Free Republic

ARRL Field Day Overview ARRL Field Day is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada.  Each year over 35,000 amateurs gather with their clubs, friends or simply by themselves to operate. ARRL Field Day is not a fully adjudicated contest, which explains much of its popularity.  It is a time where many aspects of Amateur Radio come together to highlight our many roles. While some will treat it as a contest, most groups use the opportunity to practice their emergency response capabilities.  It is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate Amateur Radio to local elected community...

Think of what it will be like one day if we wake up one morning, turn on the television and find out the Internet and cell phone networks have been shut down due to a financial meldown or some other inconceivable event. Despite having formed "tea party" and similar groups all around the country, we find ourselves isolated and unable to mobilize anyone. With no way to communicate, millions would find comfort in the prospect of gathering somewhere with all those local patriots once again. But where do we meet? What day? What time? It is exactly THAT scenario that...

WITH a tin can, some copper wire and a few dollars’ worth of nuts, bolts and other hardware, a do-it-yourselfer can build a makeshift directional antenna. A mobile phone, souped-up with such an antenna, can talk to a network tower that is dozens of kilometres beyond its normal range (about 5km, or 3 miles). As Gregory Rehm, the author of an online assembly guide for such things, puts it, homemade antennae are “as cool as the other side of the pillow on a hot night”. Of late, however, such antennae have proved much more than simply cool. According to Jeff...

According to Republican strategist Frank Luntz, Bill Clinton won the presidency in 1992 "because he, more than any other political figure, understood what was happening in the country at that time, and had an innate ability to communicate it right back." Luntz analyzes this victory and others in his new book Win: The Key Principles to Take Your Business from Ordinary to Extraordinary As a longtime media strategist, Luntz has helped craft many sound bites and political phrases during his career, from "death tax" to the "Contract with America." In Win, Luntz argues that careful messaging is as essential to...

Just as the Egyptian government recently forced the Internet to go dark, U.S. officials could flip the switch if the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset legislation becomes law, say its critics. Proponents of the bill, which is expected to be reintroduced in the current session of Congress, dismiss the detractors as ill-informed - even naive. The ominously nicknamed Kill Switch bill is sure to be a flashpoint of discussion at ..." [snip] The debate is sure to intensify after the 0bama administration announced Tuesday a new policy on Internet freedom ..." . . . . . . . ....

So much for objectivity. One of the FCC stipulations of the Comcast – NBCU merger was the incorporation of non-profit journalism centers into NBC newsrooms. They are charged with maintaining and increasing local news coverage, the regulation based on the relationship between KNSD-TV and VoiceofSanDiego.org. KNSD airs the segments, but really can’t take all the credit for them. They are largely the work ofVoiceOfSanDiego.org, a local nonprofit journalism center that has been sharing news tips, co-producing and supplying content to the station for several years. [...] Under the terms of the FCC order approving Comcast’s takeover of NBCU, at least...

Seeing what has happened in Egypt and their ability to quickly shut down the internet got me to thinking about the possibility that at some time in the future OUR Government may try the same with us. Therefor I thought that to prepare for such an event should be planned by us (the citizens who would most likely to be effected as well as the people most likely to need alternatives to internet connections to stay in communications and keep upraised of events not being reported accurately (and intentionally). We would have to depend upon our telephones but that can...

— Africa can feed itself. And it can make the transition from hungry importer to self-sufficiency in a single generation.The startling assertions, in stark contrast with entrenched, gloomy perceptions of the continent, highlight a collection of studies published December 2 that present a clear prescription for transforming Sub-Saharan Africa's agriculture and, by doing so, its economy. The strategy calls on governments to make African agricultural expansion central to decision making about everything from transportation and communication infrastructure to post-secondary education and innovation investment.

When Barak Obama broke onto the scene to a firestorm of liberal adoration and a hyperventilating, awe-struck press, the world was rapt. They cried in heavenly bliss, “At last! At last we have the one! The black man who can lead all of America (and the world, to listen to them) to the Promised Land.” Well, at least most of the world. Some, however, were and remain unimpressed. We conservatives were not taken in by his lofty gaze-we knew it for arrogance, not vision. We were not beguiled when we heard his soaring words, we knew them for empty rhetoric,...

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation a $14 million contract extension to integrate its Common Link Integration Processing (CLIP) system on B-1B and B-52 aircraft, providing aircrews with enhanced battlefield awareness, communications capabilities and weapons management. Under the 17-month contract extension, Northrop Grumman will support software integration, ground and flight tests, and Air Force and joint interoperability certifications. All 66 aircraft in the B-1 bomber fleet and 94 aircraft in the B-52 fleet will be CLIP enabled. CLIP is a software package that allows existing platforms without a tactical data link, as well as platforms with different...

.: Northrop Grumman Corporation has begun flight testing the new computing hardware and communications infrastructure that will eventually allow the B-2 stealth bomber to send and receive battlefield information by satellite more than 100 times faster than today. Since Sept. 1, the company has conducted a series of test flights using a B-2 test aircraft stationed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The flight test program is part of Increment 1 of the U.S. Air Force's B-2 extremely high frequency (EHF) satellite communications program. Northrop Grumman is the Air Force's prime contractor for the B-2 Spirit, the flagship of the...

Why does your freedom matter to you? This may seem like a silly question, with self-evident answers. But part of the reason why freedom continues to be eroded in America is that for many people, it is something that is abstract, unseen, and is taken very much for granted... even while it slips away. In a struggle between the more tangible and the less tangible, the tangible has the distinct advantage. If we want to turn the tide and begin to increase freedom in America, we need to make our freedom, and what it means to each of us individually,...

SNIPPET: "ARRL Field Day is June 26-27, 2010 ARRL Field Day is the largest on-the-air operating event in Amateur Radio. It draws tens of thousands to the airwaves each year, bringing new and experienced hams together for a weekend of fun!" SNIPPET: "ARRL Field Day Overview ARRL Field Day is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada. Each year over 35,000 amateurs gather with their clubs, friends or simply by themselves to operate. ARRL Field Day is not a fully adjudicated contest, which explains much of its popularity. It is a time where many...

Airmen from the 566th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron completed work on extending the service life of the first of 16 Navy E-6B Mercury aircraft June 15. The E-6Bs are flown by members of the Strategic Communications Wing ONE, whose primary mission is airborne communication with Navy submarines. It also serves as an airborne command post for U.S. Strategic Command. Officials said the maintenance process had its share of ups and downs as the first aircraft warranted more attention than usual, but mechanics don't anticipate that to be the case for the remaining 15 aircraft. "We really aggressively pursued and accomplished success...

In the event that the catastrophe takes place which we all are thinking about and talking about in these days under this regime, whether it be a global financial shut-down (see this scenario: http://www.grandpappy.info/honehour.htm), a military strike somewhere, or some such dire event unleashes sudden freeze-up of our society: How do citizens communicate? CB? Short wave? Our lifeblood is communication. What are our options to maintain this link to patriots across the country?

This is pretty scary stuff. The Federal government is ready to seize control of private company networks in order to "protect" us in the event of a hacker attack.

Every now and again someone raises a stern warning about the amount of space junk orbiting Earth. Those warnings are usually met with general indifference, as very few of us own satellites or travel regularly to low Earth orbit. But the DoD's assessment of the space junk problem finds that perhaps we should be paying attention: space junk has reached a critical tipping point that could result in a cataclysmic chain reaction that brings everyday life on Earth to a grinding halt. Our reliance on satellites goes beyond the obvious. We depend on them for television signals, the evening weather...

The US Air Force is moving forward with a major new upgrade for the half-century-old Boeing B-52H fleet, focused on replacing the bomber's radar, which is roughly 30 years old. The Northrop Grumman APQ-166 strategic radar is nearing the end of its useful life and will be replaced on 76 B-52Hs, the USAF says in a request for information issued to industry. The new system will perform all of the mission functions now performed by the APQ-166 mechanically scanned array, but provide "new and enhanced capabilities", the air force says. Although active electronically scanned array (AESA) technology is now available...

The Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah was said to have blocked the flow of information on military deployment in Lebanon. A retired U.S. Army general said Hizbullah has been monitoring and preventing communications between Lebanon and the outside world, particularly regarding the arrival of advanced weapons. The general, Paul Vallely, said Hizbullah has sought to keep secret the flow of conventional and nonconventional weapons received from Iran in 2010. "The Internet has been locked down, very tightly controlled," Vallely said. "Anyone associated with any Israeli will be assassinated." The retired U.S. general, an author and military analyst for the U.S.-based Fox News, said...

Israel's military has determined that Syria was producing its first solid-fuel rockets. Officials said the military and intelligence community said the regime of President Bashar Assad has been producing and deploying a variant of an Iranian long-range rocket. They identified the Iranian rocket as the Fateh-110, developed by Teheran nearly a decade ago and supplied to several countries as well as the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah. "This certainly enhances the military capability of Syria from what it was even five years ago," an official said. Syria has taken the Fateh-110 and developed an enhanced variant. Officials said the upgraded weapon, termed M-600,...