. Okay, So my original comment was,
Speaker 1: and when you call someone from your phone and the
Speaker 1: call drops or they don't answer, what then you have
Speaker 1: to call other people one at a time, hoping that
Speaker 1: the internet and cell sites are working properly in a
Speaker 1: perfect situation. Yes, cell phones do work more often. I
Speaker 1: disagree with now. This is when I was thinking. This
Speaker 1: was my first response to that. But I've changed my mind.
Speaker 1: I've changed my mind. Okay, I write cell phones do
Speaker 1: work more often, But the point that your comment seems
Speaker 1: to be missing is that cell phones do not always work.
Speaker 1: The number of comments I get in my videos where
Speaker 1: people think cell phones work one hundred percent of the
Speaker 1: time is scary. I get drop calls when using the
Speaker 1: phone in the Metroplex on a normal day when the
Speaker 1: weather is good. How well will this same setup work
Speaker 1: in a bad storm. Just look at the North Carolina
Speaker 1: and Tennessee right now post Hurricane Lean, cell phone networks
Speaker 1: have been down for days. What I failed to think of,
Speaker 1: the reason I changed my mind is this. Okay, think
Speaker 1: about the times where he's talking about your cell phone's
Speaker 1: work more often your radio's working during those times too.
Speaker 1: In fact, think about it like this, Okay, your radio
Speaker 1: always works because the only thing you need for radio
Speaker 1: is a power supply, an antenna, and the atmosphere. For
Speaker 1: a cell phone smartphone, you need a power supply, have
Speaker 1: built in battery most of the time. It has an antenna,
Speaker 1: whether it's internal or external, and you need a cell network.
Speaker 1: And the cell network is what's been down for two
Speaker 1: to three weeks at the time of this recording in
Speaker 1: the eastern Tennessee and North Carolina areas post Hurricane Helen.
Speaker 1: There was some damaged post Hurricane Milton also, but not
Speaker 1: nearly as badly. But we've seen this in the past
Speaker 1: several times, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Ike, Hurricane Harvey in Texas. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is not a new thing. This is not something
Speaker 1: brand new that we saw in late twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: with her Helen. Hurricane Helen's been the largest and most
Speaker 1: catastrophic hurricane to hit the United States in maybe forever,
Speaker 1: in record time. Your radio is going to work even
Speaker 1: those times where your cell phone's working great, you're driving
Speaker 1: down the road, you're calling people, you're doing your normal day.
Speaker 1: Your cell phone is working fine. Your radio is working
Speaker 1: fine during that time too. Your radio doesn't stop working
Speaker 1: when the cell phone's working, but your cell phone stops
Speaker 1: working when the cell network is down from natural disasters,
Speaker 1: from wars, from terrorist attacks, from anything. So which one
Speaker 1: actually works more often? The radio does? The radio works
Speaker 1: more often because guess what, it's working all those times
Speaker 1: that your cell phone's working too. And I'm not talking
Speaker 1: about activity on the repeaters you could use. The two
Speaker 1: commenters on this post completely missed my point. It has
Speaker 1: nothing to do with activity on repeaters because if you
Speaker 1: were to call out for an emergency, you might get
Speaker 1: someone help you. You're just thrown out your call sign
Speaker 1: and monitoring the repeater or maybe maybe not, but the
Speaker 1: repeater is working even if nobody needs monitoring it, even
Speaker 1: if no one's talking on it. It is working. You
Speaker 1: might say, well, that's not gonna help during the emergency. Well,
Speaker 1: maybe it will, maybe it won't. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: hope you and I never have to find out if
Speaker 1: it will work or not. But if your cell phone
Speaker 1: is dead because the cell network is down, and your
Speaker 1: last resort is radio, because it doesn't require an external
Speaker 1: network source, it'd be a good idea to try it.
Speaker 1: At least, wouldn't it be a good idea to try
Speaker 1: simplex HF repeaters whatever. So, no, the cell phone does
Speaker 1: not work more often. It's probably used more often. More
Speaker 1: people have a cell phone, But all those times your
Speaker 1: cell phone's working, your radio is working also, so more
Speaker 1: often is exactly the point that I was making in
Speaker 1: that short video and in this video today. Guys, i'd
Speaker 1: love to know what you think about this. Put a
Speaker 1: comment below, and check out these videos over here on
Speaker 1: this side, because YouTube thinks you want to watch these
Speaker 1: next seventy three