Amid wildfires and spotty cell service, Northstate residents turn to ham radios (California)

The Northstate is no stranger to disasters or bad reception, but when a phone call isn’t able to go through, a ham radio may just be able to get you the help you need.

“I’m up east of Redding and when the phone system goes out, we don’t have a connection to 911 but the ham radio still works and I can get a hold of somebody somewhere,” said Bob Frampton Secretary of Western Amateur Radio Repeater and Echolink Association Inc. otherwise known as WARREA.

In the age of phones and Wi-Fi, some can take the ease of connecting to the rest of the world for granted, but head even 20 minutes into the mountains from cities like Redding, Red Bluff, and Chico, and you’ll quickly lose cell phone service.

“Cell phone service up here, especially when you get outside the Redding area, the developed areas, is spotty at best. There’s a lot of times where I can get a hold of somebody on the ham radio, I won’t get a hold of over the cell phone,” said Frampton.

Read more – KRCR: https://bit.ly/3MCX7Tu