Phil,

Actually, I think the nuke would wipe out cell phone most quickly.  In
Maine, also, we have many locations where cell phones work poorly or not at
all.  Cell phones were pretty useless during a major ice storm a few years
ago, but ham radio was not.  We use whatever we can to get the job
done.  Or ARES trailer has HF, VHF, UHF, CB, FRS and cell phone.  And we
have used runners when all else failed.  We haven't tried smoke signals or
pounding rocks together, but that might come next.

I rather doubt ham radio is going to go away any time soon.  Its nature may
change, but we are much more flexible and much less vulnerable than most of
the phone options.  That may not be true in 10 or 15 years.  Check with me
then.

Yes, we are interested in money.  I'm just putting out our ARES newsletter
in which we ask people to pay their dues.  Our club just collected money to
buy a new furnace.  Yes, we need money, but we also need to remember our
role -- and our entertainment -- as communicators.  And that requires
precision.

Dead serious?  Well, I've rarely been dead serious for more than a few
minutes at a time.  I just like to tell my jokes in a language I'm sure my
listeners can understand.

73
Don

At 05:31 PM 1/2/2005 -0700, you wrote:
>Don,
>
>My final comment got lost at the bottom of my message in your comments to me
>so I doubt you saw it.  I was saying that I have a blind ham friend who is
>also totally deaf.  He now has two, not one, but two ear implants.  I got
>him into ham radio many years ago and I am one of the few people with whom
>he can communicate because I know how to talk to him.  So, rest easy, Don.
>I'm a for real ham even if we differ on the current true nature of ham
>radio.  With cell phone communications what they are, and what they are
>becoming, as well as satellite services, ham radio is taking a back seat in
>the realm of providing emergency national communications.  In the last few
>years, I never once have been able to call the police to report something
>called in on the repeater without the dispatcher imforming me that a cell
>phone citizen already had phoned it in.  The auto patches in Denver are
>rarely used compaired to just a few years ago.  Communications is changing.
>Don't be surprised if ham radio winks out of existance all together in the
>next few years.  Besides, it would just take one nuclear air burst in any
>area of the country to wipe out even emergency ham communications no matter
>how circumspect we communicate.
>
>Phil.