Lately I have been getting back into Ham/GMRS as a hobby.   What's the deal with SARNET? I have been listening to it for a few weeks and it seems to be 99.95% dead air. Was sarnet ever popular?  
For those that don't know, HERE IS THE WEBSITE FOR SARNET.

I guess I was expecting to hear folks complaining about their gout, or their ham shacks being too hot for summer and other casual banter. But it's basically dead except for the occasional radio checks and "This is (call sign) monitoring on sarnet using the so and so repeater." Even during an emergency, like when helene came through and sarnet was in restricted mode, it was 99.9% dead air time. I think in the entirety of the helene restriction, I only heard search and rescue use it once. And that one time I am pretty sure was just them testing it out while they picked up someone with a heli. I don't think they actually needed to use it. I think it was a test.   Now granted, I do sleep so I can't monitor it 24/7 but during this restricted mode, the only traffic was the one guy who chimed in a few times an hour to announce that sarnet was in restricted mode, or to bitch at other sarnet users who transmitted to announce they were online and monitoring.
With that said, using the sarnet repeaters was pretty fascinating. I am located in Palm Beach, kinda near Trump's Mar-A-Lago home. what's interesting to me is that I was able to hear people up in northern Florida, and even as far away as south Georgia (about 350 miles from me as the crow flies) using a $10 Retrevis portable baofeng-type hand held radio from amazon.  But the un fascinating part is that it's still mostly just dead air time followed by occasional short bursts of morse code. Does any one know what the morse code bursts are? I am guessing they are some sort of station uptime or sync signal but I really don't know.

Is any one here a user of SARNET?  Do you know if a gmrs license would allow me to (legally) transmit on sarnet?  As far as I understand it, they are $25 and cover your entire family.   My pops lives near one of the sarnet repeaters, as do I. If I got a license it might be a good way to communicate during an emergency. But the caveat is that we can't actually use sarnet during an emergency because of the restrictions they place upon it during such an event.  So I am kind of wondering if it would be worth it or not.

FWIW, I did program my radio using chirp for all the local repeaters and interesting frequencies.  Anyway, what are your thoughts on sarnet?

SARNET uses the 70cm/440 MHz band and you will need an Amateur radio license to use that system. A GMRS license does NOT allow you to transmit on amateur radio bands! Granted during a life or death emergency, the rules go out the window. But it is still in your best interest to go ahead and get your technician license. Amateur radio. licenses only cover the person that the license is granted to.

A GMRS license is $35 and good for 10 years and covers your immediate family members. Again, a GMRS license will not give you a legal right to transmit on the SARNET since it is on the 70cm amateur radio band.

As for your question about not hearing much traffic. You should not hear any rag chewing, etc on that system since it is set up for emergency coms and such. It is not like your average local repeater where you will hear rag chewing.

They had an issue with jammers during the hurricane activation. Think they even shut down the palm beach repeaters to try and stop it.

It was sickening to listen to during Milton. Some people disgust me!

Ah that's good to know. I always get the gmrs and ham bands mixed up for some reason.

I heard several lidiots trying to QRM the Hurricane Watch Net during both Helene and Milton.

Some people shouldn't be let out of their rubber rooms.

I have to agree with both of you. My uncle lives in eastern NC so wasn't affected by the storms. He was telling me about the madness he heard on the nets. Just crazy that some people have to be total ID10T's especially during a natural disaster.