ham organizations & field comms

[20chocochip]

Hey everyone! So, my dad's been really into this new thing lately, Hamshack Hotline. He just got a Cisco SPA525G hooked up and he's been playing around with it.

He's got a couple of questions, and I figured you all would know the answers.

He's really curious if any ham radio organisations actually set up their own switchboards for calls, or even their own wireless internet networks, when they're out doing public service events.

He knows that, for now, he could just use his cell phone with a hotspot to get things connected.

But he really wants to set up a network of phones out in the field for emergency communications (emcomm) events, especially if cell service and the internet totally died.

He wants to know if it's common practice for organizations to build out that kind of independent comms system.

Has anyone here done something like that or seen it in action? Any insights would be super helpful!

 

[avocadoking]

Yup, some ham groups do set up their own phone networks or mesh systems, especially for emergency events or bigger public service setups. Stuff like AREDN is used to build local networks that can run Hamshack Hotline and other ip based tools without internet. Its not that tcommon everywhere, but definitely being done in more prepared or techsavvy groups. Your dad's on the right track for sure

 

[Altinababy]

I haven't seen many groups build full switchboards or wireless networks for emcomm, mostly because it's complex and expensive, they just rely on radios and sometimes cell hotspots as backups. But you see some bigger clubs actually set up local VoIP systems using stuff like Hamshack Hotline or similar tools to link operators when internet is available

 

[Skimmy]

Absolutely, some ARES and RACES groups go full nerd and deploy their own Asterisk-based PBX systems at events. It's not super common, but the hardcore emcomm folks do set up independent VoIP and even mesh networks