I lost a fuel line in a place with no cell reception. It was pretty cool to sit back and wait for help after calling on my ham radio. Yeah, not as cool as satellites, but it can be a very useful hobby, even on a budget.

Also, from areas without cell service, sending a text message from a radio to a phone is pretty cool. Even the teenagers were impressed with "old man" technology.

No affiliation, but check out hamstudy.org