Re: [RFI] FW: 65-foot cell tower in Chandler golf community can't be sto

[Steve Dyer W1SRD via RFI <rfi@contesting.com>]

Cellular service was down within minutes of both the Paradise fire and 
the Lahaina fire starts. Alert notifications were never received if even 
sent in many disasters across the country the past few years. If you are 
placing your trust in the cell companies to provide robust, reliable and 
resilient systems you are putting your life in THEIR hands. There are no 
regulations that force the cell providers to have any backup at their 
sites yet the government agencies now use cell as a primary notification 
system.
We took that lesson to heart here in El Dorado County after the Paradise 
and Caldor fires and built a network of GMRS repeaters that cover most 
of the county. Handheld and mobile radios are provided to locals at 
cost. Most are refurbished commercial radios we get from eBay buys. We 
also run weekly nets and training sessions to get people familiar with 
how to use their radios and net protocol. We were very fortunate this 
year that no major fires broke out in the western US and it is easy to 
be complacent and enjoy the respite, but it won't stay this way for long...
See https://www.cera.org and feel free to donate instead of griping and 
navel gazing.
73,
Steve
W1SRD
GMRS: WREN371

> If you live in an area that has tropical storms, hurricanes or forest fires you 
> will appreciate cellular service. Tropical Storm Sandy slammed into coastal New 
> Jersey and I lost power, cable and landline service for 15 days. The cellphone 
> was our lifeline. In the worst secnario the test messages got through.
>
> Do you have one of those freebe senior citizen flip-phones? Make sure the 
> texting works.
>
> Mike N2MS
>
> > On 11/8/2023 4:21 AM, Rob Atkinson wrote:
> > > If you want to jabber at me about some false notion that I think cell
> > > phones have no utility and you want to navel gaze okay fine but you are
> > > wasting your time with me. I think we can exist without them if we have to.
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