I think there are about half a dozen ham radios in my neighborhood judging by the antenna's on roofs that I have seen. I live at about 4900 feet in elevation and can see the mountaintops 30 miles in all directions. Right behind my house about 3-4 miles is a peak called "signal mountain". There are numerous towers on it including TV, Radio, Cell and repeater station. There's at least 3 ham clubs in the area so I probably will join one at least temporarily to learn how to use it and get my test passed. I primarily want it for SHTF because I know how the "authorities" will use radio and tv for their disinformation during a crisis. I've seen it before with numerous incidents having survived many hurricanes and tornado's when we lived in Louisiana. I know first hand how it works because we lost several extended family members in Katrina and my brother's neighborhood was in pretty bad shape but you never saw anything about them guarding the entrance to the neighborhood with AR's AK's and SKS's on TV but they had a rotation 24/7 with at least two people guarding the entrance with a large pine tree felled across the road to block entry. Several times they had to level the rifles at car loads of looters that slowed or stopped and looked into the area. Luckily they never had to fire. Their one big issue was no comms. We have several handheld two way radios that don't require licenses for short range communications but nothing to hear what is going on all over the area or country.
