There are plenty of Hams willing to help them, but this subset of people feel they don't "need" to practice, they can't grok the consequences of their inaction.

I've had many discussions with these type of folks, and for them it's almost like a merit badge to get a radio and talk it up, but they never learn how to use them because they don't feel they need to.

They just don't want to take the time to become familiar/proficient with that particular "tool".

It's quite similar to some gun owners who purchase a handgun and then never learn how to safely handle it, and never go to a range and practice with it.

It appears to me, to be a cultural/generational problem of over assessment of their own abilities.

What do they do that is damaging? I think that's what they were asking. Do they just clog the airwaves with noise?

Sorry I misunderstood.

Yes, those who have Ham radios and don't know the protocols will cause interference because they don't understand how emergency communications occur.

It's a strict protocol called a "Net", used to minimize Errors, which can be life threatening under emergency conditions.

I've seen it happen during minor earthquakes and tsunami alerts, they become a problem, and in no way are contributing to the solution.

Too much Noise, not enough Signal, interferes with emergency communications.

Ham radio isn't a panacea, it's not going to help you unless you know how to use the "tool" properly.

I'm curious what you think the solution is. I have my ham license and work in commercial radio, so I certainly have an idea of how the tools work. But even in an area with a lot of repeaters, there is pretty limited activity at any given time, so what are people supposed to do to get experience? ARES/RACES type emergency response groups practicing for cold war, pre-internet type threats don't appeal to everyone.

Sadly, the digital protocols for local use in the VHF/UHF bands available to new hams (2m / 70 cm) are generally boring 1980/90s-esque technology. Would be nice if a newer system came about for messaging and bulletin board type systems - voice doesn't scale.

APRS works decently well for things like messaging and bullitens and has some interesting web connectivity possible. In my area the normal 1200 baud 144.390MHz is quite crowded but a number of digipeaters and I-Gates operate on a 9600 baud 70cm frequency as well.

Also there's some metro area WiFi mesh networks which operate in amateur spectrum. That's a good bit of fun.

APRS is interesting, but again - I'm not sure a 1200/9600 baud narrowband system is going to scale in a real emergency (for two way communication at least, for broadcast information its probably enough).

What about DMR? It supports direct, two-way text messaging.

I'm not the OP but it sounds like they're not doing anything right now. Which is the problem. What he's afraid of is that during an actual disaster they'll all go on the air and have no clue how things work.

Correct.

But Not afraid, I've already seen it happen.

Thanks for clarifying.