I was just thinking... and we all know how dangerous that can be. The main reason I finally got into ham radio, after avoiding it for decades because of the high cost of equipment and the Morse requirement, was to have access to a communication system to use when (not if) the powers that be decide to shut everything down to keep us commoners from revolting. "In my mind" - with other words without actually thinking about it, digital modes were grouped with DMR, which to the best of my knowledge is mostly useless without Internet access. The Baofeng DM-1701 that I bought to try DMR sits in its box, because the repeater I thought I could access with it apparently doesn't exist anymore. I suppose that two DMR radios could do simplex, but I'm not sure.
But as for the digital modes, well color me stupid; here I am, blissfully running the majority of my electrical appliances (including computers and ham radios) on a solar/battery/inverter system and thinking that digital modes - that require a computer and ham radio, would be useless in a total grid down (electric, Internet, & cellular network) situation. In retrospect, I suppose the digital modes that require a computer (I believe they all do?), would still work, and benefit those who aren't fluent in Morse code, and even in an electrical grid failure, it's pretty simple to power a computer and a radio by solar or other means.
It's probably been ten years since I played around with the digital modes, sending and receiving text messages from my computer via my Icom IC-718 HF radio. I'd like to eventually get back into experimenting with that, once I get an HF antenna set up, so if anyone's current on such modes, please bring me up to speed!
I'm also interested in trying QRP - there's a nifty little radio available on Amazon that caught my attention and reignited my interest, but unless I work on my Morse skills, most of my transmissions are likely to be "HI" (.... ..). In case you're interested, it's at https://www.amazon.com/transceiver-5-Band-Multimode-Assembled-PE1NNZ/dp/B0BJ247SNL/
So does anyone in the group use digital ham modes or do QRP? If so, I'd love to hear about what equipment, modes, and frequencies you're using. Similarly, once I get a HF radio set up again, I'd love to hear about what others are doing like HF nets and such. While I'm not interested in seeing how many contacts I can make, I am genuinely interested in seeing how far a Watt will take me. My current record for a 100W radio and 152 feet of wire is about 6000 miles... that was actually my first HF contact, from Arizona to somewhere south of Moscow.