Category Archives: COMMENTARY

The Ship Has Sailed.

      1 Comment on The Ship Has Sailed.
survival and preparedness

Where have you been? Preparedness and survival  As I write this the outcome of the Presidential election is not known. Depending on who you choose to believe, which candidate is ahead and which is lagging is a wildly open concept. One thing for certain is that there is a sense… Read more »

Any Day Can Be Field Day.

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off grid radio training

My one-man Field Day. off grid radio training For amateurs who are into off grid radio for preparedness/emergency purposes, I have a blunt reality check for you: You’re probably not as prepared as you think you are. And you’re most likely not off grid radio training enough. Participating in Field… Read more »

Off Grid Ham on Is Now On Parler!

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Expanding the base. I’m excited to announce that Off Grid Ham is now on the social media platform Parler  Please take a moment to sign up for a free account and follow @offgridham. I’ll post new articles and other relevant items not included in the main blog. It’s a great venue… Read more »

If You Missed The Train, Don’t Worry. There Will Be Another.

covid-19

There’s a buzz about radio, and it’s not on the radio. The amateur radio social media pages and web forums are suddenly buzzing with activity. Mostly it’s from people who are not hams but want to become one. This anecdotal evidence is supported by a notable increase in web traffic… Read more »

The Off Grid Ham 2019 Year In Review.

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2019

Thanks for making OGH a great website. 2019 has been a great year for Off Grid Ham! We racked up twenty-two articles (including this one), tens of thousands of page views, and a growing reader base from all over the world. It’s not lost on me that you readers are… Read more »

The Transmitters of Freedom Get A Little Louder.

shortwave broadcasting

A hot topic. My May 5, 2019 commentary, The Transmitters of Freedom Should Be Turned Back On, unexpectedly generated a great deal of attention. It quickly became one of the most reposted and shared articles on this website. It’s encouraging that so many people care about this issue. It warrants… Read more »

More Fake News, And A Promise.

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Well, it’s happened again. Along the same lines of the hysterical hair on fire “they’re taking two meters away!” fake news from last summer, the latest amateur radio rumor mongering originates from the state of California. It seems that ham radio repeaters are being kicked off government-owned towers, particularly repeaters… Read more »

2 Meters Is Not Going Away, So Chill Out.

2 meters

You can’t unpull the alarm. All the things that make the internet fantastic can also be to its detriment. Looking up a callsign, for example, is as easy as tippy-tapping a few keys. None of us who were there miss the days of flipping through a three inch thick $29.99… Read more »

The Transmitters of Freedom Should Be Turned Back On!

Where am I going with this? This article will be outside the mission of Off Grid Ham but I hope you’ll stay with me. I’m going to drift away from my usual schtick and use my substantial internet platform to bring attention to this neglected issue. My point can be… Read more »

You’re Invited to the Off Grid Ham Google Group.

I’ve been wanting to expand Off Grid Ham’s outreach for some time. I thought about starting an internet chat forum, but that would involve very disruptive changes to the website and a lot of ongoing maintenance. A Facebook page was considered too. I had more or less given up on… Read more »

We’re Back From the One-Click Disaster.

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What was supposed to be a minor one-click update late in the evening on February 15 ended up completely crashing Off Grid Ham. Not only was the entire website offline, I could not even log into the admin page to un-do the upgrade or figure out what happened. Everything was… Read more »

Should You Get Involved With Public Service?

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It’s not so simple. The other day I came across an interesting discussion on a ham radio internet forum about the pros and cons of amateurs getting involved with incident/disaster response organizations and whether or not assistance from amateurs is even wanted. Just as we’d expect from the internet, the… Read more »