Shortwave: The Warlord's Radio

it was a clear night when muhammad omar hopped onto the back of a motorcycle with his right-hand man abdulgani baratar his home having been the target of the first ever drone strike in history just a few hours prior mulla omar was officially on the run stealing out from his compound into the brisk night mullah omar was headed for the time being for the safety of the mountains but as the founder of the taliban faded into the darkness his mission was not over yet with his trusty shortwave radio he could issue orders raise morale and proved that the americans had not killed him yet all from his hiding places in the snow-capped peaks of afghanistan shortly after waves of american troops began pouring into the country with his shortwave radio omar ordered taliban fighters to abandon the cities and flee to the hills which were more defendable against airstrikes and raids the afghan insurgency had just begun since the dawn of modern warfare military commanders around the world have known the overwhelming importance of communications whether it be runners signal lamps or flags and pennants armies have relied on long-distance communications to issue orders to their troops with the advent of it be runners signal lamps or flags and pennants armies have relied on long-distance communications to issue orders to their troops with the advent of wireless technology during the first world war that term long distance took new meaning with radio technology commanders could communicate with subordinates or superiors dozens or even hundreds of miles away radically changing the nature of warfare even in our modern times hf or high frequency radio also known as a shortwave radio is still going strong among the world's warlords just a few years ago before he became infamous on the world stage joseph kony the leader of the lord's resistance army a militant guerrilla group infamous throughout uganda for their brutality used hf radio to communicate throughout the african continent at their prime the lra had set up early warning networks widespread networks of outposts and observers that would use small captured hf radio sets to communicate between locations for the lra shortwave radio would also be their downfall as ugandan citizens forming their own counter-insurgency groups would use hf radio to warn neighboring villages of lra presence in the area hf radio is just another tool in th ng their own counter-insurgency groups would use hf radio to warn neighboring villages of lra presence in the area hf radio is just another tool in the toolbox that people outside of the hobby radio community often overlook and these days we don't want to overlook anything that might help us ensure reliable non-internet-based communications today we find ourselves living in a unique world to say the least clearly the past couple of years have been very enlightening for all of us in years past we haven't had to deal with or even think about certain things but today it's quite clear that even the normal average guy with a 9 to 5 job is observing the world and very quietly entertaining the idea of running to hide in the mountains with nothing but his family and the clothes on his back sure for most of us this is just a fantasy or a dream that we think about occasionally but in our modern world entertaining the idea of fleeing to the hills at any moment is perhaps not a bad thing to plan for even if just temporarily and if we're going to theorize about extreme circumstances that are not really theoretical but nonetheless on our doorstep we might as well do it right so today let's bring theorize about extreme circumstances that are not really theoretical but nonetheless on our doorstep we might as well do it right so today let's bring these theories and notions out of the realm of fantasy at least with regards to communications and talk about some of the things that can make the motorcycle ride in the dead of night a somewhat survivable option should things take a turn for the worse and to dive deep into hf radio we have to separate ourselves somewhat from the hobby side of amateur radio as many people know the ham radio community has a lot of unique personalities that make it difficult to talk about certain topics such as the ones we're going to discuss today as usual the disclaimers are the longest on the videos talking about radios and today is no exception but like always we will only discuss the fcc and legality when it is pertinent and applicable to the development of the technology itself most of the situations and features we're going to talk about are purely hypothetical emergency situations so it's up to the individual user to read the fcc's rules so without further ado let's talk about some things you need to consider if you want to channel your inner w e individual user to read the fcc's rules so without further ado let's talk about some things you need to consider if you want to channel your inner warlord and start thinking about developing your own communications networks over long distances and over rugged terrain and first up is the nature of the emergency itself one of the very first things we must do is be honest with ourselves a significant portion of the ham radio hobby is devoted to off-grid communications which is great whether it's a quick qso during a summit on the air or soda activation or if it's a quick text message sent while camping the concept of off-grid communications is a great way to test a variety of skills however we do have to ask ourselves if the skills we are practicing really have value in our current times ham radio is often touted as a great emergency communication tool in fact it's really the only way to communicate long distances without a pre-existing infrastructure the unspoken idea among many hams is that they can practice their skills by playing by the fcc's rules and using their real call sign and things like that but at the moment a more domestic situation becomes apparent they can metaphoric y the fcc's rules and using their real call sign and things like that but at the moment a more domestic situation becomes apparent they can metaphorically flip the switch and operate anonymously or in a situation in which they themselves might be hunted we practice this all the time in the ham radio world but we stop short of actually coming out and saying why we're developing these skills and since we always stop short of even verbalizing these things because we're terrified of the fcc we have to be mindful of training mentalities seeping into the real world situations if we never get out of a training mentality we have to wonder if it's even possible to get out of a training mentality can it even be done since emergencies that could improve our radio skills do not happen that often and the emergencies that do happen are almost always related to weather or natural events we are really doing ourselves a disservice by not training to a wartime standard the cuban jamming last year and the communications observations we have made during the war in ukraine have been very enlightening recently and have encouraged many radio operators to re-examine their priorities and what they're actua the war in ukraine have been very enlightening recently and have encouraged many radio operators to re-examine their priorities and what they're actually capable of doing sure it's not exactly feasible to train likely fight with regards to radios sometimes because we are often at odds with the fcc and we have to play by their rules a great example of this is call signs sure we may get to know other people as proper ham radio enthusiasts engaging in the hobby and we might know our friends call signs and their favorite bands and the time of day to operate on but do we know what shall we say alternative call sign they might use in the event that an emergency occurs and they don't want people to know who they are and more importantly if we aren't using our real name in an emergency do we have a pre-established list of who everybody is and what capabilities our local networks have do we practice avoiding jamming truly going by the radio etiquette of only using just enough power to complete the communication or do we blast out 100 watts because we feel like it and if we use low power do we do it because it's polite or because it's a requirement for survival do we have well thought out co ause we feel like it and if we use low power do we do it because it's polite or because it's a requirement for survival do we have well thought out communications plans with procedures for what to do if we get jammed do we practice portability not just going to a campsite or a mountaintop and setting up but constantly being on the move never staying in the same place for more than 30 minutes sending and receiving messages from different locations that are miles apart even over just one single day do we have contingencies to provide information for our communities in the event that governments don't want us to most of the ham radio concepts surrounding emergency communications are often attached to or work in conjunction with local authorities so do we have ways of serving our communities with true and accurate information when government disinformation boards even at the local level don't want us to and going to the extreme hypothetical do we have a plan for when we get the knock on the door not because we broke some fcc rule but solely because we are ham radio operators and might be perceived as a threat to the narrative granted the likelihood of this last one is pretty remote esp ly because we are ham radio operators and might be perceived as a threat to the narrative granted the likelihood of this last one is pretty remote especially considering the history of the ham radio community cooperating with government but it's certainly something to think about for this new age of radio operators these are the kinds of things that we have to think about in our modern context no matter how unpleasant it may be another uncomfortable truth that the ham radio community is not super great at verbalizing is who we are communicating with of course this is a very basic requirement for all communications but i'm going to take this one further and really challenge the preconceived notions that come from the ham radio community on this before selecting a communication tool we must obviously have someone to communicate with for some this is going to be challenging enough because practicing radio comms is really boring for most people you might have a dozen friends that will train you at the range but nobody wants to practice setting up a weekly hf radio net this is a big problem and i don't want to gloss over it so we will talk about this more in due time but what i really m tting up a weekly hf radio net this is a big problem and i don't want to gloss over it so we will talk about this more in due time but what i really mean is what else do we need to do to complete the communication what we do not want is the most up-to-date well-informed and well-communicated radio operators but the rest of our community or group is in the dark most of the time in ham radio communications between hams never leave the shack sure there are various emergency groups and coordination efforts between ham clubs and local authorities but very few radio operators have the same thing for their own community so we need to consider how radio station operators are going to get the information they receive out of their shack and where it needs to go whether this needs to be a system of runners or field telephones or even just a quick heads up to the local area with a handheld on vhf we need to figure these things out let's face it hf radios are some of the most expensive things that most of us are going to buy many times they're more expensive than a rifle so we just have to accept that not everyone in our community will be able to get an hf transceiver most people will be happy e expensive than a rifle so we just have to accept that not everyone in our community will be able to get an hf transceiver most people will be happy to let one guy on the team go that route and that would be the hfcom guy which is fine but we've really got to remember this and consider how we're going to disseminate the information that we exchange over hf radio hf radio is a tool and it's a tool that not very many people know how to use effectively much like the field of intelligence or even reconnaissance military commanders around the world and even warlords have not been super up to speed on how to utilize the resources that they have so don't let hf radio go unused and don't let it be inefficient hf radio is a tool that can grant you a lot of capabilities moving to more technical stuff with hf radio we can talk about things like mars mods and boy is this one dicey topic so this is going to require a bit of explaining for the backstory amateur radio has been around a long time almost as long as the concept of radio itself and back during the cold war a very interesting program was created by the us government called the military auxiliary radio system or mars this was a progra k during the cold war a very interesting program was created by the us government called the military auxiliary radio system or mars this was a program to leverage amateur radio operators into federal service to help with things like civil defense at the time the us government needed to leverage as much talent as possible and this small program was a way for amateur radio operators to help the military in the event of a soviet invasion or just world war 3 in general well over the years and through a lot of politics and other events somebody realized the need for commonality and as the ham radio hobby exploded in the us and ham radio bands were formed and ham radios were specifically made for hobby use the military noticed that the ham radios on the market needed the ability to both function on ham radio bands but also on military frequencies again through more politics and advocacy among radio manufacturers the military and the fcc here's eventually what happened radio manufacturers would build ham radios to operate on every frequency that the radio physically could but manufacturers would also handicap their radios putting in circuitry to restrict what frequencies the radio could that the radio physically could but manufacturers would also handicap their radios putting in circuitry to restrict what frequencies the radio could transmit on effectively locking the radio to only work on amateur radio frequencies but manufacturers would also build backdoor circuitry into their radios to make it easy for individual operators to modify them removing these restrictions altogether so that the radio could once again transmit on all of the frequencies it was built for this allowed amateurs to talk on mars frequencies instead of just the ham radio frequencies if the need arose well in today's world this practice is still continued even if it's rarely advertised the mars program itself is still technically around even though i think the mars program itself is pretty much dead some various service branches shut down their mars program a few years ago the practice of locking radius to only ham frequencies is still done to meet fcc regulations for manufacturers in most modern radios you have to open up the guts of the radio pull out one or two very specific diodes or resistors off the circuit board and the radio will be unlocked some radios don't require any messing aroun pull out one or two very specific diodes or resistors off the circuit board and the radio will be unlocked some radios don't require any messing around on the radio internals but rather quietly have firmware updates to do this each radio is different so if you want to remove the government mandated boot on your radio you will need to look up your specific manufacturer or model sometimes you might have to contact the manufacturer to figure out how to do it but in most cases you could just search online for mars mod and then the model of radio you have and you'll find it quite easily there are also companies that can do it for you if you don't feel comfortable doing a mars mod but it's up to you it's pretty simple in most cases at the end of the day taking advantage of the mostly defunct mars program allows us to fully unlock the potential of our radios so that technically the radio can transmit on every frequency it's built for of course this is against the fcc's rules and a big no-no for amateurs that's why if you're listening to non-amateur frequencies it's a barren wasteland with occasional encrypted military traffic so i'm not sure how practical this is in everyday life when you amateur frequencies it's a barren wasteland with occasional encrypted military traffic so i'm not sure how practical this is in everyday life when you can only transmit off band during apocalyptic level emergencies but you can bet your last dollar that at least for me i would want to be able to use the radio as designed on any frequency i want and not be handicapped by the us government in the event of an emergency so even if you don't use it at all it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it and i would strongly recommend looking into doing a mars mod on your radios if the radio is capable of it just in case up next is mobility in an austere environment one of the ideas that doesn't get too much thought is portability in extremely rugged terrain now just looking around the ham radio world this doesn't seem to be true after all qrp and other portable operations seem to be at an all-time high and that's true it's clear that compact full-featured radios hitting the market have helped encourage the qrp game and that's great however from our perspective going down the ham route for qrp communications might not be quite what we're looking for it will get us in th at's great however from our perspective going down the ham route for qrp communications might not be quite what we're looking for it will get us in the ballpark but it's not exactly what we're looking for remember we're coming at this from the perspective of a person who's living a mobile lifestyle in extremely rugged terrain within this category we also have direction finding and privacy concerns again in the ham radio world where everyone wears their call sign like a badge of honor privacy is pretty much non-existent and that's fine i guess after all no one has ever targeted ham radio operators and forced them to cooperate with a tyrannical regime right right anyway those of us that can read the penciling on the partition can clearly see that these kinds of things are worth thinking about especially these days and if it's worth thinking about is worth thinking about seriously such as when considering the reality of operating in a rugged environment when you are being hunted by some other entity as we have talked about quite a lot the most effective security measure you can take to prevent direction finding is simply remaining mobile keep moving around and nobody will ever be able e most effective security measure you can take to prevent direction finding is simply remaining mobile keep moving around and nobody will ever be able to find you however that's a lot easier said than done especially in the more rugged terrain which we might be trying to operate in rugged terrain or mountainous areas are a great equalizer sure it's hard for people to come get you but it's also hard for you to move around this means our qrp transmissions are not exactly going to look like a peaceful soda activation on a warm summer afternoon we're not exactly going to be sending position reports to the ham radio community saying here's my real name and my grid square in an emergency situation constant mobility camouflage ease of use simplicity reliability and durability are what we need and very few antenna slash radio slash computer combinations can meet all of these demands at the same time and that's okay after all we go to war with the gear we have not the gear we want right and if you right now had to grab a backpack and lie low in the mountains for a few years could you do it this is an almost impossible challenge for most of us as is but now imagine you've got a lot of other n the mountains for a few years could you do it this is an almost impossible challenge for most of us as is but now imagine you've got a lot of other people counting on you maintaining not just your own sheer survival but also running operations with zero supporting infrastructure is not going to be possible without communications and the communications networks that will allow you to have capabilities in such a situation will have to be set up and in place before the emergency not after and all of this will require significant physical fitness and stamina it is just a sheer fact that very few people in the ham radio community place value on physical fitness just for me personally my own personal qrp radio setup that i'm using at the moment weighs about 10 to 15 pounds depending on which batteries i go with and that's just the calm stuff that's not an insignificant weight when you consider that i've also got a carrier out 50 to 70 pounds of other gear just to survive in the backcountry for maybe even months at a time if you're going light and say have an assault pack or chest rig or belt kit or whatever you might seriously be looking at your hf qrp rig being a pretty significant pe ight and say have an assault pack or chest rig or belt kit or whatever you might seriously be looking at your hf qrp rig being a pretty significant percentage of your total weight for what should have been a lightweight go fast setup so all of that being said we can see how physical fitness is paramount considering that we're not exactly preparing for your grandfather's soda activation and to get the calm shot we need to meet the calm window we're going for we might have to climb a tree after hiking 12 miles up and down mountains heck we might have to grab some water and a light backpack with our radio and climb a thousand feet of elevation in a couple of hours to get a message out your physical fitness is directly proportionate to your success as a radio operator and by extension an operator of any kind in the backcountry we don't want people to die because we were too fat to get up a hill to hit a repeater maintaining routine coms is the standard and even this baseline will require good physical fitness anything beyond that such as emergencies and bad conditions will require even higher fitness standards up next let's talk about some data modes in the ham radio world data modes a emergencies and bad conditions will require even higher fitness standards up next let's talk about some data modes in the ham radio world data modes are the new hotness they've become really popular over the past couple of years because they're much more efficient and much easier to use in an emergency and the first one i wanted to talk about is ready rtty mostly called riddy is short for radio teletype this is a digital mode that is what many would call ancient in fact teletype predates the invention of radio itself being one of the earliest ways of sending information using early manual computers for the radio community ready was the very first digital radio mode predating every digital mode that we know today ready is still used today and is very useful for certain tasks such as for sending weather data to ships at sea for the modern reasonable citizen who is forced to live an unreasonable lifestyle riddy can become very handy for communicating lots of text in a relatively short time frame of course other digital modes are arguably better at this and ready is far less popular which is sometimes a benefit sometimes using an obscure but still reliable digital mode is quite handy t better at this and ready is far less popular which is sometimes a benefit sometimes using an obscure but still reliable digital mode is quite handy the real benefit of using riddy is that many radios have a way of decoding these messages right on the radio so you quite literally don't need anything but the radio itself to decode and sometimes send ready messages just hang up your antenna tune to the right frequency and you're done the radio itself will decode the messages sometimes quite long messages in real time right there on the screen for you to read very handy for sending intel reports or news from a larger base station to several units in the field in a contingent or emergency situation where we might have these kinds of communications set up at a certain time of day everyone can tune to the right frequency and pick up what the hq has to say weather reports news from the front general announcements the list is endless you could theoretically send a whole page of text in just a few minutes with everyone's radio decoding this message letter for letter in real time now all of this time we've been talking about ready but there are a lot of other similar modes you can look up yo ssage letter for letter in real time now all of this time we've been talking about ready but there are a lot of other similar modes you can look up yourself ready is really just the oldest member of a family of digital modes that include modes like psk31 psk31 is very similar to riddy but uses much less bandwidth and has a few other quirks and benefits as well there are of course some downsides to using riddy several modes have corrected some of these issues but speaking only for ready at the moment bandwidth can be an issue during times of peak usage the bandwidth on the ham bands that has been allocated to riddy is also comparatively small and during ham radio contests or during good propagation the bands can be difficult to use for practical purposes also riddy is not the best for weak signal propagation psk is better at this so definitely check out psk31 if you're interested in this kind of thing but for me i think of ready as more of a one-way communication because oftentimes your smaller qrp radios in rugged less than ideal field conditions might struggle to communicate back to an hq using ready the bottom line is that modes like ready are very useful for sending a lot of tex d conditions might struggle to communicate back to an hq using ready the bottom line is that modes like ready are very useful for sending a lot of text very quickly in many cases to radios that can display that text in real time right on the radio's display without digging out any additional equipment like a laptop tablet raspberry pi or even a phone it's all quick and self-contained but that's not only what ready can be used for ready can be received and decoded easily by receivers and smartphone apps so quite literally all you need is a smartphone and a shortwave receiver or an sdr dongle all you have to do is fire up the app on your phone tune up the radio and hold the phone's microphone to the radio's speaker then you'll be able to read the messages on your screen in real time with these very minimal investments you can receive ready messages in real time without buying a very expensive hf transceiver for this purpose riddy has real potential to shine as an off-grid news service with people all throughout a region tuning in at a certain time of day to receive the daily news bulletin or other important information of course ready is not perfect and characters are frequently drop ertain time of day to receive the daily news bulletin or other important information of course ready is not perfect and characters are frequently dropped that's why it's not really good for sending absolutely critical messages that cannot have an error every now and then if you try listing in yourself to the handbans you'll see that you will quite frequently see a lot of errors and you've kinda got a guess as to what some words are it's not a big deal for stuff like news or for full sentences but it is enough of a hassle that you might want to go with something else for super important comms but for easy mass communications that an entire region can listen to easily using minimal equipment riddy and other various similar modes are pretty hard to beat another handy feature for setting up networks in the field is the ability to send images over hf radio on some radios you can send digital images over the air using just the radio itself the utility of sending images over the radio is limitless as they say a picture is worth a thousand words and on the radio where the amount of words you use matters in many cases it could be much more efficient to take a couple of minutes and send a pi rds and on the radio where the amount of words you use matters in many cases it could be much more efficient to take a couple of minutes and send a picture obviously we're not going to be sending extremely high quality images but on modern radios this isn't like the old days of sending sstv images either we're not talking about sending grainy thumbnails these images that can be sent over digital radio modes are infinitely more usable and valuable not just a postcard like in years past now this is where we start tumbling down the rabbit hole and i'm not quite sure about the technical side of things or even the legal side of of doing stuff like this because this is such a new feature that i'm not really sure if the community is kind of built up just yet so let me explain the the ic705 again shows its superiority here because built into this radio is the ability to send images from the radio itself to another this is not something that's particularly unique sending images over the radio can technically be done by any analog radio as well via stuff like sstv that's been around for decades now however what's unique is sending images on digital modes even then this is not unique to the i via stuff like sstv that's been around for decades now however what's unique is sending images on digital modes even then this is not unique to the ic705 other radios do this too because it's really taking advantage of the features of d-star now this one requires me to go way off-topic for a moment so please bear with me d-star is just another digital propagation method like dmr or p25 of course these have their differences and d-star is mostly known throughout the ham radio community for being used with hot spots now hot spots on their own are a somewhat controversial topic which requires a bit of explanation basically a ham radio hotspot is a little box with a little antenna on top of it connected to the internet which in turn connects it to other hotspots around the world the way it works is you key up your radio to hit the hotspot sort of like how you would hit a repeater but instead of that signal being amplified locally it gets sucked up by the internet and spit out on another hot spot around the world some hot spots are even connected to repeaters or reflectors or local nets you kind of get the idea this is generally how d-star works d-star is almost never talked about in t onnected to repeaters or reflectors or local nets you kind of get the idea this is generally how d-star works d-star is almost never talked about in the context of simplex operations now you see why it's necessary to go way off topic and explain all that pretty much everyone that uses d-star to talk is talking to a d-star gateway or reflector or hotspot or something like that and the people who like to skirt the fcc's rules find difficulty in doing this because you cannot use a d-star repeater or gateway or reflector without a call sign which gets transmitted along with your voice so for all of the illegal operators out there using d-star has no appeal but what about simplex you see d-star is just another way of organizing the data you want to send theoretically it would work the same as something like dmr in simplex mode transmitting from one radio to another with nothing else in between and it does but the cool part about d-star is that it can also be used to send images right from the radio itself without any other hardware needed except for maybe a smartphone if you wanted to use one and that is exactly why the ic705 shines you see the ic705 is not the only radio that has this except for maybe a smartphone if you wanted to use one and that is exactly why the ic705 shines you see the ic705 is not the only radio that has this feature built in the icom ic52 has this feature built in as does the kenwood thd 74a however the ic705 is to my knowledge the only hf radio rig that has this feature at least it's the only qrp rig that is so technically the ic705 can physically transmit images over hf frequencies using dstar's digital voice function in simplex mode and very little information on this unique feature exists because well 99 of dstar users are using repeaters or gateways or hotspots or reflectors or whatever almost nobody is using dstar in simplex mode my guess is that this combination of features is so new and the ic705 is so new that there just isn't a community built up around this specifically just yet again sending images is not new sending digital images is again not new sending images using the radio itself is again not new but having all of this together in one package that's also a qrp radio for hf frequencies well that is new again i think the ic705 is the only radio that does all of this at the moment i think the ic 7300 the 705's bigger brothe frequencies well that is new again i think the ic705 is the only radio that does all of this at the moment i think the ic 7300 the 705's bigger brother also has the same features but it's obviously not a small radio in any case this is an exceptionally powerful setup and i hope that icom and other manufacturers keep on developing this out because this is a seriously exciting capability that certainly needs to be incorporated on more radios in the future every aspiring warlord needs the capability to blast out memes from the backcountry right at last we arrive at the king of digital hf modes js8 call js8 call is a very new mode that is based off of the equally legendary ft8 ft8 was developed a few years ago as a way to quickly and efficiently make simple handshake style contacts very quickly and automatically ft8 has not been without controversy over the years because it takes a lot of the personality out of radio which a lot of traditional guys don't like as for me i love these kinds of modes ft8 is exceptionally useful for training if you get into hf radio you will rapidly find out how finicky things usually are atmospheric conditions new antennas new radios rain snow thunderstorm f you get into hf radio you will rapidly find out how finicky things usually are atmospheric conditions new antennas new radios rain snow thunderstorms you name it there are a lot of things that can change how far you can transmit this is not really great when you're wanting a steadfast and reliable communications method in years past we haven't really had the tools to kind of mitigate some of the downsides of hf radio like reliability right but these days we have great tools like ft8 which can help us mitigate some of these problems and make hf radio a lot more reliable especially for the prospective warlord up in the mountains right ft8 is great for making sure that you can still get messages out if you change something in fact if you are into making your own antennas for hf radio i'd say that ft8 is a mandatory tool for testing or rather it was a mandatory tool before js8 call came out js8 call is kind of the best of both worlds on js8 call you can send out long form text messages on one part of the band so that you can have your longer conversations if you want this is sort of like riddy or psk31 except messages are not going to come in letter by letter on js8 call more of like onger conversations if you want this is sort of like riddy or psk31 except messages are not going to come in letter by letter on js8 call more of like a burst com method but on the other side of the band you can use what's called heartbeats these are simple messages sort of like pings that are automatically sent by your radio to other radios who can hear you this is just like the handshake style messages on ft8 but on js8 call this feature can be used to store and forward messages js8 call allows you to store messages and even relay them from one station to another station that is out of range of you vastly increasing your range this can also be used to store messages as well so say you go offline for a bit and you miss a comm window well if someone tries to send you a message ordinarily you would miss it because you're all packed up and you're on the move on the trail right but if you have things set up with js8 called just right if say a different station another station in your network here's the message intended for you or if it was sent to that station first that station will store that message for you and when that third party station hears your heartbeat hears you come back as sent to that station first that station will store that message for you and when that third party station hears your heartbeat hears you come back online it will send you all of the message traffic that you missed when you were offline js8 call is super popular among hams and a lot of people have talked about js8 call more than we could ever hope to however it's the little things that often get left out like the fact that js8 call will work on any frequency you want not just the ham bands so in the zombie apocalypse where the scary fcc doesn't exist anymore we can actually use jsa call on whatever freak we want if we have done the mars mod to our radio and opened it up to its full potential very handy to have during those pesky zombie apocalypses up next is sending emails and specifically using winlink in peer-to-peer mode winlink has become popular throughout the hf radio world because it's one of the best ways to send emails via radio the way this works is pretty simple you download the software to your computer which is hooked up to your radio tune your radio to a gateway or node that's near you then compose and send your message the gateway picks up your radio transmission p p to your radio tune your radio to a gateway or node that's near you then compose and send your message the gateway picks up your radio transmission picks up your email and sends it via the internet to a gateway near the intended recipient which then spits it out at the right gateway and transmits it as a radio signal where your recipient can receive it on their radio it's actually a bit more complicated than that but that's kind of the gist of it well if you're like me you might have some pretty strong reservations about an internet-based middleman i understand that there are some good uses for this such as during local internet outages but as for me i am not interested in my data going over someone else's server much less over the internet in fact for the longest time i avoided winlink just based on principle for instance you cannot even open winlink express without putting in a call sign this presents a lot of challenges for the emergency user and generally speaking when you see software that is so obsessed with things like this um it's it tends to leave a bad taste in my mouth especially for an emergency use where the rules don't matter anymore if you've got software that's tha it's it tends to leave a bad taste in my mouth especially for an emergency use where the rules don't matter anymore if you've got software that's that's trying to enforce rules that don't exist anymore like in a zombie apocalypse scenario right um i don't want my own computer working against me all that being said this can be gotten around for only peer-to-peer communications which is what we want anyway it's a huge hassle though and for many it won't be worth it in peer-to-peer mode you can send emails from one offline user directly to another no internet no gateways and no gatekeepers again this is not easy to set up but it is possible so we may have to talk about this more in depth in the future though winlink is a bit of a hassle to get set up as it requires a couple of other programs and is more intricate to set up it is worth it if you can get winlink to work for peer-to-peer communications and peer-to-peer communications are really what i prefer anyway just because i don't like the idea of any potential for gatekeeping activity to occur someone doesn't like your call sign they can delete you from the winlink server i don't like that idea and especially for an emergency comm y to occur someone doesn't like your call sign they can delete you from the winlink server i don't like that idea and especially for an emergency communications method if they people decide that oh this isn't a strong enough emergency and therefore we're not going to allow you to communicate on our servers well i just don't like that potential so peer-to-peer is really where i would prefer to be and winlink is really worth it in that case because you can send not just a wall of text in an email but you can also send attachments the ability to send attachments in an email from one radio to another is limitless even if it takes a bit of work to get there sometimes js8 call just isn't the right tool for what we're trying to communicate and putting up with winlink is the better option for me js8 call is a lot more user friendly and very reliable under somewhat kinetic situations for instance if i'm out on a hike or something and i've got five minutes to halt and send a quick heartbeat back home js8 call is great for that just sling up your antenna really quick click a couple of things on your tablet and you're good to go wind link is what i'd use for when you're at your bed down locati r antenna really quick click a couple of things on your tablet and you're good to go wind link is what i'd use for when you're at your bed down location for the night and you've got time to sit down and download a stack of emails from your base station this makes it easier on everyone because your hq can type up emails throughout the day and let them sit in the outbox until your radio comes back online then when you've got your winlink up and running the hq will hear your pings and send that stack of emails to you automatically very handy for exchanging a lot of data very efficiently up next is com scheduling a lot of people are by now familiar with the pace plan concept that is a list of primary alternate contingency and emergency communications that you can work through just in case your primary method doesn't work out but what we forget is that the pace plan is really just one big emergency plan itself if the primary frequency or bands doesn't work move to the alternate and so on this is really great for emergencies or just spotty communications and ensures that we have a coordinated plan to go to just in case things get squirrely but the pace plan is not really the same thing a communications and ensures that we have a coordinated plan to go to just in case things get squirrely but the pace plan is not really the same thing as a communications schedule and a schedule is just as important having a predetermined calm window is again not a new concept but if you're running large operations and trying to juggle communications between stations and team members in the field and routine message traffic to relay across the region or spot reports salute reports medical issues things can get to be a really big headache and since we're trying to be simple and efficient with our comms here's what a schedule might look like we can essentially take what would be an hour long com window and break it up into a more efficient data transfer this is of course just one way to skin the cat but in this example we start our comm window with js8 call this is great because js8 call allows us to kind of double dip we can use this chunk of time to both monitor heartbeats and at the same time send and receive actual text messages starting off with a 30 minute js8 call window allows us to start off this communications period by seeing which team members are out there who's available ing off with a 30 minute js8 call window allows us to start off this communications period by seeing which team members are out there who's available to talk how much traffic they have and so on i know this might be a bit confusing so let's take a look at what this might look like in a real world scenario taking into account everything that we've learned and planned for you've just arrived at your designated observation post for the night so you set up your antenna set your camp up get your comms schedule ready and start up js8 call to get ready to send your salute reports that you were writing earlier in the day we're going to assume for this example that everyone is behind restrictive terrain or too far away for vhf to be reliable so we can mostly run envis antennas which direct our signals straight up to the ionosphere where it gets reflected back to our area of operations like an umbrella this way as long as we have a clear view of the sky we don't have to worry about things like terrain or skip ranges and we can have solid comms throughout our region that are also slightly more difficult to direction find for anyone that might be hunting us so we get everything set up we you k throughout our region that are also slightly more difficult to direction find for anyone that might be hunting us so we get everything set up we you know make camp for the night and we wait for our communications window at 2200 or whatever time the comm window is we can see a total of five stations pop up on jsa to call our own station the hq that we need to communicate with one guy running an overnight donkey train supply route inbound to our hq's location and two other dudes like us sitting on some hill or observation post well we can find a clear offset on the waterfall and ping our hq's call sign with the number of reports that we have to send in our case we've only had two salute reports to send today but we can see from the message traffic on js8 that the guy running the donkey train has a stack of emails to send which he's hoping to send while he's still out about a day's drive out from the hq he probably could have sent these emails from the larger transmitter at the settlement he originated from but these are relatively low priority emails and rather than tie up the state level frequencies and com schedules it's more efficient to just physically take the communications and riority emails and rather than tie up the state level frequencies and com schedules it's more efficient to just physically take the communications and transmit them when he and his cargo get a little bit closer anyway and by hopping on js8 call all at the same time the hq can coordinate message traffic obviously the salute reports take priority so those are probably going to get stacked first and when those are sent the hq can ping the donkey train when ready and he can connect to the hq and transmit his stack of emails it doesn't take much effort even if everyone cannot hear everyone else as is extremely common in the world of radio using js8 calls store and forward function we can relay messages to the hq and make special accommodations for linking up later if comms are an issue and finally once the routine message traffic is exchanged the hq can then blast out a ready message for everyone such as news bulletins and weather this is an absolutely fantastic use for riddy since anyone in the area not just the people that we're talking about today anyone in the area that has a shortwave receiver or an sdr and a smartphone can download an app and receive the messages very handy for se about today anyone in the area that has a shortwave receiver or an sdr and a smartphone can download an app and receive the messages very handy for sending out messages to a large audience and before we close out this com window for the day we can dedicate five minutes or so to listening for hf voice transmissions voice communications are not ideal for transferring lots of data very quickly that's why we have relied on data modes in this example up until now but old school voice transmissions are simple and easy for most people to do plus if an inexperienced user who has no idea how to work a radio were to walk up to an hf transceiver chances are they would figure out how to verbally talk on it before they figured out how to work a data mode so this is kind of a simple last ditch com window that can be monitored by everyone just in case something is up with somebody and they've got to use voice to talk through an issue and if after all of this we still have stations that have gone dark well then we can start working through our formalized pace plan or our lost contact plan so as we can see even though this is not technically a pace plan itself this is just an efficient schedule for ized pace plan or our lost contact plan so as we can see even though this is not technically a pace plan itself this is just an efficient schedule for routine traffic it kind of takes the form of a pace plan generally speaking so that kind of helps as well remember schedules like this one can be very flexible this is just one way to look at small or even medium group size communications priorities scheduling will never take the place of a pace plan but using a schedule is a very helpful way to think about how we might set up complex infrastructures for routine communications of many different formats and finally let's talk encryption because i feel like that's going to come up encryption is of course a taboo subject in ham radio which is a rabbit hole i'm not going to go down at this point the bottom line is that encryption is possible in some situations in the commercial radio world and commercial radios are known for their ability to run encryption at least some of them are however what you will not find is encryption on hf radio shortwave radio is still the domain of hams so encryption is just not something that is feasible right now is it theoretically possible yes absolutely h ortwave radio is still the domain of hams so encryption is just not something that is feasible right now is it theoretically possible yes absolutely however someone would have to build it from the ground up on the software side and manufacturers would probably have to build radios that were compatible with it too which is highly unlikely so hf radio is probably not the best for your communications that you would like to remain private and for a lot of people this is a deal breaker which i understand i would warn against completely writing off hf radio though because you can't run encryption on it encryption is something that we need to work on for sure but we cannot discount hf radio simply because that's something that we don't have right now we can get it in the future and seeing as the only things keeping us from using one time pads on hf radio already is the fcc's rules we can see how this might not be as big of a challenge as we might think in the radio community we have a tendency to think small small teams operating tactical level comms at the smallest possible level 95 percent of all questions about radio on the internet seem to be what ptt do i get from my bowel thing or w vel comms at the smallest possible level 95 percent of all questions about radio on the internet seem to be what ptt do i get from my bowel thing or what pouch do i get from my plate carrier that's all well and good but if we accept the responsibilities that have been thrust upon us the responsibilities to create larger networks than just our small neighborhood group we can see the need for more than just handheld voice comms with hf radio we have to think bigger and that's what this whole exercise has been about let's not forget all of these things are not just useful for larping around in the woods with some friends if we were to take these scenarios as seriously as we can and really think about the times in which this stuff will be useful we have to be honest with ourselves if a day comes when we find ourselves living in remote locations for survival we will 100 need all of these things for more than just warfare by doing the mars mod on your radio you can ensure that the very moment that an emergency occurs you can have a fully functional radio that is not restricted in any way very handy during the zombie apocalypse scenario of the fcc not existing if you were bit by a snake y nctional radio that is not restricted in any way very handy during the zombie apocalypse scenario of the fcc not existing if you were bit by a snake you could send a picture of that snake to an underground doctor that you know on dstar for identification ready could be used for daily news updates or broadcasts or lists of checkpoint locations or even routine message traffic echoing the original uses from teletype js8 call could be used to ensure connectivity between settlements and temporary hole-up sites or even reimagine the telegram for group members who are trying to communicate with friends and family around the globe you could set up digital radio trading posts where community members could offer up goods for sale or advertise something they are looking to buy or trade js8 call could be helpful for maintaining contact with individuals frequently on the move transmitting updates from one site and using the store and forward feature to receive message traffic at their next location ensuring that no one not other groups or even the hq sending the messages in the first place truly knows where that one group or person is located rather than having a trailer set up with a handful o hq sending the messages in the first place truly knows where that one group or person is located rather than having a trailer set up with a handful of ham radio operators sending messages via voice we can have an entire disaster communications team working inside a tiny radio sending receiving and forwarding messages and data automatically as we are on the move and doing all of this wirelessly controlling the radio with devices like bluetooth or wi-fi this takes a lot of the hassle out of the radio game ensuring that even the most inexperienced users can seamlessly use these radio modes of course pretty much everything i've mentioned today is not unique to shortwave frequencies you can pretty much do all of this on vhf and uhf too it's just that almost all of the platforms software packages and radios that have these unique features are really intended for shortwave frequencies so yeah you could do a lot of this on vhf and uhf but most of the stuff we've talked about today is really meant to take advantage of the extreme long range and atmospheric propagation features of hf radio vhf and uhf are great but i'm not sure about anyone else but a lot of the time we here are out of rang nd atmospheric propagation features of hf radio vhf and uhf are great but i'm not sure about anyone else but a lot of the time we here are out of range of each other or line of sight is not guaranteed and again if we're talking about communications between groups or people in remote locations hf radio is really one of the only options that we have vhf uhf repeaters are great and work really well but they are also disturbingly easy to collect intelligence on hf communications which can change frequency and broadcast location easily on a whim well that might be a better option in a lot of cases even for close range communications i know that this must seem like one giant advertisement for the icom ic705 but i assure you that's certainly not the case this is just the only radio that we know of that checks most of the boxes that we need for truly resilient reliable simple and durable communications in austere environments and i for one am very interested to see what radio manufacturers can do now that the bar has been set so high by icom and now that software-defined radios are the new hotness when it comes to these truly awesome radio modes i know that this is a lot of random informat and now that software-defined radios are the new hotness when it comes to these truly awesome radio modes i know that this is a lot of random information to take in but that's just the way it is a lot of times in the radio world nothing is ever easy in the field of communication and when we talk about radios it is very difficult to speak about these topics clearly and succinctly the best we can do is talk about random things you need to know tied loosely together by a common theme and that's okay because even right now the radio community is bringing a lot of brilliant minds together and making the field of communications a lot more simple and accessible to everyone this may be a bold statement to make but i completely believe that with the recent developments in technology and the developments that are just on the horizon living without the internet is truly possible and will be very feasible for large numbers of people within just a few years can we fully replace the entire internet via radio probably not it might be difficult to stream the latest mind-numbing 4k movie to come out of hollywood but duplicating the best parts of the internet the parts that help humanity grow learn ream the latest mind-numbing 4k movie to come out of hollywood but duplicating the best parts of the internet the parts that help humanity grow learn and thrive well that's certainly within our grasp the idea that we dream of grabbing a backpack and running to the hills must not be perceived as simply trying to avoid the world's problems our goal is not simply to become a warlord in the mountains a hermit watching society collapse oh no our goal is to strike a balance between the autonomy and safety that austere environments provide and also our responsibility to help others through the tough times ahead or at least that's our goal here if we can do that build resilient vibrant self-reliant communities in rugged terrain or on the run if need be well we will most certainly be able to meet any challenge the world throws our way but to get to this point where we can develop these intricate communications networks it's going to require a lot of work and if you're going to go right to the bleeding edge of what's possible right at the very edge of what technology is being developed it's very hard to make a lot of this stuff work and this gets infinitely more difficult when the experts in edge of what technology is being developed it's very hard to make a lot of this stuff work and this gets infinitely more difficult when the experts in the field are at the best of times not helpful and at the worst of times adversarial to the very specific needs that we sometimes have anyone new to the radio community can clearly see this unique culture so hopefully this can be a great way to challenge the new generations of amateur radio users to change the culture for the better the fcc's biggest tool in their toolbox is fear and boy do they wield it but the fcc does not control physics and they do not have the ability to restrict the earth's electromagnetic field only to certain people all they have is the fear of what they'll do to you if you take to the airwaves without their permission and since the fcc is interested in nothing but the continuation of tyranny and the restriction of free speech my guess is that a lot of people these days are re-examining this relationship and will continue to do so in the future so we can keep things legal for the sake of keeping boot prints off our door but we also don't need to quote fcc regulations every five minutes when discussing what is ings legal for the sake of keeping boot prints off our door but we also don't need to quote fcc regulations every five minutes when discussing what is theoretically possible for us to do with this amazing thing called radio and boy do we have a lot of discussing and a lot of learning to do so let's find out what's possible and start getting serious when it comes to off-grid anonymous communications we aren't going to get anywhere relying on anyone else and if we hope to make radio use a cultural norm we have a lot of work to do to make this a viable alternative to internet or cellular communications shortwave radio is one of those little things that unites humanity though you may be stuck on some mountain in bad weather just having an awful time a friend is only a few keyboard taps away so let's get out there and make some friends and see what we can do in the field of radio especially when it comes to operating in austere environments and less than traditional operation modes so let's get out there and let's get to work with seeing what we can do with radio because if we can figure a lot of this stuff out it will make it a lot easier to fight in the shade