I'm gonna read up, I love old tell communication tech!
Yup! My dad has the equipment on mountaintops so as long as you can connect to the repeater on the mountain top you can make a phone call. Now that cell phones are the norm autopatch isn't that cool anymore but back in the day it was insane to be able to make a phone call via your HAM radio. Only downside to autopatch is anyone on your freq could listen to your phone call. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopatch
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For sure. HAM radio is the most reliable form of communication over distances especially during a natural disaster. When the internet goes down, cell phone towers don't work, HAM radio never fails. Also a very secure way of communicating if you have your system setup correctly.
Which country are you in? Because regarding security I have some concerns when it comes fk HAM?
Could you clarify please