Pirate shortwave.

[RFBurns]

Just because the FCC issues licenses to radio enthusiasts known as "hams" does NOT make them God or arbitrators or "final say" in ANYTHING even in their tiny spec of spectrum allocations!

Quite frankly...I believe you hams are being dupped and taken for a back ride. Your bands are barely big enough to stick your pocket pencil in much less your "big beam stick" on the 40ft tower in your back yards. I have seen so many licensed hams splatter the bands with spit and sputter spectrum noise all over the place. They fire up, tune for a peak and a majority dont even monitor their signals while conversing about what kind of antenna they are on today or what kind of reading they are getting on the plate current meter...all the while they are splattering a band 50 megs up and down from their intended frequency of operation. Then sign off thinking they are king kacca of the radio spectrum not even knowing or attempting to find out if their chitter chatter caused any spitter spatter...just because of that piece of paper with the infamous FCC symbol they have thinking everything is ok with my stuff but your stuff isnt ok.

PFFT! The only "ham" I find with a purpose is the type served on a plate at a BBQ on a Sunday afternoon with a cooler full of brewskey and a fine bikini wearing gal fanning me while I relax in the lawn chair.

It is my humble opinion that if radio was only meant for dull and boring 2-way communication, we would not have broadcast radio or television on the airwaves at all. Time for you "hams" to realize that the spectrum is NOT just for your little QSL love letter exchanges.

Besides....2-way communication can be had for a tiny fraction of the cost and no one has to obtain any license or bash their sleeping brain cells with study material that has less than 3 percent of what is put onto the tests.

Cell phones, the internet, handy-talkies and such can be obtained by visiting your nearest Wally World or Rat Shack. And yes there is of course..the tried and tested noisy CB band, which in a pinch makes a very effective method of getting "help me I have a flat come rescue me" message out.

Before you hams start bashing me...I was once a licensed ham...Extra class. That was 25 years ago. When I saw where the communications industry was heading, and the considerably less expensive ways that were on the horizon for communicating, I let that expire and sold off all the wonderful "real" ham gear. Now I can chit chat in voice or video or text across the world in an instant and not have to dig out what is being said through buzz and static and clicks and pops....and at a significantly less expense.

I think watching golf is more exciting. (zzzzzzzz)

Eggs and Ham anyone?.....Green perhaps?  

Ahh shortwave....the wonderful part of that spectrum that contains plenty of noise and skip effect your tuned station comes and goes like female friends at a college dorm. Useful for a shortwave time...pointless after the fun is over. (see you tomorrow..same time...same noisy channel?)

If I wanted to listen to voice or music in a "fade-clear-fade-clear-POP-clear-fade" fashion I can turn the volume up and down on my own without the help of the atmosphere.

Today's communications are far advanced from those old days of tin can on a string. But I wont stand in the way or think otherwise of anyone who wants to keep trying new ways to tie that string to that old can. Maybe use paper cups....might get a better frequency response. 



RFB

[KDus]

Awsome, well said.

[velojym]

I would imagine there would be alternatives to using the Government Stick to protect repeaters, but they've pretty much been quashed the same way
government roads have quashed any transportation alternatives that might have come up in a free market.

Build a repeater and use an encryption scheme, accessible to subscribers, to keep the unwashed masses from using it. Not being a radio engineer, that's the best I can come up with, but I'd imagine there are some pretty smart people who could figure it out. I mean.... unless you can realistically homestead bands of the electromagnetic spectrum (I got dibs on the visible stuff! Everyone pay a toll!) then it's down to what free market I.P. would be. Protect your own stuff, and leave everyone else the hell alone.

[KDus]

HD radio (IBOC)requires licensed technology for reception.
Subcarriers require special hardware.
Hams use PL tones for simple security.
There are plenty of scrambling and encoding systems for analog and digital.

As for RFI and plain old too much power next door problems, it can be handled like any other polution type property violation.

[Kuerno]

HF SW "Micros" if you will is entirely possible.  Many of the old tube rigs were AM / CW only.  Old military xtals bought off ebay can by "ground down" to raise the freq with toothpaste on a piece of glass or lowered with a slight mark of a pencil.

Also look into "radio art" that popped up a few years back down in the Mojave desert where folks put up mini-micro SW stations that sent a single message in CW but with DVR technology anything could be sent including the URL for a website or a FAX or SSTV image.

The reason they mainly popped up in the SW and Mojave is the copious amounts of sun to keep batteries charged with very small solar cells.  Here is some discussion.

http://www.frn.net/vines/Forum4/HTML/003378.html

Another very easy possibility that would actually get an "interesting" talk show more listeners (IMO) than a pirate SW station would be a fairly strong CB station during "skip" (as they say) conditions.  During those conditions a 100 Watt station with a decent antenna..let's say in Keene NH could cover the entire West coast from the PNW to Baja and East as far as NM, UT, CO and Montana.  It would be up to the "broadcaster" as to how aggressive they would like to be.  For instance channel 19 is full of garbage anyway yet monitored even today by many truckers.  The signal from across the country during these favorable conditions would blanket the area in the west yet they could still talk to the folks in their caravan.   Having driven between LA and Utah many times I think I would have loved to have heard an interesting talk-show out in the middle of the desert.  However you could just as easy pick an non dedicated channel (not 19 or 9) and just allow people tunning through the channels to find your signal.









 

[KDus]

Having stopped at almost every truck stop in the Southwest, I would have to say that truckers are watching DVDs and listening to XM and Sirrius, not scanning the 11 meter band.
Skip on the CB is really unpredictable, anyway.
Might be more effective to leave FTL CDs at truck stops?

[RFBurns]

Having stopped at almost every truck stop in the Southwest, I would have to say that truckers are watching DVDs and listening to XM and Sirrius, not scanning the 11 meter band.
Skip on the CB is really unpredictable, anyway.
Might be more effective to leave FTL CDs at truck stops?

Well with today's "i-Mobile" devices and most long haul truckers are set up with wireless net connectivity, and with a majority of the major truck stops and large rest areas being set up with Wi-Fi connectivity, they can tune in to net stations easily.

Though IMO its a good idea, not many these days tote around a collection of physical discs with the advent of the i-pod.

Maybe set up a little stand where they can plug in their i-pod and download FTL episodes and maybe have some physical discs on hand for those still enjoying the good ol days.


RFB

[EarSplittinLoudenBoomer]

I was pretty excited to finally land my tech class license 15 or so years ago. But trying to fit into the local clicks on the repeaters in the area proved very disappointing.
So, I keep my license active, but use the upper and lower illegal bands on the CB ... where the people are just down home friendly.

[KDus]

11meters is still alive in los angeles

[dalebert]