As some of you know, I have been studying for my Ham Radio license. I am squared away with the Technician’s License material and could do that exam at any time, but right now life is really – excuse the pun – up in the air. I decided to delay it. In the meantime, I am acquiring some Morse Code skills and soaking in the General material.
In digging around on the internet about Ham Radio I found useful videos from a couple good YouTube sources. One of them is USNERDOC, a man in Oregon who is still a fairly new ham (KF7ETX) and is also interested in preparedness. His handle suggests that he was in the Navy, perhaps is in the reserves, and is in emergency medicine. He has, as a matter of fact, a cottage company dealing with emergency medicine. He has become part of a volunteer network of ham operators who could help out in the case of an emergency, such as a natural or man made disaster. His videos are really helpful, because he explains what he is doing and how he does it. Also, he often uses a handheld radio which one of you readers gave me.
I have had the growing idea of taking a few emergency medicine courses and then perhaps connecting with one of these volunteer ham networks (which are everywhere). It could be good to have a priest involved for those Really Bad Times not to mention TEOTWAWKI.
QUAERITUR: Will it be even easier for the newly formed Civilian National Security Force to hunt me down when the the First Gay President becomes President for Life? At the rate our first freedoms are being eroded by this administration, and with the global economy the way it is, and after what I have written and said and what I stand for …. Okay, enough with that digression.
In any event, below is a video USNERDOC did which shows how he used his little handheld radio with an external mag-mount antenna (the type you could put on your car) affixed to a metal cookie sheet (yes, you need to put in on a metal surface for it to work properly), to RF to a repeater and then using internet radio linking connect to another ham who, in turn was connected by RF to a repeater. Very cool. He mentions that this could be useful where cellphone signals are weak (which is a problem in some places, you know, despite what the commercials say).
I also love the fact that, as a father, he is introducing his son to really cool stuff (including panning for gold!) and is enjoying his son’s enjoyment immensely. He just can’t help going off on a tangent about his son because he is just so jazzed about what the kid is doing. How great is that?
It is important for kids to be exposed to Very Cool Stuff. It sparks their imaginations and expands the interests way past the horizon.
In any event, here is the video. If you are not into the subject matter, you can at least enjoy that he is a mensch.
73s
