Playnet (AKA Raynet) in this country has always been a bit of a joke,
but is there scope now for an organisation based on the ARRL
(American Radio Relay League)?
This idea has been prompted by the letters column in The
Daily Telegraph wherein correspondents have been bemoaning
the loss of PSTN copper landlines after being forced by BT
to change (not the same as upgrading!) to an optical Internet
facility and then experiencing problems during the recent
Winter storms where loss of power has rendered the BT facility non-operational accompanied by the collapse of mobile phones
after an hour or so of power loss. This power loss is
especially felt in remote areas where there is no mobile
facility anyway.
The complaints have expressed concern that in those
cases, there is no means of contacting the
emergency services when faced with a danger-to-life
situation.
Perhaps an amateur relay network could help in
such circcumstances, pace that the associated
radio stations would need a good backup power
supply to ensure that they themselves would not
go off the air.
In a number of areas, coal-mining, telephony,
electricity, water, health and gas, successive governments
came to the conclusion that separate and disparate
private organisations across the country were
creating an unacceptable mish mash and that
nationalisation was in the public interest, until
Maggie Thatcher came along and destroyed them all
creating once again a mish mash of money-grabbing
organisations, none of whom had the national interest
at heart
Sic transit gloria Mundi
73 DE Gareth G4SDW GQRP #3339
On 9 Mar 2022 at 11:03:15 GMT, "gareth evans" <[email protected]> wrote:
Playnet (AKA Raynet) in this country has always been a bit of a joke,
but is there scope now for an organisation based on the ARRL
(American Radio Relay League)?
This idea has been prompted by the letters column in The
Daily Telegraph wherein correspondents have been bemoaning
the loss of PSTN copper landlines after being forced by BT
to change (not the same as upgrading!) to an optical Internet
facility and then experiencing problems during the recent
Winter storms where loss of power has rendered the BT facility
non-operational accompanied by the collapse of mobile phones
after an hour or so of power loss. This power loss is
especially felt in remote areas where there is no mobile
facility anyway.
The complaints have expressed concern that in those
cases, there is no means of contacting the
emergency services when faced with a danger-to-life
situation.
Perhaps an amateur relay network could help in
such circcumstances, pace that the associated
radio stations would need a good backup power
supply to ensure that they themselves would not
go off the air.
In a number of areas, coal-mining, telephony,
electricity, water, health and gas, successive governments
came to the conclusion that separate and disparate
private organisations across the country were
creating an unacceptable mish mash and that
nationalisation was in the public interest, until
Maggie Thatcher came along and destroyed them all
creating once again a mish mash of money-grabbing
organisations, none of whom had the national interest
at heart
Sic transit gloria Mundi
73 DE Gareth G4SDW GQRP #3339
If we had a radio amateur with a reliable generrator in every village then >this might work. Perhaps they could operate an emergency only mobile network >base station. But I'm not optimistic.
In a number of areas, coal-mining, telephony,
electricity, water, health and gas, successive governments
came to the conclusion that separate and disparate
private organisations across the country were
creating an unacceptable mish mash and that
nationalisation was in the public interest, until
Maggie Thatcher came along and destroyed them all
creating once again a mish mash of money-grabbing
organisations, none of whom had the national interest
at heart.
On 2022-03-09 11:03:15, gareth evans wrote:
In a number of areas, coal-mining, telephony,
electricity, water, health and gas, successive governments
came to the conclusion that separate and disparate
private organisations across the country were
creating an unacceptable mish mash and that
nationalisation was in the public interest, until
Maggie Thatcher came along and destroyed them all
creating once again a mish mash of money-grabbing
organisations, none of whom had the national interest
at heart.
This seems counter-factual. At the time the then
Mrs Thatcher came to power (i.e. 1979) all these
organisations were already nationalised.
The "public interest" was marked by regular strikes
and/or monopolistic practices. For example, if you
wanted a telephone line you had to wait 3 months
then choose between two types of phone to rent.
Mrs Thatcher broke up these nationalised monopolies.
The last two times I changed telephony provider (not
of course allowed under nationalisation) it took
under a month each time. We have, of course, for a
long time been able to buy outright, for the cost
of one or two quarters rent, our own choice of phone.
Perhaps it's time to re-invent some sort of Civil
Defence organisation (even if extremely informal) so that some semblance
of emergency communications can be established?
On 10/03/2022 09:16, Ian Jackson wrote:
Perhaps it's time to re-invent some sort of Civil
Defence organisation (even if extremely informal) so that some semblance
of emergency communications can be established?
One suspects that with Putin warming things up for a false-flag CBW
attack in Ukraine and his having mentioned nuclear weapons, perhaps what
we might need is a 'proper' CD organisation rather than an 'amateur' one.
If we had a radio amateur with a reliable generrator in every village then this might work. Perhaps they could operate an emergency only mobile network base station. But I'm not optimistic.
On 10/03/2022 09:16, Ian Jackson wrote:
Perhaps it's time to re-invent some sort of Civil
Defence organisation (even if extremely informal) so that some
semblance of emergency communications can be established?
One suspects that with Putin warming things up for a false-flag CBW
attack in Ukraine and his having mentioned nuclear weapons, perhaps
what we might need is a 'proper' CD organisation rather than an
'amateur' one.
If we had a radio amateur with a reliable generrator in every village then this might work. Perhaps they could operate an emergency only mobile network base station. But I'm not optimistic.
Or even mandate that masts should be located with enough
generators such that a suitable baseline level of coverage is provided?
At least the Russians helped us get Brexit done. Which will hopefully
save us from the ever worsening EU H&S rules regarding RF fields.
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