Ham radio awash in rhetoric....

[CJB]

I've been monitoring HF ham radio for years, mostly in the good-ol-boys band, aka 80meters in the winter, and 40 meters most of the year - in my neck of the woods, I can listen to folks from about Pa to Fl, to Puerto Rico and Texas. Basically most of the eastern seaboard into about Tenn and west to Tx, south to PR (on occasion).

Gotta tell you, I have never heard, in decades of listing, the stuff I heard about the govt, and the President last nite. I have never heard the activity on various frequencies in those bands either. Seems like every Ham out there had something to say, none of it good concerning the big wigs in Washington, DC. I wont repeat it here, but some of it was fairly frighening. You gotta figure that these hams are mostly a bunch of rual folks, because they gotta have room for antennas that are 40 feet and more in length, most of the time on a pole that rotates on the top for directional use. Just country folks, with country ways and country mores. Read between the lines.

For those interested - I run a pair of IC-75's and an IC-78 (all band xmt version of the IC718), but right now only have a couple of barely sloping longwires, not really good for transmitting, so I listen. Also run a Lowe HF-150 (with their preselector and audio unit) and its by far the best "SW listening" rig I've ever come across. Its sort of like HiFi for SWL.

73

[JohnR]

Interesting.

How hard is it for the NSA to monitor that? Could there be government moles trying to stir things up? Just random thoughts...

[muggsy]

You don't need a very big antenna if your signal is going to a repeater. Good to hear that the nation is upset with the current White House resident. Sounds like the country is finally awakening from it's slumber.

[knkali]

CJB:
I am not sure what your position is on the chatter you heard. If you feel comfortable with it, please explain.

[wyntrout]

If we have a national emergency those guys will be the lines of communication with their shielded electronic equipment, as well as the old tube-based equipment unaffected by EMP or solar flares.

I maintain my license but haven't been "active" for a long time. After going to Europe I kind of got out of talking on radios after a few years back in the States up in Maine. While stationed at Abilene, Texas for about 9 years, I had a lot of fun with radios and antennas. You can put up quite a station and antennas in the suburbs, too. I didn't have a giant HF beam, though... just an inverted vee and 10M beam... started with 11 meter and an amp, then quickly went to Amateur Radio.

Guns, computers, Ham Radio, and audio-visual equipment are not cheap and I can only handle so many expensive hobbies!

I did work a satellite repeater once back in the late 70's 10-meter/VHF or UHF. The doppler shift made you have to keep tuning the frequencies.

I did some aeronautical mobile stuff from B-52's stateside and on the way to Europe... VHF SSB using the large broadband scimitar antenna for some of the Electronic Warfare Officer's equipment... shocking range from 30,000 feet or better... fun times!

Wynn

[TheTman]

Knkali, I figure they are probably talking about a revolution, that Obama should be impeached (or worse), Foreign troops on our soil to do the UN's dirty work, Probably a lot of racist talk about Ferguson, and minorities in general, the border, aliens, secret technology, End of the world type stuff, the same stuff you find on You Tube, only without any censorship. And yes I imagine this radio traffic is monitored. I doubt if they get too far out of line, as you have to have a license to transmit, and that can be tracked.
My uncle was into Ham, lived in an urban area, had an antenna that stuck up about about 2 more stories over his one story house.

[knkali]

Wow ...Got it TMan. Wondered what CJB thought about it.

[kahrnut1]

i have maintained my licence for 20 yrs.and keep a couple of radios ready to turn on in a emergency. but never use them, there is a privately owned repeater on mountain in my area owned by a red neck who u would believe would fight anything that moves.
they couple that repeater to one in ga and in short peoiod u would believe they are going to storm white house any minute
i had ocasiun to meet the loud mouth and at my 72yrs old 180 pounds 5'10" there is know doubt i could take him out in a very short altercation. and i am a lover not a fighter

[TheTman]

LOL, karhnut1, Doesn't it seem that for some people,, the more anonymous they are, the tougher they talk, and most the time they are some punk living in mama's basement. I've met a few internet bullies over the years, and most were pretty scraggly. ONE was a pretty hefty dude, but he only got obnoxious when he was drunk, otherwise he was a pretty nice guy. Alcohol sure brought out the A-hole in this guy though. Then I happened to run into one that was known for bullying women. He was a real no good, ran away from home at 14 and was a carny and con man and drug dealer most of his life. The type that would see a sign that said the floor was wet, then "slip" and fall down, and get a lawyer to get him a nice out of court settlement. A real sleazebag. The last thing I heard of him was that he'd ruined his liver, and conned some stupid woman into donating half of her liver to him, and is living on SS Disability now.

[CJB]

Sorry for being absent a bit...

The Tman was essentially correct. No so much revolution, but strong resistance.

Ham radio is not anonymous. The radio operator must identify his call sign at sign on and sign off, as well as regularly during his transmission. The registry of call signs is public record, very easily searchable on the internet.

I really don't think they give a damn about being anonymous.

As for repeaters, they are one frequency pair. So it rather limits the scope of whats available to use. Around here, reapeaters are mostly for VHF or UHF operation, not HF.

Wynn's VHF/SSB experience is soemthing new to me, as we normally run FM on VHF which would not use sideband transmission. Unless of course its for the aviation frequencies, which still use AM in the VHF range (or so memory goes... its been a while on that).

I listen almost every night for a few hours..... just tune up and let it play while I'm browing the net or such. Usually its just bs about radios and antennas and amps and mics... old trucks, old guns, who's sick, that sort fo thing. Then whammo all the chatter immediately changes overnight. Its an interesting development.