Does any of the Waking Titan folks communicates with the world via the radio waves? What set-up are y’all running where is everyone from and what bands do you frequent?
I’m from southeast USA, Alabama to be exact only working radios I own atm are a cheep 2 meter Chinese handheld and a pair of antique Realistic 2 meter walkie talkies and a Radio Shack 2 meter walkie from the 1970s. I use a homemade bipole antenna that I built myself from copper pipe that works pretty well I can key up the local repeaters from about 50 miles on it was plesently surprised. I also have a mobile bipole antenna made from the old style tv antenna cable I keep rolled up in the car for emergencies. I’m looking to pickup a radio to use on the 10 meter and 60 meter bands soon I hope.
I used to have a 2-meter amateur license. A few friends and I built an auto-patch setup…back before cell phones. We contacted a few other groups in our county and had our auto-patch running so others could patch-through ours. We could make radio-telephone calls free all the way from San Diego to Anaheim to Palm Springs. But like most things, Real Life took the $$$ needed to keep the system running…and it eventually disappeared.
I still have my Citizen Band Radio License. I had to pay $49 for it (back before it was free) and take a test! KXR-0711…wow, I still remember the call sign! -)
I didnt have to get a license for citizen band but that is where my fascination for radio stemmed from. It was amazing as a kid to be able to just talk with random people driving down the highway.I think the cell phone craze has just about killed most Interest in radio at least around my house I used to see cars everywhere with antenna and the amateur radio call sign on there tag but now i haven’t seen but one in last couple years. Other than mine.
I still have my Cobra and Royce CB radios. The Cobra has 42 channels and the Royce has 23 channels. The are both about 45 years old. They are packed away. I’ll have to get them out and try them soon! -)
Nice I haven’t seen a 23 channel in years. Talking about Cb’s got me to wondering what I had done with my old cobra base station. Was kinda curious if that many people actually still use the old cb band kinda figured it’s only truck drivers now but maybe not. I got to looking and found it in a hardware box of old junk lol. Poor old radio won’t stay on a set frequency any more kinda aimlessly drifts around but it had 4 toys, upper and lower side band, with the robo/echo board installed in it. I need to see if I can fix it. I’m not even sure you can still get the components anymore. We always bought them at swap meets. When is the last time one of those have been held lol.
See if there’s a ham club in your area! We held swap meets when I was in Edison, I think they probably still do. Radio is such a community based thing that swap meets and other sort of informal gatherings are still super common.
And, for the topic of the thread: I haven’t been doing any radio since I moved to London (been way too busy!) but I still have my dad’s Hallicrafters SX-28 in a box for safekeeping
I am keeping my CB radios in case there is a large extended power outage. That way I can still have emergency communication by hooking it up to my car battery…since the Phone Cell Towers don’t work without ground-based power! -)
Yep good thinking there I’ve had neighbors and friends laughing and complaining about my antennas being a eye sore and they don’t see any reason to mess with archaic technology lol. I have tried explaining that to them but always the same reply I have a cell phone in case of that. Most folk don’t realise that the amateur radio community is still a huge part of the storm warn system and disaster relief. It’s nice to have communication available that is self contained.
Does England have a ham radio community like America does?
When I toured the Queen Mary (which is permanently docked in Long Beach), I saw that they have a ham radio station there that’s manned by a local club. Maybe they have something like that where you are, Emily, that you could do every once in a while and not have to bother with equipment.
I never did any amateur radio on my own, but when I was a kid my best friend had a CB radio and we used to talk to truck drivers. (hey, we lived in the South)
Thanks for posting this. We need more operators with the increase in natural disasters. I am just a listener. But, even listeners need to have a decent emergency radio. I am alarmed at how many people have come to rely solely on their cell phones in a disaster. Everyone should have a hand-cranked/solar powered emergency radio. Here is an article to help choose a decent, affordable one.
Wow, fast response. @sheralmyst I like that. Again my Callsign is KF4LDP, still active 20 years now. And thanks for the “off the grid” radio link. I’m a smartphone user too, but I’m keeping my pen and paper active. NO BATTERIES REQUIRED. That’s the point. I see so many other truck drivers go into a shipper with their info on a cellphone. And then here I come strolling in with a notebook and pen. No scrolling or searching, all right there on one page.
I don’t like seeing the electronic reliability. Way overboard.
That’s all for now, I’m driving. Getting close to Sacramento, again.
I used to have a 2-meter ham license 30 years ago…when other friends were into it. We had an autopatch setup with distance dialing through other clubs from San Diego out to Las Vegas and up to San Francisco (make long-distance phone calls for free!). When we broke up as a group, I sold my 2-meter rig.
I currently have 2 emergency all-band hand-crank/solar/battery radios. I also kept the two CB radios from 45 years ago…they still work. One is a 23(!) channel Royce and the other is a 40 channel Courier. I have mobile antennas. Ready in case of any power failure/emergency.
Yeah, cell phone towers don’t work without power. We lost power here 4 years ago for 3 days…you would have thought it was the end of the world…no cell coverage! LOL
Just a few years ago a freak snowstorm hit our area. People were trapped on the Interstate for 3 days. Many places had no power for 2 weeks. It was so eerie on the Interstate, once everyone was cleared out. You could see places where people had built fires from wood the got alongside the Interstate. Things like that can happen at any time.
Nice radios you have!
