6
« on: December 28, 2018, 01:16:26 PM »
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.
Show Posts
And maybe we only want smart and determined people here 