[aprssig] Re: Cell phone and Pager alerts

[Robert Bruninga]

I take offense at your post.

>>> kc2mmi at verizon.net 02/01/06 3:09 PM >>>
>But I'm frankly disappointed to see all the hams snigglng 
>at the "civilians who are too dumb to be hams" ...
>You all--including Bob--wouldn't WANTa hundred and fifty 
>million more hams licensed...

There was nothing in my post that suggested that in the
slightest.  And there was nothing sniggling.  The point I was
making was that flooding comms networks with hundreds
of Thousands if not millions of one-to-one emails and text 
messages might just not be the  smartest way for mass 
announcements.

>The fact is that if your concern is public safety, rather than 
>elitism and snobbery, the cell phone and pager systems are 
>the best public safety comms that we've got. 

I'm surprised at your attitude.  It seems your post is the one
that is introducing snobbery and elitism into the discussion.
Not the original post.  For example, the AM and FM broadcast
radio stations are a pretty good mass announcement system.  They 
are "broadcast" meaning  they take up not one single HZ of 
additional bandwidth during the crisis, so they do not ADD to 
the comms problem when they are used in an emergency.

>So, quit making rude jokes about the unlicensed masses and 
>try building a better world for all of us instead.

I'm sorry sir, but that was my intent.  To make people "think"
before throwing milliions of dollars at more toys and widgets
to flood the existing comms networks so that each person gets
an individualized notification of something that can just as 
easily be flooded to the masses with existing broadcast outlets
and no impact on the comms infrastructure which are needed
for other communications during disasters.

>Write to your local CongressCritter, and ask them to improve 
>the cell phone and pager infrastructure.   It can *easily* be made 
>more robust. It can easily be given backup power.  It can easily 
>be hardened and given higher capacity. 

I think the word "easily" is an enormous stretch and shows
a blindness to economic reality.

>And, unlike your 1950's ham radios, it is fully computer 
>controlled so there's an awful lot that can be done in the 
>software to manage traffic. More than any hams
>will ever accomplish on ham radio.

Nothing in my post had anything to do with HAM radio.
It had to do with the lunacy of loading the cell phone,
and pager, and text messaging and email system with
hundreds of thousands if not millions of point-to-point
alerts which will each trigger the receipents to immediately
start worrying and sending his own 10 emails and 
phone calls in response causing melt-down of the system.

>Honest, folks, the schoolboy niggles at the unlicensed 
>masses are outright embarrassing.  Cell phones worked 
>in Florida after Wilma. They worked in NYC
>during and after 9/11 and even during the Great NorthEast Blackout.

But they didnt have millions of unsolicited SPAM emergency
alert Emails and text messages generated by unthinking computers
exploding through the system at the same time did they...

de Wb4APR, Bob