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Joined
Jan 21, 2014
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Location
Coudersport, Pennsylvania
In the latest issue of QST Magazine. It was suggested that as a Prepper / Amateur Radio Operator, that you should be willing to offer your personally generated electricity to others for free so they can recharge their cell phones in an emergency.
This bothered me to the point of where I had to read the article again.
The ARRL said that a GOOD HAM will give away their precious power - FREE - to those that are too cheap, lazy, stupid - to plan ahead for an emergency.

Back when I was a child, and MA BELL was the only game in town, everyone had some type of telephone service. My family was connected through a system called THE PARTY LINE..
The phone rang with two rings for the one neighbor, with 3 rings for my mom's house and 4 rings for my grandparents house. Our Nosy neighbor would oftentimes pick up their telephone and listen while you were trying to make a private telephone call.
This lead my parents to get a semi private line - just themselves and my grandparents.
We had this telephone line until the late 1980's when my grandfather died and I moved out of the house and my parents had the line disconnected.

I still subscribe to the Verizon - private line service ( copper), I don't know of anyone that still has a party line or any reductions still offered on the bill for maintaining the party line.

My parents however has gotten more sophisticated and has moved up to the Comcast bundled service.. A all in one package that costs my dad around $100 a month!
When the power goes out, so too does the telephone, along with the cable television.
At that point, the cable company has about one hour to load their trucks, haul a generator up to the green box on the telephone pole and connect it to the generator.
By this time, all data on the computers that were not saved are lost, the router needs to be logged back into the system and the telephone will work as long as Comcast keeps gasoline in the generator.

The even more sophisticated people has shut off all of their home services and has moved everything to their cell phones.. With most younger people tied via an umbilical cord to their social media to their cell phones, when the cell phone battery goes dead, or more importantly when the cell phone tower is blown away in a tornado, washed away in a flood, or is blown up by terrorists or looses power for more then a couple of days and the batteries goes dead and the generator runs out of fuel - they are left with no phone service.

The few remaining pay phones - kept available for the Amish community are their only lifeline to the outside world.
It grates me that the largest amateur radio association in the world would have the audacity to suggest to me that I should have to provide free power to those that thinks that someone else should have to take care of them in an emergency and that they themselves should not have to provide for themselves and should live off the fat of the land - or live The Life of Riley.

I'm wondering what your opinions are on this subject?
 
the way i see it,is like this.i can't and wont support someone else now,when they wont even left a finger to support themselves while their able to.so why would i support them after a shtf situation happens? even if it's a temporary power outage.i wont give away valuable power that i do/might need..that'd be like giving away $100.00 to someone instead of buying food to put on my table like i need to..
 
I seriously doubt cell phones will work well in a SHTF scenario (if at all), so having them charged is kind of a non-issue. Maybe initially, but when the grid is down, so are the towers.

That said, power is just another good/service to be bartered in my book.

I'm sure folks can provide some manual labor in exchange for goods too. Charge your phone? Sure, and while it is charging, you can clean some stable stalls, or pick some weeds, etc. Fair enough, right?
 
all that is a good point..especially about cell phones and towers..

but as for people doing work for getting a cell phone recharged.look at how lazy/worthless some/most folks are right now.so many folks want something/anything for free no matter what.especilly if they can beneffit from it.maybe even make some money from it by selling it.i know there's folks who will at least work to earn their keep,if not earn a liveing and all.but there's also the no accounts that'd rather not do any thing for what they recive..
 
then "no charge for you!" (in my best Soup Nazi voice).... That's what I say to them.
Post SHTF, I don't expect we'll see too many travelers, but for those who do, my plan is to be able to trade. I imagine at some point, we may even have a few folks who camp nearby, and go on trips into the city to get things they know they can trade us.

That way, they take the risk of running into other looters, while we trade them excess food, water, medical aid, etc. for store items.
 
Tactically speaking, allowing anybody that close to your prep in a SHTF scenario is a bad idea. Even if you don't let them in, they will still be outside of your prep, and able to assess defenses, personnel, possible storage/ stores... All manner of Intel about your situation. The danger of anybody assessing you as being well prepared is dangerous. If you don't want to appear well prepared when bugging out, then you don't want to appear well prepared when you reach your bug out location.
 
thats where doing something like that,out and away from everything.from your home,to your storage areas.and everything else.and in a way where these things aren't seen at all from where said person(s) dont see any of it..and of course,no telling of what else you have.not even a hint of what else you have..for example.if you came to me needing/wanting something charged up.and i dont know you..then i'll agree to meet you some place where ( I KNOW ) it's safe for me.then i'll meet you there and recharge what it is you need charging.and if it'll be next day when its done chargeing.then i'll meet up with at a certain time next day.in which you'll have something i need and want as payment for my services...and all the time you have no idea to exactly what else i have.much less how i charged up said item(s)..
 
actically speaking, allowing anybody that close to your prep in a SHTF scenario is a bad idea. Even if you don't let them in, they will still be outside of your prep, and able to assess defenses, personnel, possible storage/ stores... All manner of Intel about your situation

At some point, it may be inevitable. If so, my goal is to establish a condition of mutual benefit. The other alternative is to simply try and kill everyone who gets close. A rather extreme route to take, but may be necessary if those stumbling on us have other ideas.
 

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