King Wants To Sell Out Ham Radio 309
An anonymous reader writes "Rep. Peter King (R-NY), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has introduced HR 607, the 'Broadband for First Responders Act of 2011,' which has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee (which handles telecommunications legislation). The bill would create a nationwide Public Safety broadband network using the so-called 'D-Block' of spectrum in the 700 MHz range for Public Safety use. But to pay for it, he wants to sell off 420-440 MHz, currently heavily used by the military, satellites and Amateur Radio operators."
Re:You'll miss them in a disaster (Score:5, Funny)
Laugh at the old Ham guys all you want. When a real disaster hits and the infrastructure goes down, I bet you'll be going to them and asking for their help.
Yeah .. but when the world ends [imdb.com], that will result in sending submarines to San Diego to track down morse keys that are being randomly tapped by coke bottles hooked into window shades that are blowing in the breeze
Re:You'll miss them in a disaster (Score:4, Funny)
"I bet you'll be going to them and asking for their help."
Dot Dot Dot, Dot, Dash Dot, Dash Dot Dot - Dot Dash Dash Dot, Dash Dash Dash, Dot Dash Dot, Dash Dot
Re:You'll miss them in a disaster (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Won't the military have something to say about (Score:5, Funny)
Yep. Amateurs understand they are "secondary users" of this spectrum. And it's always a good idea to defer to primary users who have attack helicopters and radio-direction-finding equipment... ;)
Re:But will we? (Score:5, Funny)
You could, y'know, use a fucking search engine and answer the question yourself, but then you wouldn't get a chance to be a belittling piece of shit on /.
Hey pot, I don't think you and kettle have been formally introduced yet.
Oblig Quote (Score:4, Funny)
"Rep. Peter King (R-NY), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has introduced HR 607, the 'Broadband for First Responders Act of 2011,' which has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee (which handles telecommunications legislation).
King? Well I didn't vote for ya...
Re:You'll miss them in a disaster (Score:3, Funny)
Bah! All you young whipper-snappers and your fancy-pants centimeter-band radios makes my shingles act up!
Real men don't need anything north of 30 MHz! That's where you find the radios made of iron and glowing tubes!
Not these sickly, plastic-fantastic micro-circuited gizmos!
Now get off my yard!!
You could call me "Dennis"... (Score:4, Funny)
I'm 26. I'm not old.
Well, I can't just call you "man"
Re:You'll miss them in a disaster (Score:4, Funny)
Only if a survival-minded HAM with locator equipment doesn't get to him first.
Re:I think the use trumps the bill (Score:4, Funny)
You got me thinking on that. I'd mod you informative if I hadn't commented, but let's see. The proposed change...
Lacks common sense? Check.
Costly to implement? Check.
Is not technically sound and violates established procedure? Check.
Sounds like most things that happen when a Congressman tackles a technical subject.
Now, I have to go back to fixing my Internet Tubes [wikipedia.org]