It is amazing that the "developists" in highly developed places forgets that the world is far from being equally developed and connected, with high speed digital repeater networks, easily accessible Internet, etc, etc...
Even more, that you don't have to go to Asia, Africa or anywhere in the Third World to find it the same case... Towers may fall...fibers may break (it happened recently in the US west coast), etc, etc. We have had that scenario here in my country several times this decade. In the middle of a category 5 hurricane, only HF works...who is going to keep a satellite dish properly aimed in such a situation? Satellites have to be substituted periodically, in no more than 10 years periods. How many times has the ionosphere been substituted since 1900 ? None, that I remember. Jose, CO2JA --- John Becker, WØJAB wrote: > Sure it would but what are you going to do away from the > big cities? I live in a rural area VHF UHF other then satellite > is useless. I have one portable radio this is used for Emergency > Medical Services for a 3 county area as a EMT. You got to > remember that "painfully slow HF link" may be the *only* > link that we have that is working. > > John, W0JAB ----- > At 03:15 PM 12/26/2007, you wrote: >> I see the point about document transfer, but wouldn't higher speed modes >> at higher frequencies be more efficient? For situations where >> infrastructure is in place, wouldn't a well planned DSTAR network be >> much more efficient? 100 kbps from a portable radio located almost >> anywhere would seem to be a much more powerful tool than a painfully >> slow HF link. __________________________________________ Participe en Universidad 2008. 11 al 15 de febrero del 2008. Palacio de las Convenciones, Ciudad de la Habana, Cuba http://www.universidad2008.cu