Guglielmo Marconi's Brithday April 25, 1874

Guglielmo Marconi's was born this day on April 25, 1874 and changed the world forever with his groundbreaking work in radio.

Guglielmo Marconi, 1908

Prepper Essentials: Communication and Information

One of the top 10 most important assets to have during a crisis is communication and the information that can be acquired through communication.  Communication can make the difference between life and death in some situations.  It is easy to recognize the high level needs for communication:

• Communicate with your family and friends
• Coordinate with people that can help you
• Acquire information about what is happening in your immediate area
• Acquire information about what is happening nationally
• Obtain information from alternative sources (not just the official channels)

We are entirely too dependent on infrastructure and services in our daily life and take continuity for granted.  Each new disaster demonstrates that "essential" infrastructure and services are surprisingly fragile and go down when we seem to need them most.

• Mobile phones
• Internet
• Electrical grid
• Natural gas
• Public water
• Sewage treatment
• Public transportation
• Fire
• Police
• Local broadcasting (TV and radio)

Being well-prepared for a disaster means having the ability to live independent from infrastructure and public services.  When it comes to communication and information, shortwave radio and amateur radio can provide people with capabilities without reliance on complex and fragile infrastructure.

Emergency communications antenna

At a minimum, every prepper needs to own at least one shortwave radio.  A shortwave radio provides access to information outside of your immediate area including broadcasts originating outside the country.  Many people consider having alternative to official Government information source to be very valuable in some scenarios.  Most shortwave radios also allow reception of the local AM broadcast band which can be extremely valuable (when still operating) during a disaster (evacution routes, traffic conditions, shelter locations, ...).

Here are some minimum features to look for:

• Battery operated and portable
• Receives the AM broadcast band
• Receives the HF frequency range (1.8 Mhz through 30 Mhz)
• Supports AM, LSB, and USB modes
• Can be connected to an external antenna

A shortwave radio is a great investment and one you will want in advance of a disaster.  Local stocks of shortwave radios will certainly be cleaned out very quickly when real disaster strikes.  A shortwave radio isn't a difficult device to operate; however, it is something you must use and familiarize yourself with before you needed it.  There are some excellent resources on the Internet to help you locate stations and frequencies to listen to.

Remember, a failure to plan is planning to fail.

Happy listening.
NJ2X


See other related articles on NJ2X.COM:

• Hunting Shortwave Broadcast Radio Stations
• Book Review: The Road Home by Andrew Baze

ARRL Frequency Measuring Test - April 19, 2012

The next Frequency Measuring Test is scheduled for Thursday, April 19, 2012, beginning at 10 PM EST (0200z, April 20, 2012). Transmitting sites are operated by K5CM, W8KSE, W6OQI and WA6ZTY. The frequencies are near 3575, 7055 and 14055 kHz.  The data entry site for the April 2012 FMT can be found here.  More information on FMT measuring techniques can be found on the K5CM website.

RMS Titanic Sank 100 Years Ago Today

RMS Titanic

100 years ago today, the RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912 after striking an iceberg during its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City, USA.

Starting at 12:15 AM Morse code distress signals were sent via radio by Jack Phillips from the Titanic (call sign MGY) including the Marconi standard CQD, "— · — · — — · — — · · " and the German standard SOS, "· · · — — — · · ·". 

CQD CQD CQD CQD CQD DE MGY MGY MGY MGY MGY MGY position 41.44 N. 50.24 W

Jack Tramiel - Founder of Commodore International

We were saddened to learn that Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore International recently passed at the age of 83 years.

Commodore played an important role in development of our interest in computers.  We had the pleasure of working with the early Commodore PET and later the Commodore Amiga 2000.

Cherryville ARC Hamfest March 17, 2012

For New Jersey area hams, the Cherryville ARC Hamfest is tomorrow - March 17, 2012.

Ab Absurdo: The New Dipole

Weatherproofing Coaxial Cable Connections

Weatherproofing your coaxial cable connections is absolutely essential to avoiding moisture  damage which can result in high SWR and other problems which diminish your system performance.  DX Engineering has published a helpful document showing how to do it correctly and effectively.  Be sure to give this a read:

DX Engineering - Weatherproofing Coaxial Cable Connections

Weatherproof cable antenna connector box

Winter has a way of accelerating the deterioration of cable weatherproofing.  With the return of Spring and warm weather (at least here in New Jersey), this is an excellent time to get out and inspect and maintain your coaxial cable connections and weatherproofing.  A few minutes of preventative maintenance is a low cost way to assure your cable system continues operating at peak performance.

73,
NJ2X

60m Operations – New Privileges and Recommended Practices

The ARRL has published an excellent guide to 60m operations.  60m privileges were recently revised by the FCC and came into effect on March 5, 2012. Be sure to read up on these important changes, 60-Meter Operations – New Privileges and Recommended Practices.

Upcoming New Jersey Hamfests

Here are a few upcoming New Jersey area hamfests to add to your calendar:

• Cherryville ARC Hamfest March 17, 2012
• Splitrock ARC Hamfest March 24, 2012
• Raritan Valley Radio Club Hamfest June 16, 2012
• Sussex County Amateur Radio Club (SCARC) Hamfest July 15, 2012

FCC New Rules for 60m Band

March 5, 2012 is the day that new rules for the 60 meter (5 MHz) band go into effect.  The new rules were published in the February 3, 2012 edition of the Federal Register.

Summary of the changes to the 60m band in the Amateur Radio Service:

• Replaces one of the channels with a less encumbered one.
• Increases the maximum authorized power amateur stations may transmit in the band.
• Authorizes amateur stations to transmit three additional emission designators.

Keeping Windows 7 Running Well

We recently experienced a hard drive crash with our laptop which was running Windows 7.  The hard drive problem wasn't immediately apparent as the root cause.  The were a number of symptoms that indicated that something was progressively going wrong with the system including system freezing up, extreme slow performance, inability to make a backup, and other strange behavior.

During the process of diagnosis and eventual identification of the root cause we also discovered a wonderful tool called Iolo System Mechanic.  Iolo System Mechanic is a powerful tool set to keep a PC running at peak performance.  The tool does all the hard work and does not require you to be an expert.  It automatically performs important maintenance work such as:

• Repairs registry
• Accelerates start up
• Recovers memory leaks
• Boosts Internet speed
• Defragments drives
• Stops CPU-hogging items

After we finally determined that our hard drive was failing and replaced it, we reloaded Iolo System Mechanic and have been using it ever since to keep our system tuned for speed and reliability.  It is simply the best tool of its kind that we have tried - easy to use and powerful.  We highly recommend the Iolo System Mechanic.

You can download Iolo System Mechanic for 50% off the regular price.

NJ2X


Other related articles on NJ2X.COM:

• Windows 7 Is A Great Teacher

Famous Quotation: Knowledge

The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand. -- Frank Herbert