Update and The Necessity to Educate People.

[gil]

Hello guys, and girls I guess, if any. I hope you all had a merry Christmas. I have only been lurking in the shadows lately and removing spam, a lot of spam lately... Someone must have added the site to a bot list... I upped the security, and involuntarily the complexity to sign-up, but it was hard to avoid. The Radio Prepper channel is keeping me pretty busy, not to mention my move to the south of France. I brought very little radio gear with me but I do have plans, some of which involve vehicle radio setups, starting with CB! Living now in a tiny apartment I will also need to assess that issue, probably with a new magnetic loop.

I am now waiting for a VRM-5080 VHF tank radio and a President Grant II CB for my newly acquired Toyota Land Cruiser 1989 LJ-70. The antenna I picked is the Sirio 5000. Stay tuned for upcoming videos...

BTW I was watching a B series movie on Netflix the other night with Sandra Bulloch... No, I don't mean she was with me, only in the movie ;-) It was a story about evil entities you could not look at or you'd go crazy and kill yourself... Two hours of my life I won't get back, but it got me thinking about the necessity to educate people.

In the movie, after the SHTF, a group of survivors scavenges a bunch of FRSS/GMRS radios from a store. They call every day hoping to hear someone, and eventually they do... Someone who is presumably at least  48hrs away by river boat... Which in reality is very  unlikely to happen given the distance. I have seen the same thing happen in other series like "The Walking Dead." Walkie-Talkies as soon as they appear on the screen become quasi-sat-phones or super-duper NVIS HF handhelds... We know it's BS, but most people probably believe those lies, the same way they believe Hollywood guns hype. They think you just find a radio, any kind, and the world is at your fingertips. I would not be surprised if many preppers held similar beliefs. Many will only learn enough to use an SWR meter and make sure they don't fry their radio. No thought is given to antenna design and polarization, propagation modes, modulation modes or bands to use at different times or seasons. Sure, they might get lucky, but not always... You break down somewhere and try to call on a CB frequency during the solar-cycle low, as now, you probably won't cover but a 20 mile radius, if you're lucky. You can forget about your FRS or PMR little handheld...

It is our responsibility to educate, and not just other HAM operators... CBers, preppers, outdoor enthusiasts, can all benefit. We can do this without coming across as elitist pricks, which to my dismay is a reputation a few bad apples have brought upon the HAM community in some places.

On a more personal note, I am just coming out of a bad cold, and three weeks of moving, paperwork, new job, settling down hell I hope not to have to repeat too soon, and it's not quite over yet. That said, the region is beautiful, and much warmer than the north of France!

Gil.

[RadioRay]

Congratulations on the Toyota Land Cruiser!  Those are great vehicles. Once your are more settled-in, viedos of exploring your new home region should be quite interesting.

73 de Ray  ..._ ._

[gil]

Once your are more settled-in, videos of exploring your new home region should be quite interesting.

I sure hope so! I might have to go to Italy for off-roading though, since of course in France it's prohibited pretty much everywhere... No surprise here... Fortunately Italy is very close :)

Gil.

[White Tiger]

Great post Gil - education is what got me to come here, and to get my license. I was in a thread on a preppier website. I ran into a ham radio guy that probed my fantasies a bit (buy and old tube set because it was inexpensive, operate it as a "pirate" station in case the S hit the ol proverbial F...

Just a few questions proved my ignorance, but the gentleman did it in such a even handed way, it didn't make me feel stupid, just that I had a really dumb idea. There is so much to know, especially for us NON-technology types (...mostly how easily noobs can be electrocuted because they didn't understand basics..or that the ANTENNA is more important than your radio...).

Great reminder Gil, thanks - and while we're educating - I'm going to try to remember that I always found the best teachers are those I accept education from is by someone who actually cares about what others want to do with the subject-at-hand (in this case radio)...and then figure out how to help them get there.

You can overcome any how, if you know why...

Pretty cool that you're in the south of France - from the looks of those videos from your YouTube channel - it looks as if you're enjoying the ride!

[gil]

So far so good  :) France is very frustrating though, the bureaucracy is overwhelming, not to mention taxes  ::) Pretty much everything is prohibited. You can't do anything that is remotely unsafe! That of course because if you injure yourself, the government has to give back some of that money it stole >:( The region here is amazing though!

Gil.