Let's say there is some sort of disaster where the internet is not working in my area, phones are down, the cellular network generators have run out of fuel and batteries have died. How would one communicate in such an environment?
As of late I have been tinkering with RTTY, Contestia, PSK using my PC and radio. The program I use on the PC is fldigi. I run Ubuntu 12.04 at the moment and have been having good luck with it. Not real happy with the new desktop and fell back to the Gnome desktop and interface. Enough of that.
Anyway, I have been operating on 20m, 40m, 80m in data mode. Made contacts as far as OH, lower NY, SC in the evening with little power out. I will need to continue my testing to see how far I can get. Folks from all over the world use this mode of communication to pass data. It is exciting to know that anything from SITREP to images (using QSSTV) can be sent in these modes. The new version of QSSTV just got loaded on the PC. I need to test since I used a much older version. The caveat for any of this is atmospheric conditions.
What do you need to try it out? An amateur radio license (simple enough to get), radio, PC, interface cable. All the software is free. Unless you are a Windoz fan.
Enjoy
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