Hacker News Reader

Comment by sandworm101 | Hacker News Reader

Widespread access to space-based networks might finally kill hams. When disaster strikes, the guy with solar panels and a starlink terminal can facilitate more traffic than a hundred hams. Having cellphones that can get an SMS up to a sat might be more useful than handing out 4w radios.

View on HN

Access to space-based network only works if it doesn't rely on a downlink connected to a fiber-optic network (eg: Starlink). There's nothing glamorous about amateur radio but being able to string up a wire and get a message hundreds or thousands of miles using only a 12V battery has its moments.

Starlink is better in this regard now. First, the ground station density in the US is really quite good and you're likely to be able to hit a single up/down path through most emergencies. And, second, over the last year they've turned on a lot of inter-satellite links (ISLs). The ISLs have a huge effect on reach -- you can now have a sat terminal in parts of eastern Africa and reach the ground station in Lagos, for example.

(No affiliation with them; I'm working with a Ph.D. student studying this question.)

I'd say that one advantage of ham is that you can operate it on much lower power equipment still - there's no such thing as a starlink HT yet, although we're starting to get close with cell phones with emergency satellite messaging. But starlink has a bandwidth advantage if you need to send photos or tunnel cell. Different capabilities - it's good to have both!

AC3ME

"...there's no such thing as a starlink HT yet..."

The FCC just gave emergency authorization for Starlink to enable direct-to-satellite service for T-Mobile customers in western North Carolina. It's my understanding that this is what Starlink was planning on releasing but they are doing a live beta right now.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/10/fcc-lets-starlin...

Any comparison between Amateur Radio and commercial communication services serves little point, it's like comparing apples and oranges. It's been thus since the early 1930s when commercial shortwave services became commonplace.

Amateur Radio operators are a unique cliquey bunch with practices not easily understood by those who aren't inculcated into the culture.

Once Starlink is fully built out, if we get to the point that enough downlink stations are out of commission that the entire network fails, amateur radio will be of no use because we're looking at an extinction-sized meteor strike, global thermonuclear war, or similar event.

In those cases amateur radio will be only useful for saying goodbye to all of your frequent QSOs before the tidal wave hits your location in Denver.

I've been a licensed ham for 30 years. I'm also a realist.

Unless you're on the wrong side of a space-billionaire's political inclinations...

There is more to amateur radio than disaster communications.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com