Why dont/cant commercial craft resort to HAM radio in event of satellite troubles?

I remember when I worked at LGA airport, I had asked a couple pilots in the Lounge about HAM radios. Nowadays, I can imagine it would sound suspicious to be asking about that, perhaps even as a longtime casual employee/coworker acquaintance

I'm wondering if this is feasible, and if not,why not?
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Because any Tom, Dick or Harry can transmit on amateur radio frequencies with a licence and the last thing you would want in a disaster is someone transmitting on your channel.

I see, so in event of no other means of communication in an emergency (ie, plane just lost both engines)... having nothing to communicate is better than having HAM.

reply to post by gardener


Maritime vessels use VHF radio all the time, have done so for many many years, dont know why airlines would not use it, I would have presumed they should in the event of a disaster.

reply to post by Bellor

Maritime vessels use VHF radio all the time, have done so for many many years, dont know why airlines would not use it, I would have presumed they should in the event of a disaster.

Aircraft radio communication frequencies are VHF.

Bellor
reply to post by gardener

 

Maritime vessels use VHF radio all the time, have done so for many many years, dont know why airlines would not use it, I would have presumed they should in the event of of sighta disaster.

The airlines do use VHF for communications, for so long as they are within line of sight of the receiving station. Past that, we use HF (High Frequency) with selective calling capability. The line of sight radio horizon from 35,000 feet is about 265 miles. Satellites are not normally used for communications.

reply to post by gardener

There are Disaster Emergency Ham Operators worldwide who have an organized group of responders. Affiliated with ER services, Homeland Security, NWS National Weather Service, and FEMA.

They prepare for such events to help commercial, private and government flights etc, and emergency services....

Amateur Radio Emergency Service - Wikipedia, the free ...

"In the United States and Canada, the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) is a corps of trained amateur radio operator volunteers organized to assist in ...(continued)"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_Radio_Emergency_Service - Similar to Amateur Radio Emergency Service - Wikipedia, the free ...

Phage
reply to post by Bellor

 

Maritime vessels use VHF radio all the time, have done so for many many years, dont know why airlines would not use it, I would have presumed they should in the event of a disaster.

Aircraft radio communication frequencies are VHF.

edit on 3/8/2014 by Phage because: (no reason given)

Bingo, all aircraft are on VHF band from 108-137. The military aircraft CAN use VHF, but generally stick the the UHF band.