yak-yak-yak...

[TubaRay]

5. Internet forums are every bit as banal and geeky as amateur radio.

I believe we have just been put down. AGAIN!!!

[Rick Denney]

I only mentioned the cell phones because the Fort Worth Police Department decided to quit using radios in 1989 and go to cell phones.

Really? I think I'll look into this. I've never heard of it before. About that time, most police and fire departments went from analog VHF and UHF repeater systems to digital voice trunking systems in the 800 MHz band. They did that so they could move data as well as voice, and so that they could shared a trunking system with other government services without having to play the channel game with the FCC.

The cell phone network is the first thing to become useless in a real emergency. I know. It took me four hours to complete a call to my wife, who I thought was making a sales call at the Pentagon on the morning September 11, 2001, when I was in Memphis. It turned out she was downtown at the Department of the Interior instead.

The Virginia DOT learned that day that anything they had that depended on cell phones wouldn't work in a big "situation".

I'll bet it wasn't easy to make cell phone calls in the days following Katrina. But radio still worked.

Rick "understanding the vulnerabilities of marginal, non-redundant infrastructure-based communications sytems" Denney

[Rick Denney]

5. Internet forums are every bit as banal and geeky as amateur radio.

I believe we have just been put down. AGAIN!!!

"Banal" is one of my favorite insults implied. But that knife has two edges.

Rick "victim of self-inflicted wounds" Denney

[SplatterTone]

CB's are still widely used in the trucking industry.

Have you seen any significant use of FRS or GMRS radios? It seems the much smaller antenna and quieter band would be an advantage. If not, do you know if it is because they just don't work that well, or if it is a case of catch 22 with not enough people using them to get enough people to use them.

Even though there are legal implications, that has never stopped anyone in the past.

[SplatterTone]

What Hammarlunds you got? What other receivers? I'm gonna get my big Johnson (Viking, that is) on CW and AM this summer or fall & have a real BAR (R=receiver) festival for a vintage station.

As best as I can remember:
Hammarlund:
HQ129 (two of them)
HQ140
HQ160
http://www.radioing.com/museum/rx4.html

Hallicrafters SX111 (the best technologically, but not nostalgically)
http://www.radioing.com/museum/rx3.html

National 183D (my favorite)
http://www.radioing.com/museum/rx5.html

RME-45 (about 2/3 down the following page)
http://www.w8zr.net/vintage/receivers/index.htm

Gonset G-66
http://n4ozi.dezines.com/radio/ba/bl/g77g66.jpg

Heath odds and ends (doesn't everyone??) Including the HW16 I built in high school and a cute little HW8.

A bunch of junk. Probably stuff I've forgotten about.

I have a Knight T-150 transmitter that will have the guy on the other end chasing you all over the place keeping up with the drift.

A Globe King 400 that somebody really needs to get running again and become a member of the in crowd with the 80 mtr. AM-ers.

When one works some of this old stuff, it's kind of surprising how much of a chore it is to use a lot of it. It gives you some appreciation for the people that had to use it for communication. Get out your model-T spark coil and let's see if we can get a QSO going.

[ken k]

10-4 good buddy, We got ourselves a convoy....

i used to sit out in the HS parking lot for about 20 minutes before school and chat with kids from some neighboring high schools, that was sort of fun and innocent enough back then. Who knows whom you would be talking to nowadays.....

Now I have heard that the latest residual effect of cellphones is that the excess radio waves from all the cell phones is confusing the bees and they can not find their hives anymore, so many of the hives in the US are dying. this means that plants will not get pollenated and the planet only has about 3 years left....

over, roger,

ken " and don't call me Roger" k

[windshieldbug]

Surely you jest...

Mike (and I asked you to quit calling me Shirley!) Keller

[TMurphy]

The cell phone network is the first thing to become useless in a real emergency. I know. It took me four hours to complete a call to my wife, who I thought was making a sales call at the Pentagon on the morning September 11, 2001, when I was in Memphis. It turned out she was downtown at the Department of the Interior instead.

My brother works for Verizon Wireless. Everyone in his office is given a company cell phone, and a company pager. Even they don't rely on cell phones all the time.


Of course, their emergency would be that the phone network is down...

[Kevin Hendrick]

Now I have heard that the latest residual effect of cellphones is that the excess radio waves from all the cell phones is confusing the bees and they can not find their hives anymore, so many of the hives in the US are dying. this means that plants will not get pollenated and the planet only has about 3 years left....

... so, no more sons of bees, eh? That'd almost be worth it ...

[ken k]

Surely you jest...

Mike (and I asked you to quit calling me Shirley!) Keller

I am glad you caught my reference to that great line.
k