RE: PB notable on amateur radio.

 

Strongly concur on value of amateur radio.

 

As the evil black rifle is to the Second Amendment, amateur radio is to the First.

 

This is especially true with regards to HF, which is mostly accessible through “General” and “Amateur Extra” rather than the entry level “Technician” license class, which allows you to communicate worldwide. None of the three license levels require Morse code any longer, just a multiple choice exam, with a published question and answer pool. You read that correctly, the questions and answers are published and freely available.

 

We shall avoid the issue of a license to exercise a right from the current discussion.

 

Educated and experienced consensus is that hamstudy.org is the premiere and one-stop study option. I have used them myself with much success and recommend them unreservedly.

 

Compare various ham radio study materials here-

 

https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-category?id=56&sort=-activeReviewsCount

 

This are the reviews for the product I recommend-

 

https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=3412

 

Also the eham.net site, qrz.com are amongst the best online amateur radio resources, especially the forums. ARRL.org, the national amateur radio organization, is also a valuable resource. A great many places have amateur radio clubs that can be a little helpful, sometimes much more, and may found through the arrl.org web site. Twice a year there are Field Day events many places which can be quite valuable.

 

Also the ar15.com ham radio forum is most excellent, and often a healthy contrast to the above forums-

 

https://www.ar15.com/forums/Outdoors/Ham-Radios/22/

 

older ar15.com ham forum discussions are here-

 

https://www.ar15.com/archive/forum.html?b=10&f=22

 

2 real world examples-

 

specific ar15 thread regarding amateur radio involved communications in a second amendment rally-

 

https://www.ar15.com/forums/General/-ARCHIVED-THREAD-Rattlesnake-Rally-Comms-AAR/5-2290740/?page=1

 

specific ar15 thread regarding amateur rally involved communications around hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico-

 

https://www.ar15.com/forums/outdoors/Heading-to-Puerto-Rico-with-my-radio-Wish-me-luck-/22-690608/

 

Someone who passes their General or Amateur Extra with the help of hamstudy.org, spends time reading the forums referenced above, operates regularly, and socializes occasionally with other operators should develop into a top tier operator.

 

Someone who does those things just enough to get up to speed will still be a guardian of our freedoms the same way that responsible firearm owners are.

 

Being able to exercise free speech tactically, locally, nationally and globally, without the need for, or censorship of, third parties is a vastly underappreciated and underutilized freedom.

 

From a local monitoring standpoint, there are online resources that will let you listen to local scanners (well known here),

 

the inexpensive and amazingly versatile RTL-SDR-

 

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/

 

the Tecsun pl 880, which can also receive shortwave, (relatively) distant AM and FM stations and SSB-

 

https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=11457 (available many places)

 

or even possibly the Kenwood TH- D74, which can also be used for local (and some national/global through satellites and the DSTAR network) amateur radio communication-

 

https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=13063 (also available many places, such as Ham Radio Outlet, Universal Radio or Gigaparts)

 

Lastly, the Bearcat SDS100 which is great for a number of flavors of encoded/digital/trunked/P25/etc., though not encrypted, local transmissions such as emergency services, air, marine, railroad, utilities and even Walmart comms. For monitoring digital trunked comms, there are not a lot of alternatives. The SDS100 is arguably one of the best right now.

 

The more you know…