I believe a substantial number of American radio amateurs regard using radio tranceivers and their associated pieces of equipment in an entirely different way to their counterparts in Europe. The two continents are entirely different and consequently the people who live in the two continents are different.
In America great stress is put upon emergency survival, luckily in Europe we don't have to contend with regular tornado's and hurricanes, ice storms which destroy electricity supply to vast areas of the country, and huge amounts of melting snow which can raise river depths by tens of feet and cause flooding and hardship to many many thousands of people. Situations such as these occur rarely, if at all, in Europe, the continent is more densely populated and services to support the population are provided by professional trained personnel in every country at a substantial cost to its citizens. Luckily most of us in Europe regard amateur radio as a hobby, somewhat akin to fishing, we sit there, put out a call and don't know what we are about to catch, its a lucky dip ! Kind regards, Mel G0GQK
