Can’t I just buy a ham radio and start broadcasting? So what if I don’t file any paperwork, get licenses, etc? Are they really going to come after me if I’m just playing around?
More to the point, my only interest in ham radio is for underground or post-TEOTWAWKI transmissions, in which case I definitely would not have wanted to show my cards by having been licensed.
You could buy a ham radio (solar panels, batteries, etc. to power it) and put it away in a faraday cage for a rainy day, yes.
But you'd have no experience using it. You'd need to be on the lookout for a ham to bring into your group, to help you with communications. Someone who knows about electronics, antennae, etc.
About the only useless ham knowledge post-TEOTWAWKI is all the stuff about FCC regulations, which bands are available to which license levels, "band plans", and all that. But most of what hams practice, learn, and study is practical to ANY kind of world where ham equipment is to be operated.
It's radio art/science in general.Communication may (or may not) be the same situation as growing your own food -- some people buy $250 worth of seeds and tools and box them up for a "post collapse scenario". But any gardener will tell you: there's more to gardening than throwing a few seeds in the ground and praying! Better to learn how to garden when it's NOT a matter of life-and-death. When a single mistake WON'T wipe your whole line off the face of the earth. Same for medical equipment. Sure, if you don't have a medical person in your household, it's a good idea to at least have a bin with $2000 of medical supplies and equipment, so you can EQUIP that doctor who knocks on your door, starving, post-collapse. But it's even better to know how to use it yourself.
The last several videos I watched on preparedness, etc. all pointed the same direction: they spoke about the high importance of intel, information, communications in a post-grid down scenario. You need to know what's going on outside your neighborhood. Think about it: you could have EVERYTHING ELSE lined up: food, water, medicine, guns, ammo, knowledge, practice, experience, you name it -- but if you don't know what's happening 15+ miles away, you could lose it all. How else do you learn where the gangs are roving? Smoke signals?
There's a reason why the USA dominates the world militarily. One of the reasons: our intelligence satellites and other communications infrastructure.