Amateur (Ham) Radio and The December 2015 Tornadoes in Texas

By now, most to the country has heard about the December 2015 tornadoes in Northern Texas as well as the flooding in Missouri and Mississippi. During that one evening, there was a swarm of 11 tornadoes in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. These caused major damage in Garland, as well as Rowlett and Sunnyvale, Texas. I personally know several folks in Texas who lived within a few miles of Garland and Rockwell, where most of the tornado action occurred.

One couple, who are friends of mine and live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, recently got their amateur (ham) radio licenses. They each bought themselves a Baofeng UV-5RV2+ model VHF handheld radio and had these tuned to one of the local RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service) frequencies. On the night of the tornadoes, they had both their TV as well as their VHF radio going and were monitoring the situation. On their VHF radio, they heard "boots on the ground" reports of where the tornadoes were sighted and/or touching down as it was happening; the TV reports lagged significantly behind. Using amateur radio, they were thus able to monitor the situation closely and know whether or not they were in danger at any given time. As one person I know who was affiliated with Skywarn has told me, often the TV reports will come AFTER the storm has come and gone.

On this blog I have stated in other posts how useful amateur (ham) radio can be during a civil emergency. Amateur radio can operate under conditions that wipe out both landline and cellular communications. Having access to amateur radio can mean the difference between having news, information, as well as emergency communications available - or not.

For those who want to make sensible preparations for any number of different emergency scenarios, acquiring an amateur radio license, or at the very least, the equipment to monitor those frequencies, would be a worthwhile investment to make for 2016. The radio shown in the photo above can be bought new for under $40; the kit included the radio, the lithium-ion battery, a "drop-in" style desktop charger, and a stubby antenna. You will definitely want to get the better antenna - the one provided with the radio is almost worthless. The upgrade antenna - a Nagoya NA-771 model - as well as a 12 volt car adapter, together will cost an additional $15 or $20.

The larger battery will likewise cost a few more dollars, but clearly this simple setup is well within the doable range for many people. I recently got my brother the radio, the antenna, as well as the 12 volt car adapter, on eBay for a grand total of under $70.

For those with more money to work with, one can get an Icom or Yaesu brand 2-meter handheld VHF radio for between $160 and $200. I personally own the Yaesu FT-270 and find it to be a superbly constructed and quite rugged 2-meter radio.

FWIW.

Off-Grid Mobile Power Supply - a.k.a. "The Battery Cart"

My last post on October 4, 2014 shows a used, but still working, Deka deep cycle marine/RV battery that was given to me by my boss at the battery company where I work part-time. In that post I discussed plans to build a power supply using that battery. Herein I show what I did, and the rationale for doing so.

The photo above shows the 90% completed unit - it just needs the lid and side mounts painted and some closure hardware installed.


First of all - why this took so long:
It has been nearly eight months since I first obtained the battery and formulated plans to build this power system. This project has been in the works nearly that whole time due to time constraints posed by a busy work schedule, family issues, a relative nearly dying, as well as a medical scare of my own - which fortunately was a false alarm. During that time the various parts and pieces sat around for weeks, unassembled.


Rationale:
I wanted a semi-portable off-grid power system to run my amateur (ham) radio equipment and other items such as lighting, small power tools, security systems and to recharge cell phones and tablet PCs or laptops during power outage emergencies, amateur (ham) radio Field Day events or camping trips. To fulfill these needs, it needed to have the following:
1) Be self-contained.
2) Have wheels, since this battery is heavy - weighing in at around 45 lbs. Two of them would of course weigh 90 lbs.
3) Supply 12 volts DC at up to 200 ampere-hours capacity; the unit can hold two of these 100 ampere-hour batteries.
4) Safety - be properly fused with any terminals or connections protected from casual contact with wiring or other objects. Also contain the battery(s) in such a way that any rupture of the case and resultant leakage of acid is contained and does not damage floors, car interiors, or pose a hazard to people or pets.
5) Provide low voltage shut-off protection for the battery in the event it is left unattended with a load connected, thereby preventing damage to the battery through over discharge. This circuit shuts EVERYTHING down when the battery voltage falls to 10.8 volts.
6) Provide standard Anderson "Power-pole" type connectors for interoperability with emergency crews from CERT, ARES and RACES. These connectors, located on the left-hand front of the unit are in the standard configuration for quick match-up with other people's equipment in a field situation.
7) Provide standard 12 volt automotive "cigar" lighter receptacles for convenient use with commonly available 12 volt accessories as well as a pair of 5-way binding posts for use with alligator clips or even stripped wires.
8) Be rechargeable with a standard automotive battery charger, car electrical system, solar panels, wind power, etc.
9) Provide 120 volts AC for running small appliances, small power tools, soldering irons or powering "wall-warts" for laptop computers, etc.

This system achieves all these requirements and provides convenient operation.


The "battery cart" measures 21" w X 24" deep X 28" tall. It is on wheels removed from a moving dolley bought from Harbor Freight tools for $8 during one of their sales. This was far less expensive than buying the same wheels individually at a hardware store. It provides room for 2 Deka DC31DT 12 volt/100 ampere-hour deep cycle batteries to be connected in parallel for a total of 200 ampere-hours of capacity. Automotive "blade" type fuses protect the separate power inverter and 12 volt outlet circuits. The blue plastic boxes seen in the next photo contain screw-on post type battery terminals for rapid connection to an automotive type battery charger with standard charging clamps. Since the terminals are recessed deep within the blue boxes, which are standard electrical wall outlet boxes purchased at the local home improvement store, they CANNOT be accidentally touched or shorted against anything else. The battery in the third photo is enclosed in a standard ABS battery box designed for the purpose; this case has vents for the hydrogen gas to escape from the battery so it doesn't become trapped and pose an explosion hazard. The Anderson power-pole connectors are on the far left-hand side of the cart and are mounted on a Radio Shack black plastic project box. To the right of that are the control box with its 5-way binding posts, a "Harbor Freight Tools special" 400 watt power inverter for supplying 120 volts AC, and two 12 volt cigar lighter sockets purchased from an auto parts store.

The photo below shows the innards with the cover removed. Note the USB charging devices plugged into the cigar lighter sockets. I routinely charge my cell phone and my pocket MP3 player this way. A relative of mine recently was quite impressed at being able to plug her cell phone directly into the battery cart, using a USB cable borrowed from me, after leaving her charger at home :)

The photo below this one shows the battery box - located in the compartment below the wiring, outlets, inverter, etc.

A Word About The Control Box:
The control box looks a bit lame right now. Originally I had intended to have the low voltage cutout board, its relay, and power ON/OFF switch on one metal "dual-gang" electrical outlet box. When I finally got around to building the low voltage cutout board and got an appropriate 30 amp relay (salvaged from a defunct air conditioner electronic board), I realized that everything would NOT fit into one box. These boxes are normally designed such that they can be stacked and screwed together with the screws that normally hold the covers on. Meanwhile the home improvement center in my area had completely changed its product mix and I could no longer buy the original type I had started with. In the interest of expedience, I bought the current issue item and vowed to eventually re-spin the whole design for the control box. So there it sits looking really funky - for now.

The low voltage cut-out board is of my own design and uses an op-amp comparator circuit with a zener diode as a voltage reference. There is some hysteresis built in to prevent chatter, or oscillation, at the 10.8 volt trip point as well as to provide some electrical noise immunity. The board has a 30 amp relay as mentioned earlier; there is another 40 amp relay, salvaged from the same air conditioner the other relay came from, which is used to operate the power inverter. This additional relay is mounted in a gray single-gang box which can be seen behind the inverter in the "cover off" photo.

The low voltage cut-out board is connected with a 5-pin "Molex" plug connector - making it an easy, solderless field replaceable module.

The top blue light is the main power ON indicator. The bottom green lamp and toggle switch are for the power inverter. The inverter is controlled by the toggle switch to prevent it being powered when not needed; it draws close to 0.8 amps even in standby mode. The top left button is the main "power ON" button; the upper right-hand RED button turns the main power off. Since the inverter relay's coil circuit is interlocked through the main power/low voltage cutout relay circuit, the inverter CANNOT run if the main switch is OFF and/or the cutout board has tripped.


What Remains To Be Done:

1) Paint the cover
2) Attach the side rails the cover mounts to; put cap screws or wing nuts to hold the cover to the side rails
3) Add a solar charge controller and an Anderson Power-pole connector on the rear of the unit for solar panel hookup
4) Re-spin the design of the control box - and the cutout board itself. I'm thinking of going to surface mount components on the next version. The current one is a through-hole "prototype" board. A properly designed printed circuit board could replace a considerable amount of the wiring in the box.
5) Eventually upgrade the wheels on the cart - these work but tend to bog down in heavy carpet.
6) Add the second battery.
7) Add volt/ammeters on the front panel - this should be easier with a re-spun control box.
8) Use an Anderson SB50 type plug connector to quickly connect/disconnect the battery for removal or service. Right now I have to unscrew the battery terminal nuts to disconnect the wires.
9) Replace the "blade" fuses with self-resettable thermal breakers. The low voltage cut-out board, inherent in its design, provides the added benefit of locking out the system after a breaker trip until somebody comes along and manually turns the system back on. Therefore the system could NOT just sit there with a short or overload oscillating - turning on and off ad infinitum.

What I've Learned/What I'd Do Differently:

1) This thing is big and heavy - IF I had it to do all over again I'd build it for ONE battery and have any additional batteries as separate plug-in "modules". My two battery system would then be in two pieces, but each would be MUCH easier to carry and store. From the photos you can see it takes up a lot of floor space; when done it will go under a work table. But after months of stepping around this thing during its construction, I like the idea of being able to maybe keep the main unit available in the room and the second battery tucked away somewhere - but connected by a suitable cable to the main unit. A modular system might also lend itself better to carry in a smaller vehicle - the two pieces could be squeezed into whatever nooks and crannies were available, whereas a one-piece cart like I have requires a decent sized cargo space in the vehicle to carry. This CURRENTLY is NOT a problem for me since I drive a pickup truck, BUT if that changes it could be an issue later.
2) Go with a 700 watt inverter - I went with the smaller 400 watt one to discourage using too much power, as even a 200 ampere-hour system will be quickly depleted using a 700 watt inverter. That said, it would be useful to be able to run a larger tool - like my heat gun - for SHORT PERIODS of time.


I hope this write-up is helpful to someone and gives folks some creative ideas for designing their own off-grid electrical systems.

General Class Amateur (ham) Radio License

As some folks may know, a few years ago I had allowed my amateur radio (ham) license to lapse. As a result, I needed to take the exam to requalify for a license.

Today, I successfully took and passed the General CLass amateur license exam. I got 33 out of a possible 35 questions right. The volunteer examiner (V.E.) offered me the opportunity to sit for the "Extra" class license test. I took it, expecting to fail since I did NOT study that material. Indeed I did fail the "Extra" test - but only by 3 or 4 questions. But what I came away with besides a General Class license is that with some minimal preparation, I can probably pass the Extra one within a few weeks.

In a recent post, I listed some resources where one could take practice tests, find reading material, etc. to prepare for FCC exams.

Another observation I made is that the General exam I took today has been really watered down since when I took it years ago. Today, there were few, if any, electrical calculations. Back when I originally took the Technician exam - which was actually the WRITTEN portion of the General license test, there were a number of calculations dealing with reactance, resonant frequency of a parallel or series circuit using a capacitor and inductor of given values, ohm's law/power, etc. Today I think I encountered one calculation dealing with the turns ratio v.s. the voltage ratio of a transformer. The test I took years ago also had more questions relating to electronics trouble-shooting, reading schematics, etc.

Given all this, and the fact that there is no lnger any morse code requirement for ANY amateur license class, the FCC has removed some major hurtles that kept many from getting ham licenses. Many folks will argue that this had hurt amateur radio by "lowering the bar" on the quality and skills sets of applicants. Others contend it has helped amateur radio in that people who otherwise would not have made it before can now get licenses - thus helping keep the amateur radio service alive and healthy.

The good news in all this is it should be relatively easy for someone to get an amateur license if he/she wants one. And that could really save the day during any kind of civil emergency.

Amateur "Ham" Radio, Shortwave Radios, and Preparedness

On this blog, I have written about the need for having a shortwave radio for monitoring breaking news events. Good shortwave radios are expensive and hard to come by - hence my building the TenTec radio I mentioned in my last post. Hopefully with the Spring semester over I can catch up on supplying content to this blog and my video channel on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/user/KarlsLabReport

One of the things I have wanted to do is a post on what to look for in a shortwave radio.

During civil emergencies, communications such as landline phones, Internet, and even cell phones often fail. While a cell tower may continue to operate on emergency backup batteries or fuel cells for some time after a crisis, that tower can be taken out by a tornado just as surely as phone and electric wires can be. Service may be deliberately cut off by terrorist acts or by government edict as well. Both in Egypt during the unrest in 2012-2013, as well as the incident at the Bundy Ranch in Nevada this past April (2014), government officials cut off most telephone and Internet access to the area. None of our media outlets covered the Bundy Ranch incident until Alex Jones exposed on his website the connection between a certain politician and a Chinese corporation as the main driver behind the whole fiasco. Then there was the near-mishap in 2011 at the Fort Calhoun plant in Nebraska, caused when the Missouri River flooded, which was NEVER to my knowledge covered in the American media. I think it is safe to say that this type of information blackout will be Standard Operating Procedure from here on out whenever anything controvercial happens.

In the case of the bundy Ranch episode, amateur radio (ham) operators were helpful in getting news in and out of the area and even transmitting pictures via some of the digital operating modes available nowadays.

I have several ham radios - a VHF handheld for the 2-meter band, a ham radio I inherited from my dad that will cover all the "HF" bands below 30 MHz, and some homebuilt equipment for the 7 Mhz (40 meter) band. Recently, I got the handheld out, dusted it off, and discovered it still works after 15 years of non-use. This past week, I took the HF rig of my dad's to a buddy's house and we almost immediately were able to talk to someone several hundred miles away. Imagine for a minute if your local landline and cellular communications stopped working - how valuable would it be to you to be able to flip on the ham radio and hear what is happening in the world outside, or even talk to someone who has information? One afternoon a week ago, my buddy and I talked to a guy in Slovenia on the 17 meter band (18.068-18.168 MHz) using 40 watts of transmitter power into a random-length wire antenna. The propagation conditions were favorable and his signal came in so clear he literally sounded like he was across town. Now, I'm NOT saying one would radio Slovenia to find out about a situation a few states away in the USA, but the point is amateur radio potentially gives you tremendous communications reach. The following link gives you an idea of what you can hear and, given the appropriate license, can transmit on which frequencies:

http://www.arrl.org/band-plan

Licensing: NO license is required to LISTEN to amateur radio transmissions. In order to TRANSMIT, you MUST have a license or have a licensed amateur radio operator present when you are doing so. In recent years, the FCC has eliminated the Morse code requirement from any of the 3 license levels. For decades this was a stumbling block for many folks and while many amateurs STILL use Morse code, and thus is is a good idea to learn it, you DON'T need it to get a license anymore. The three license levels are Technician, General, and Extra class. The main difference between the levels is the amount of frequencies and operating modes you can use; also as you go higher in license level the amount of electronics and radio knowledge required goes up. Testing, which is required to get your license, is conducted by a network of "volunteer examiners", or "V.E.s". VEs are radio amateurs who volunteer their time to give the required FCC exams to new folks wanting amateur licenses. VEs can be found through local amateur radio clubs and by going online to the ARRL's (Amateur Radio Relay League) website at www.arrl.org.

The written tests for Technician and General consist of 35 multiple choice questions taken at random from a standardized FCC question pool; the Extra exam consists of 50 multiple choice questions. On the Technician and General, you are required to get at least 26 of the 35 questions right (75%) to receive a passing grade. For the Extra, you must get 37 out of the 50 (again, 75%) correct.

How to get started and Where to go for help:

Here are a couple very helpful sites for practice quizzes and more information:

http://aa9pw.com/radio/

This site has more practice exams and reviews of radios and equipment:

http://www.eham.net

Latest example of Why We Need MESH networks, Amateur Radio, and Shortwave

There has been something of a news blackout in the Mainstream Media this week. The story involves a rancher in Bunkerville, Nevada; a little ways outside of Las Vegas, besieged by 200 ARMED Federal Government agents over a disagreement on land use. I'm NOT going to discuss the merits of either side's case; that's for another blog and another post. There is a far more serious issue here. And that is the nearly complete lockdown over information in this country.

During this week's crisis in Southern Nevada, cell phone and data services to the area were cut off. The mainstream media were virtually silent on this incident, which could EASILY have blown up into another "Waco" type scenario. That is, they were silent until an alternative media source exposed the apparent link between this attempt to remove a rancher from his land, a certain politician and foreign corporate interests. The report went "viral" within the last 24 hours; only then did the mainstream media see fit to cover the story at all. Prior to this exposure, amateur radio was about the only reliable connection between this scene and the outside world once cellular and data services were cut off.

Regular readers of this blog will remember what I published about MESH networks, shortwave and amateur (ham) radio and why these things are of critical imnportance to citizens wanting to stay informed of important events. I discussed all this shortly after the events in Egypt a year or so ago. More recently I have discussed amateur radio and shortwave in more detail. THIS sort of thing, folks, is WHY I built the TenTec shortwave radio I wrote about a couple years ago.

Here's the deal in a nutshell: Wherever you have secrecy, and no open communication, you have the perfect petri dish for tyranny to flourish. Wherever you have a media that's more interested in "entertaining" the masses with lurid stories of celebrities and their sordid sex lives than actually reporting news, you run the risk of NOT getting information - information YOU MAY NEED to deal with potentially life-altering events. A couple years ago, there was a NEAR "Fukushima" style mess near Omaha, Nebraska at the Fort Calhoun generating station. The Missouri River had flooded, and nearly caused a mishap at the plant. Had the waters risen more than another foot, the equipment in the control room could have been shorted out. NONE of the media in the United States covered it, that I'm aware of. I first read about it on an obscure foreign website; later some bloggers picked up the story, and confirmed it. Had that plant melted down, 1/4 of the country could well have been in the path of a large radiation plume.

For those of you who ARE interested in REAL NEWS and want to take charge of your own destiney, I invite you to read what I have written about MESH networks, then do your own research on the 'Net and on YouTube to determine what fits your needs. YouTube users such as "Commprepper" offer great advice on amateur radio and other communications systems. If I were you I'd get this information NOW while it is still available.

FWIW.

Amateur (Ham) Radio and Emergency Operation

I have been involved with amateur, a.k.a. 'ham' radio for many years. One aspect of amateur radio that doesn't get nearly enough public attention is its continued use during emergencies. People assume that cell phones will always be available, even if land lines and Internet access are out of commission. Depending on what the emergency is, this is sometimes the case. Often, however, the cell towers are damaged by the same event that impacted the rest of the infrastructure. Earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and fires are but a few situations that could knock out cell phone service in an area. Then there's the spectre of a total failure of the US power grid - which would cause nearly ALL other infrastructure to fail within hours or a couple days, depending on how long it takes for backup generators to run out of fuel or batteries to become depleted. Even the Feds are taking this seriously - See the following article for details:
GridEX Drill
I was not active with 'ham' radio for a number of years, but since volunteering with a local group of civilian emergency responders, and also seeing the condition the world in general is in, I decided to dust off my old equipment and get back into the fray.

There are amateur radio frequency bands in the "HF' spectrum - that area above AM broadcast and below about 30 MHz; as well as other bands in the VHF - between 30 MHz and 300 MHz; iand in UHF - between 300 MHz and 1 GHz; and even in the microwave spectrum - between 1 GHz and 300 GHz. While there are uses for HF radios during emergencies, the discussion here will be limited to the 2-meter VHF and 70-cm UHF bands.

Both 2-meter and 70-cm band hand-held radios are used extensively for portable and emergency communications. The 2-meter band covers VHF between 144-148 MHz, while in the United States the 70-cm band covers UHF between 420-450 MHz. In Canada, the band is restricted to 430-450MHz. Both of these make extensive use of repeaters - radio stations that receive the low power signal from the portable radio and re-transmit that signal at higher power, on a slightly different frequency, so that the range is greatly extended. A repeater may be located on a tall building or a mountaintop to provide "line of sight" coverage over a large area. Amateur radio repeaters are generally owned by an amateur radio club. These may be either "open access" - available to nearly anyone, or "closed" - meaning restricted to members of the club which owns and maintains the machine.

All of that said, these hand-held radios may also operate without the use of a repeater in "simplex mode", meaning they can "talk" directly to each other if within range.

These radios offer compact size, light weight, and low power consumption - all of which are vital during a civil emergency. With the advent of small, relatively cheap solar panels, many amateurs now use solar power to recharge batteries or even operate their stations directly. Range varies widely depending on the local terrain, how much power the radio puts out, what kind and height the antenna is, etc and can vary from a couple miles to as much as 50 miles if working through a repeater.

The radio in the above picture is a 2-meter radio I have owned for about 20 years. My apologies for the relatively poor image quality; the lighting was not good and furthermore my photographic tripod has gone missing. The 2-meter band, as mentioned above, covers from 144-148 MHz. Radio Shack sold these, as well as a 440 MHz version, for several years during the 1990s. I was lucky to get one before they quit carrying them. I picked 2-meters because this was the most popular VHF band at the time and there were a couple active 2-meter repeater clubs in my area at the time. Indeed 2-meters is still quite heavily used. The object lying next to it is an upgraded telescoping whip antenna I bought separately. The so-called flexible "rubber-duckie" antenna that came with the radio doesn't perform well; the telescoping model is considerably better; an external J-pole or 1/4 wave vertical antenna mounted on a car or house roof is truly the way to go if you want optimum range. This radio has a low power setting of 1.5 watts; on the high power setting can run as much as 5 watts when powered from an external 12 volt supply.

What I Like About This Radio:
1) It has a jack for external 12 volt power right on the top of the radio. This allows one to power it directly from a car battery, solar panel, or other relatively long-lasting source. And by using external power, you realize the full 5 watt output this rig is capable of.

2) The 7.2 volt rechargeable power pack may be taken apart and rebuilt at home; luckily for me since mine is trash after 20 years. There are instructions for doing this online. So unlike many devices, the battery pack is NOT some factory sealed, unserviceable unit that must be thrown away and replaced at high cost.

3) Programming the radio from the keypad is quite easy compared to most units made within the past 10 or so years - and best of all is easily done WITHOUT the use of a computer. Instruction manuals, as well as repair manuals, are still available online. Having something that is easily reprogrammed will be vital during an emergency. You do NOT want to have to drag out a laptop simply to set your radio to talk simplex with someone! This radio amply meets that requirement.

4) It STILL works after 20 years! And that's after sitting around unused for 15 of those. The unit still held in its internal memory the settings for the last repeater I monitored 15 years ago! At some point, the lithium battery that powers the memory will have to be replaced, but there are also instructions online for doing that.

5) Unlike today's handi-talkie radios, this one does NOT try to be all things to all people. It does one thing - 2-meter FM communications - and does it really well.

6) It's got an honest-to-gosh BNC connector on top for the antenna. NO weird adaptors needed to mount different antennas here, unlike what I've read about some of the newer import models!


What I Don't Like About This Radio:
1) Some parts are no longer available - including some of the transistors used in the RF section. So if these fail or get damaged due to hard use, you're pretty much done with it.

2) Battery life - is short. Keep more than one extra battery pack with you if you will be using it heavily where you might not have external power handy. Fortunately these radios came with a separate battery pack you could load with alkaline or other rechargeable batteries. I'd keep that loaded with the new nickel/metal hydride type units.

3) These units ARE bulky by today's standards. Today's hand-helds are not much larger than a cell phone. That said, this is both a blessing and a curse. While compactness is great, it also means tiny little pushbuttons on the keypad. At least with the bulkier older radio, someone with man-sized fingers and hands can operate the keypad WITHOUT mashing several keys at once.

4) No product support available now. As with everything Radio Shack sells, once they decide to do away with the product line, there's no more support when things go wrong. Such is indeed the case here :(


A Couple Quick Notes About Amateur Radio

You DO need a license to TRANSMIT on the 'ham' bands.
But ANYONE, even without a license, may LISTEN IN - and this could be a real asset during any sort of emergency. While official news sources may be keeping quiet "so people don't panic", etc., 'hams' and even CB'ers likely will be talking about what they are seeing and hearing. Granted, one needs to take whatever one hears "with a shaker of salt", but 'ham' and shortwave radio could still once again become a primary source of news "from the outside".

With the near elimination of the morse code requirement, if one is willing and able to learn some basic electronics, as well as the rules and regulations governing amateur radio, it is NOT difficult to get a license these days. Unlike a couple decades ago on back, exams are no longer administered by an FCC employee in an office located downtown in a major city; most local 'ham' clubs offer classes and have volunteer examiners who can help you learn what you need to know and administer the written test.

Through eBay and local ham radio clubs, one can buy gently used equipment at reasonable prices. If one needs a portable hand-held 2-meter or 70-cm radio and is short on funds, they can pick up a radio like mine for around $50 used. One can also look into the new Chinese import brands such as Baofeng and Wouxun. While these are probably NOT built like Kenwood, Icom, Yaesu, etc., you cannot beat them for the money. Indeed, one can buy a dual-band Baofeng handi-talkie for about $50 - or roughly what my HTX-202 might sell for used. The main complaint I read about the Baofengs is they are quite difficult to program from the keypad; most users do that task using their laptop computer. I would NOT like that aspect of it if I needed to program in another frequency during an emergency.

Once a person has a license and some equipment, they not only will have a powerful resource during emergencies, but also have access to the many fascinating aspects of this hobby.

SOPA, PIPA, and Citizens' Need For A "Backup" Internet

Well, it looks like we have dodged a bullet - for now.

News sources reported yesterday that our illustrious Congress critters have backed off on ramming through legislation that could have shut down many websites - possibly including this blog. President Obama has also backed away from his original position, saying he won't be signing any SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) or PIPA (Protect IP Act) legislation right away. No doubt he doesn't want to make any more adverse waves, given this is an election year and the outcry these bills have caused.

These bills were put forth ostensibly to stop piracy of movies, music, and other intellectual property. As one who has created my share of copyrighted property, I fully understand and sympathise with ANYONE wanting theirs protected. But what these pieces of legislation would do is basically allow an individual or company to sue you and have your website shut down if you as much as linked to a suspicious site. If a reader's comment published on your blog contains a link to suspicious material, that alone could prove sufficient cause to have your entire site shut down. This, BEFORE you even get a chance to argue your case in court!

ALL of this could happen WITHOUT due process, folks. This basically renders null and void the idea of "innocent until proven guilty" - one of THE founding principles America was based on.

Laws such as this could put sites like blogger, you-tube, ... out of business because the legal risk they would incur by hosting the millions of videos and blogs would be overwhelming. Imagine the undertaking it would be for blogger to check EVERY blog out on their system for possible copyright violations.

As someone said a while back, "SOPA and PIPA are basically the legal equivalent of burning down your house because you found a couple roaches in the kitchen." There are better ways of handling the problem.

An Opening For Repressive Governments
Regularly we read about how China, Egypt, and other repressive regimes curtail their citizens' access to information online. Thus far, the Constitution and other legal protections have kept this from happening here in America. We have seen how easily the USA Patriot Act was pushed through Congress with nary a whimper after the 9/11/2001 attacks. Bear in mind that the Republicans soundly defeated similar legislation - calling it "Draconian" - when Bill Clinton proposed it just a few years earlier. The USA Patriot Act opened the door for, among many other things, the gross violations of our dignity we suffer for the privilege of boarding an airliner nowadays.

It is likewise quite conceivable that SOPA and PIPA could start us on a slippery slope whereby the US government and/or others could also more readily clamp down on the flow of information when "inconvenient truths" on ANY subject threaten to surface.

The Common Citizen's Workaround - Or Digital "Jungle Telegraph"
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Common citizens should have ALTERNATIVE ways of communicating, exchanging news and information, as well as storing and accessing needed web content should there be any kind of censorship or shutdown of the Internet. Just as Amateur (HAM) radio allows communications when the regular infrastructure is down, a "mesh" network could quickly serve as the modern, information-age equivalent to "ham" or CB radio in an emergency. The software to do this is available online for FREE right now. All you need is the software and a wi-fi enabled laptop or desktop PC. Any desktop PC can be made wi-fi capable with an inexpensively purchased USB dongle.

How it works:
With a mesh network, a person's PC, laptop, or even a smart phone becomes a network repeater. Let's say I want to communicate with someone several blocks, or even miles away. I'd send out a signal, which would be picked up by the nearest computer or phone running the appropriate software. That device would then forward that to another one farther away, and so-on, until the message reached its destination. The more devices you get involved the more robust the network becomes. If you have several nodes in a neighborhood and one or two are lost, the signal still can go elsewhere and eventually get where it is going. Since unlike the regular Internet, there are MULTIPLE WAYS for an individual PC to connect, these networks are quite reliable. You are NO LONGER dependent on just your DSL or cable connection to get out. And neither is anyone else running a wi-fi mesh setup. And of course ANY of these devices could be running a server or host a shared directory for sharing files. Short of a major EMP incident (which would destroy most electronic hardware anyway), such a network would be very hard to completely jam or take down. The phones and PCs involved would still retain their originally intended functionality - this software runs quietly in the background.

Scalability: A mesh network can be as small as a few PCs in an apartment building or it could quite conceivably span an entire city. Licensed ham radio operators routinely transmit computer data over their radios - this is called "packet radio". Imagine the possibilities that open when you combine packet radio with mesh networks.

For more information I have included the following links:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/world/12internet.html?_r=1

http://fabfi.fablab.af/

http://code.google.com/p/fabfi/

http://code.google.com/p/fabfi/wiki/HowToMake

http://inkarlslab.blogspot.com/2011/10/more-internet-censorship-on-way-in-good.html

http://inkarlslab.blogspot.com/2011/06/wanna-beat-internet-censorship-build.html