Category: Communications & Receivers

Hello James, and Hugh, and readers I just finished teaching my second Ham radio class for this year, with four licensees in each– two general and two tech. I teach general and tech at the same time, with emphasis on tech, and I encourage extra study on the general with questions and instruction for each being answered for each class. My classes usually go for 10 or 12 Saturday mornings 0900-1200 or until we exhaust the teacher, whichever comes first. I just found out last Tuesday that I have seven more students who want me to teach another class. Whew! …

The writer of Digital Security Part 1 had a lot of interesting and relevant things to say on the topic. One thing I would ask him and the rest of SurvivalBlog readers to take into account is that although Firefox is a very functional browser and one of the best, their leadership espouses some rather un-Christian principles, even to the point of expelling members of their leadership who made a stand for morality. I have switched to a Firefox emulator called Pale Moon, which functions just like Firefox but without the moral equivalence. –JT

Hugh, Independent communication is really important. First thing you observe when you go to an ARRL local meeting is the intelligent, charitable, genuine nature of the people involved. Second, the information that the Technician License test preparation material contains is laterally applicable to other prepping activities if you want a deeper understanding of what is around you and what you have to accomplish. An example is the information about direct current (DC) electricity used in radios and generated by solar power systems. Alternatively, learning about repeaters and their positions and coverage make you very aware of your surroundings. You also …

Greetings, Morse code is still encouraged and is definitely a useful skill. He also mentions ARES. In addition, there is another group of emergency communication volunteers, RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service), which is called into action in the case of a major emergency. If interested, I would encourage an Internet search for more information. By and large, his article is very useful. – S.S.

HJL, I want to point out one thing J.B. might have overlooked. Part 97 of the FCC’s rules governing Amateur Radio allow the government to suspend privileges in an emergency. While they can’t turn off the airwaves, there are things they can do: Monitor the airwaves. (It’s difficult to cover them all, but possible.) Jam signals in popular frequencies (if not all). Arrest violators. Turn off at least some if not all repeaters. (Our county’s repeaters are partially funded by our EOC. All employees of the EOC are amateur operators, and they can control all of our county’s repeaters.) Intimidate …

HJL, Almost precisely this concept was described by the New York Times back in 2004, except instead of exchanging files on USB keys, they were exchanged via a small computer on a moped that connected to an access point in each village as the moped drove through. From a technical perspective, the solutions are nearly identical and the two could easily be combined, not to mention combining with amateur radio VHF and/or HF links for high-priority or long distance communications. – J.F. o o o Hugh, The “Internet” Without Infrastructure article by R. H. is very intriguing. It makes sense …

April 24th is the birthday of Carolyn Cole (born 1961), a well-known staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times. For a few years in the late 1960s, the Cole family lived next door to JWR’s parents’ house in Livermore, California. That little girl with whom he played hide-and-seek would grow up to earn a Pulitzer Prize, two World Press Photo awards, and be named Photojournalist Of The Year. Congrats and Happy Birthday, Carolyn! o o o SurvivalBlog would like to welcome Pika Energy as a new advertiser. They specialize in innovative off-grid power solutions and have U.S.-made hybrid wind and …