Tragedy strikes! Hackers take out Washington state’s Internet providers! Anarchists destroy phone lines and cell towers! Amid the burning ruins, where will state residents turn for their communications needs? We’ll give you a hint: It involves a hobby practiced by Barry Goldwater and Marlon Brando, Jr.Turns out that in the hierarchy of communications networks in Washington state and the country at large, the order is Internet, telephone, then ham radio.That’s right. Should a communications disaster unfold and phone and Internet be disabled, it will be up to a late-19th-century hobby to get messages around the state.In fact, this weekend the Washington Emergency Management Division will hold a “State Emergency Radio Test Set” with a handful of ham-radio hobbyists to make sure that they’re ready in case of emergency.Bob Purdom, the EMD’s staff coordinator for the test, explains why ham radios are crucial to the state and the country’s communications network, and how far the technology has come since the days of Morse code. “Amateur radio has always been the last line of communications defense,” says Purdom. “We have phones and we have Internet, but should we lose that, we can fall back to amateur radio.”Purdom says that modern ham radios can actually send e-mail through a program called Winlink. Of course, most people don’t have a ham radio. So should the gadgets suddenly become the main form of communication, it’s likely that only the most crucial messages will be relayed.And if ham radios are somehow taken out along with phone and Internet–well, Purdom says that’s the end of the road.”If amateur radio goes away, you’re down to the bitter end,” he says.Follow The Daily Weekly on Facebook and Twitter.