Posted on 08/29/2009 3:54:17 PM PDT by oldfart
One of the nice things about internet bulletin boards is the anonymity of each poster. Of course it isn’t perfect since the board owner has enough information to positively identify everyone and TPTB can (and probably will) demand that data whenever they choose. In the meantime there is one way our paranoia can be used against us.
We all swear that our “line in the sand” is the confiscation of our guns. We say that if and when it happens we will get the word out on the internet and thus mobilize thousands of patriots.
Good idea. But what if there is no internet? What if the President decides to use his power to turn off private access to the net before the confiscation begins? How will we notify others of what is happening?
One thing this administration has taught me is to never assume they’re doing anything abstractly… they always have a good reason for what they do and when they do it. After years in the Illinois legislature furthering gun control Obama has spent eight months in the Presidency without even so much as trying to push a gun control bill. But in the last week we’ve heard that at least one Federal judge (from Chicago, I believe)believes gun registration is Constitutional and now we see a bill introduced to give the President new powers to control the internet in the event of some ill-defined “cyber emergency.” Where other Presidents have – when once elected – generally ignored the organizations that helped them get elected, this President is advertising for “recruits” to continue working for the “change” he espoused.
I wonder what color their shirts will be, brown?
So suppose TPTB discover (or manufacture) some sort of ‘cyber emergency,’ shut down servers all over the country and then begin kicking in doors. How do we get the word out? We’ll still have computers but they’ll be severely handicapped. We used to be able to simply call up the other guy’s computer and converse back and forth. But we had the “other guy’s” phone number then too – and his name! Now, in our paranoia, we’ve hidden behind screen names that usually don’t even describe us very well. One name that I see on several boards is “LYCAN.” How would I contact him without the internet? What if he were the first one to be raided? How would any of us know in time to be ready for our own “knock on the door?”
We need some sort of phone tree where each of us has two or more numbers to contact if the balloon goes up. Perhaps there’s some way we could utilize those cheap throwaway phones I see at the supermarket checkout line. Comments?
I had the same exact thoughts when I just read about Zero’s Net Bill. We definitely are going to need MANY alternative sources of Patriot news & comminications. Problem is, if they are made “public,” the enemy will try & crush those as well. Seems the time is ripe for a *new & different* kind of “Secret Society.”
I guess we'll just have to go back to the old local BBS (bulletin board services)we used to use before the internet came to be. There's no reason that every local member of the 'resistance' couldn't be kept informed and up to date using this method, and those on the extreme eges of their local telephone services can connect to others and so on and so on to get info across the nation. slower, yes, but that's basically how the internet began.
Almost all survivalists and disaster planners encourage people to get HAM licenses. There are MANY data systems floating in the air that have nothing to do with terrestrial internet.
You can communicate with just about everyone through blackberries as well.
What’s O going to do, shut down all comunications?
CB and HAM radios....
Smoke signals...
Text message...
Good point there. If the Feds decides it is worth their time, how long would it take for them to figure out our identities?
“CB and HAM radios....” Ipods, blackberries...
Smoke signals... “
Telegraph, telephone, tell-a-woman!
Keep the girls in the loop. Word will get around much faster.
H.A.M. is a good idea for communicating long distances. CB’s would be good for local stuff, within 5 miles or so (you can goose them up to go a bit further).
The H.A.M. operators would communicate activity state to state, to keep us informed. The locals would then take it from there via CB. You’ll have a lot more CB’ers out there than H.A.M.’s. Price is a major factor. Not sure what it’s like to get a license now-a-days.
If push comes to shove, Zero will shut down all communications.
I was looking for a local tea party group and found several within driving distance.
(One or more of these is having a Glenn Beck debriefing next week which is a great idea by the way.)
We could have our contact info with those local tea party groups - giving full contact info, not just email addresses.
The regional group could be in touch with local groups.
Well, I really think I’m encouraging unnecessary paranoia here, but if you’re really concerned about this, then the phone system (landline and cellular) would be even easier to control as those networks are managed by an even smaller number of entities. (And I’ll miss a bet if the government doesn’t already have similar emergency control capabilities over them). Just think about those Emergency Broadcast System tests you hear on radio and TV...when the “balloon goes up” all forms of broadcasting will go under government control, and I suspect there are provisions to control and allocate telephone resources also. Of course VoIP is just another form of data that is transported via the internet.
The solution? Technology that doesn’t rely on infrastructure (i.e. landlines, satellite links, cell towers, etc), i.e. high frequency (shortwave) radio. Same thing that the military still uses, for the same reason. Licensed Amateur (Ham) Radio is the legal option, bootlegging is the illegal one. Radios capable of nationwide+ coverage are the size of a laptop, cost under $1000 and can operate from 12 volt power sources, for example. Or one could buy time on commercial shortwave stations that have international coverage, although getting the programming to them would be subject to all the same constraints. (Check out “Free Speech Radio WBCQ” for example).
In a doomsday scenario (nuclear war, EMP, superflu, etc) that one way or another renders conventional communications systems inoperable or unavaialble (God forbid that should ever happen) - shortwave radio will be the one means of long-distance communication that will still work.
I figure if they cut the internet, they’ll cut the cell phones too if they can. We should probably look into what they are really capable of. We need to build a freeper ham radio community. How far is the range of Ham radios without using a giant (expensive) antenna?
I’ve always wondered about this possibility. HAM radios require licences and if they’re going to shut down radio and the internet they’ll get individual HAM operators. Perhaps, someone needs to have a plan to set up a VOC (voice of conservatives) shortwave or satellite radio transmitter outside the US (as Levin says-an undisclosed location).
I wonder if they could stop fax transmissions?
Yup.
HAM radio gets through when nothing else will.
BigBob, you beat me to it.
Internet, wired phone, and cell phone infrastructures can be taken down pretty easily. Obviously texting, blackberries go down too.
It’s harder to stop a HAM or CB radio. One would have to jam all frequencies. And they can run on batteries.
I think I’ll go shopping tomorrow.
CBs is what I was thinking too. (our ranch trucks have them).. In the hill country (all throughout the wonderful USA), there isn’t always cell reception. .. (even with that group of people who follow around those phone users on tv .. They never seem to make it into the hills) .. anyway, there are a lot of us who don’t have cell phones .. much less blackberries. (wait! late summer we have great blackberries growing down by the creek!! ).. ah well.. you can see why we’re thinking “CB”.
.. what channel?
I understand the requirement to pass a Morse Code test to obtain a ham license has been discontinued. Maybe it is time to consider getting licensed and get on the air.
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