51–60 of 115 posts
I love the idea of shortwave but all I ever pick up are Jesus channels.
I'm in Europe, so it's mostly Chinese propaganda in various languages that you pick up on shortwave around here. There's exactly one American broadcast you can get here and that is, you guessed it, a Jesus channel.
> Britain and most western countries have put all their eggs in one large basket: that of digital communications. In a time of global conflict, this could be a risky and painful prospect. There's a scene in The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970) where a man (Jewish) is listening to the events of WWII play-out over shortwave. He is living at the moment in relative safety but he understands from what he hears that cha…
There is a difference between being prepared and being a prepper. Having the means to receive outside information is being prepared. Listening to it day and night because you think your government is out to get you is being a prepper.[1] [1] Unfortunately, many exceptions apply.
Conversely trying to prepare for things that could occur by, for instance, getting first aid training, ham radio license, etc. is a communal activity "how could I be an asset to my community in times of trouble?" I think it's telling that in the cold war the "prepper" activity was putting together civil defense groups. In this century it's building a bunker full of guns and spinning fantasy about protecting your hoard of stuff from the mob.
Those who've had experience with either transmitting or receiving on the HF band and or lower frequencies (≤30MHz) and who've knowledge of ionospheric propagation just know that short, medium and longwave RF bands are still essential in this digital/cable/satellite era for reasons that when all other communications systems have failed then communications on these frequencies will still be reliable. Moreover, in warti…
A ham technician license is pretty easy to obtain in the US, and a handheld radio can be had for cheap. HF takes a little more hardware though.
A shortwave radio station is a single point of failure. You can either physically interrupt the transmitter - conveniently it tells you exactly where it is the whole time it is transmitting. Or, you can broadcast interference.
The internet or digital communications does not share that same single point of failure.
This seems like a pretty silly article. A shortwave radio station is a single point of failure. You can either physically interrupt the transmitter - conveniently it tells you exactly where it is the whole time it is transmitting. Or, you can broadcast interference. The internet or digital communications does not share that same single point of failure.
Frequency hopping algorithms can be used. Multiple transmitters, globally dispersed and coordinating with each other can deliver service. Shortwave can be digital.
Not everything is a competition, other means of communication don't mean the internet has no use.
Imagine being able to push micro-blogs to a local station and having it broadcasted globally over shortwave.
I used to get the woodpecker, and some very ominous semi-continuous monotonous hums in human hearing ranges with occasional tweedle. And the lincolnshire poacher. Or, something very like it. This was 70s Edinburgh, with a long-line antenna strung from my window to a tree about 50m away. I tried to make a dipole out of it, not sure it really worked. The radio was WW2 bomber surplus store, about 15U high and probably s…
could be buzzer perhaps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVB-76
Those who've had experience with either transmitting or receiving on the HF band and or lower frequencies (≤30MHz) and who've knowledge of ionospheric propagation just know that short, medium and longwave RF bands are still essential in this digital/cable/satellite era for reasons that when all other communications systems have failed then communications on these frequencies will still be reliable. Moreover, in warti…
A ham technician license is pretty easy to obtain in the US, and a handheld radio can be had for cheap. HF takes a little more hardware though.
In the early 2000s I was lucky enough to travel the world for work. I was a football nut and always carried a Sony radio so I could pick up the BBC World Service. I vividly remember turning it on late in a Sunderland vs. Newcastle match. I was in central Bogota, Colombia. Struggling for reception, knowing we'd gone 1-0 down early in the match, I can still hear the commentator: "and who would have thought, after going…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a difference between being prepared and being a prepper. Having the means to receive outside information is being prepared. Listening to it day and night because you think your government is out to get you is being a prepper.[1] [1] Unfortunately, many exceptions apply.
Being a prepper is a consumer activity. Conversely trying to prepare for things that could occur by, for instance, getting first aid training, ham radio license, etc. is a communal activity "how could I be an asset to my community in times of trouble?" I think it's telling that in the cold war the "prepper" activity was putting together civil defense groups. In this century it's building a bunker full of guns and spi…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being a prepper is a consumer activity. Conversely trying to prepare for things that could occur by, for instance, getting first aid training, ham radio license, etc. is a communal activity "how could I be an asset to my community in times of trouble?" I think it's telling that in the cold war the "prepper" activity was putting together civil defense groups. In this century it's building a bunker full of guns and spi…
My plan for the apocalypse is to take down a "prepper".