Ham Radio: Why dont the "preppers" even think of it?

This past weekend I was at a HamFest.   If you dont know what a hamfest is,  it's a rummage sale where 99% of it is computer, electronic, and Ham radio centric.   Radios of all types and tons of antennas as well as other things radio communications oriented.  and usually most everyone there is a Ham Radio operator or a radio enthusiast.    If you talk to a prepper they talk about thier trucks, their guns, and their plans.  yet they never EVER talk about how they are going to communicate.   If you think you will survive on your own, you are completely nuts.   you need a community, a village, to survive.  And honestly communication is a part of this.   They talk about buying FRS or GMRS radios, and these are fine for incredibly short range,   Like hundreds of feet.  these radios are useless for communication over a mile or two.  I dont care what they say on the package,  you will not get more than a mile out of a FRS/GMRS radio.   The frequency is bad for distance, and the are incredibly low power.   The BEST choice is 6 meter radios.   6 meter can go a very long distance on a low power such as 5 watts.  it also is not adsorbed by trees like the FRS/GMRS frequency is.

GMRS/FRS is in the 450Mhz range, this is a very high frequency that is line of sight.  6 meter is 50mhz and can go around and over hills. (6 meter is the size of the electrical wave it creates.  so a 5 meter tall hill is invisible to a 6 meter radio transmission.)  Plus it's more "secure" than the 11 meter CB band.     Yes CB has even better distance capabilities, but everyone has one and it's jammed up bad already.  I do recommend  having one,  but I recommend having HAM radio gear more. Because in an emergency Ham Radio operators will be working to send communications to help others and will do it in an orderly manner,   regular CB band will be utterly useless, just like how it's useless now.  

But there are other features that are even more useful.   how about getting weather satellite images while you are at your "bugout" cabin away from everyone?   well in the sky are several self contained autonomous satelites that send down photos all the  time.   If you had a laptop+ham radio receiver  the free software you could see what weather is coming.   Communications has a lot of uses in an emergency.  Being able to have that tool is far more important than buying another case of shotgun shells or dried moose jerky.

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