Saturday, September 15, 2018

old school communications 1 of 2 ( article 1 of 2 today )


OLD SCHOOL COMMUNICATIONS
( article 1 of 2 today )
When my son went into the Marines, they put him in communications.  From what I understood, you don’t get an option for MOS there, whereas in the Army they are a lot more accommodating.  I can see the cultural differences.  The Army is a huge vast bureaucracy with a LOT of jobs, and the Crotch is a sub branch of the Navy ( hence, the Squids take up a lot of mundane tasks the Jarheads need not bother with ) where, really, everyone is in combat fields.  For the most part.  All those Gung Ho throbbing peckers would pick the Cool Kid jobs and they couldn’t fill slots like communications.
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From the stories he told me about training, I don’t know if I would have been smart enough to actually learn that MOS.  There was a LOT of computer programming type of crap-it wasn’t just about digging trenches for field wires.  There was a lot of digital and computer areas in their field and you had to know it all.  Of course, my second response ( after my first, which was, damn, the kid is a lot smarter than me ) to all that was, that seems rather…vulnerable.  In day to day operations you had the normal failure.  Think, your Microsoft OS keeps humping with you for no apparent reason, and the Blue Screen Of Death is an ever present danger. 
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( I hate Microsoft.  They served a very good purpose twenty three years ago.  Apple-God bless them for the Mac, if not much else, my first real computer-was WAY too expensive to keep buying new machines when they upgraded everything.  And that was the age where computers and obsolescence meant hardware, not software like it does today.  Hell, today, the last time you really needed a new machine was then they went to USB ports.  What was that?  Ten years ago?  Two decades ago, two years was about as long as you could stretch out machine use.  The problem is they keep trying to rape you on upgrades like they used to, but with way more competition.  Now, you can hate Microsoft and actually do something about it.  Mostly, even if the options do suck )
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So, their field communications were vulnerable just from sitting there.  Then, they had their own Internet, or something similar ( we are talking about six years ago, so please forgive my lack of complete recall ), which had to have had some vulnerabilities.  Even just from their own stupid crap 18 year old kids always manage to pull.  I mean, this is the Marine Corps.  They have a LOT of issues as do all the services ( even the Coasties, being too close to the drug wars to escape institutional stupidity ), but they should, in theory, have LESS.  They were the ones who made the M-16 a lot less of a hunk of crap, and managed to get the other branches following along.  
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But the digital allure was far too strong even for them.  I’m fond in my own way of what digital can do, but I understand its severe limitations.  But the military just loves that crap.  Almost as if Political Correctness now includes robots on its diversity approved list.  So running field communications like it was a cell phone service was no longer enough for them.  My son went through one of the last of the schools for the communications specialist.  That MOS is/was almost retired.  It will soon be, or it already has transitioned, to total satellite communications ( there might still be short range-as in hundreds of feet-buried wire communication.  I have no idea.  It seems impractical to sat comm your artillery on the other side of a small base.  But what do I know?  Officers are a completely different species, and staff officers are a mutated form of that.  One never knows with them ).
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Can anyone else envision any problems with relying on satellites for your field communications?  Hostile nation hacking and satellite killers come to mind, neither untested issues.  Note that I make no claims as to the actual suitability of sat comms over other comms.  My only issue here really is the centralization and the upping the scale of complexity, two areas we are already dangerously vulnerable in.  For all I know, a sat comm radio is more reliable and hardier in the field than other alternatives.
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Military communications have always had severe limitations and a variety of unfavorable trade-offs ( and don’t forget that military communications also brought to us one of the worst movies ever, “Windtalkers” ).   It just might be that Sat Phones deliver a better level of reliability than ever before, at far less weight.  I concede the point, if true.  If every comm ever in the history of war had a price to pay for its benefits, and sats are no different, well, what are you going to do?  Myself, I’m of the mind that the US military is following the lead of its parent company the Federales and desperately grasping for further control as both institutions implode.  How better to micromanage every person ( or non-persons in the case of transgender and rabid Fem-First’ers ) in uniform than to centralize C&C?  Well, why not?  We learned nothing from the Soviets in Afghanistan.  Why start now with military structure?
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Why do I bring up communications?  I’m sure all of read Western Rifle Shooters ( wordpress.com ).  If not, you should.  A lot of it is worthless partisan posturing, but a lot is “we’ve already panicked about CW2, why haven’t you?” information.  You need to filter out the ‘love our troops and copy them” BS, because that is either ignorance or Quisling information.  You fight like your foe and you are fighting against your strength and towards his.  DingDingDing!  Wrong answer, dumb ass.  The first rule of guerrilla warfare is the exact opposite.  And if anyone tells you to fight conventionally he is your enemy. 
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But Rifle Shooters had a wonderful header that day, which was “Cutting enemy communications is always a early step in warfare”.  Obviously, they were referring to the antics of FaceBook and YouTube and such with their censorship against anybody not embracing political correctness with all their being, implying that the Left was at war with the Right and that the Right better believe we were on a war footing.  And as far as that goes, fine.  But of course it isn’t as simple as that, and I’ll cover that and the vulnerability of THEIR centralized institutions and power modules tomorrow.
( .Y. )
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16 comments:

  1. Maybe the military is trying to prevent a repeat of what happened in Grenada when someone had to phone home to get the air support they needed.

    More likely the reasons are for the ones you stated and to support a main battle force of drones with the grunts getting relegated to clean up status. Battlefield custodians.

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  2. Yeah but, everything above squad level needs comms. When your minion militia needs resuply at that back door dirt road check point they will really get good with shortwave or c.b. etc. Good luck finding an actual marathon man runner to run up on the lord bison and deliver the bad news. This is topic is on an equivalent importance as the wheat and grinders. Keep it simple, like waving colored flags in relay from hill tops.

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    Replies
    1. Don't use smoke signals-the enemy will just start a fire to mask those :)

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  3. For old school communications, the survivalist should consider the item in the link below. This is an actual, functional, low power, ham band transceiver. Under proper conditions, this little radio can communicate world wide. It only transmits Morse code, so you need to know that. It uses a 12v battery, and a 9v battery for the receiver. The antenna can be a stretched out wire (Though it must be matched according to band by length). This radio is the communications equivalent of the flintlock musket; meaning that it will be the last form of semi-modern communications to exist, and following that, it’s back to smoke signals (Note: you will need a license to operate it pre-collapse).

    https://www.amazon.com/Yosoo-Shortwave-Transmitter-Receiver-7-023-7-026MHz/dp/B0175T7IYE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537036235&sr=8-1&keywords=qrp+radio+kit

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  4. A hammer unit with antenna and battery packs (2) in relay usage with solar babies set up to charge them and your laptop full of pornography. Timed brevity messages on a schedule will skip licensing and limit def location risks with resultant droney striking parties. But, as with your evolution, two ears and one mouth means more listening and less talking anyways.

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    Replies
    1. I submit to you that most people have two ears AND two mouths, as they talk out of their ass most times.

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  5. We've been on a Hughes internet satellite since we moved here 12 years ago, currently Gen 5, and it blows and always has. When it works, which is about 90% of the time, it works well, but atmospheric stuff pays unpredictable havoc. Yeah, rain and snow drops the signal, but at times the sun does too. And, we've had to move the dish 5 times since we've had it because of tree growth (leaves and reflections). If there was an alternative I'd be on it, but there isn't and most likely never will be. It's just not cost effective for them to run a wire way back here and the trees make the other options null and void.

    A few of us tribe members have acquired a variety of radio systems, all portable, frd, gma, ham, shortwave, cb. The radio station here in my office is about 6' long and crowded. My wife gave me a computer (hardware and software) generated radio rig last christmas that I haven't even figured out yet. I have a Midland portable CB system wired in my Blazer. When I get the time I'm going to install a tower so I can reach out further.

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    1. I'd hate to be stuck with satellite. Not that cellular would be much cheaper. It does seem we are back in the 90's for ISP's. Too much for too little ( except stress-extra doses are free ).

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    2. There are a few others out there, but we used to have one of those Hughesnet satellites. It was expensive; I want to say around $80 a month, and you were rather limited on data bandwidth. We didn’t have too many problems with ours, but bad weather could affect it.

      Another option, if you have cell service, is to simply use your cell phone as a wifi hotspot. Most carriers allow for this option now, at least our carrier, AT&T does. It’s not as convenient as the satellite, because you’re constantly connecting, and disconnecting, but it’s an option. My cousin that lives around the corner from us has no ISP, and they rely completely on their cell service for internet. Another consideration is to get a 4G tablet.

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    3. Do you have any info on 4G? I'm rather lost on that one.

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    4. Sure Jim. 4G is simply the 4th generation cell tower communications network. So most smart phones today would be on 4G, and there’s talk of an upcoming 5G. The reason that I mentioned a 4G tablet (as opposed to a wifi only tablet, that requires that you be near a wireless router for connectivity) is because it’s basically usable as a computer with its large screen, as opposed to a cell phone, with its tiny screen. So as long as you have cell reception, you can go online with the tablet, and it can, for most people, replace a desktop or laptop computer. Now in the case of GS, this may not be true, because he probably needs the ability to run powerful CAD programs for architecture design. The tablet or cell phones won’t do everything that a powerful desktop can do, but if all you want to do is surf the web, they work great for that. I only pay $18 a month for my tablet, but I’m on a family plan too.

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    5. Thank you. Side note to GS-see, we pay attention when you blather :)

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    6. Hughes runs us about $80 a month for 30gb of bandwidth. About once a week we stream "Better Call Saul" or "Goliath", both excellent shows, from amazon prime. We have the amazon fire to do the streaming. We can pay more money for more gb but when the weather is bad what's the diff? Plus, both my wife and I are drifting away from everything internet. We just keep finding better stuff to do and the internet is becoming less relevant to us. Now, it seems to be about 80% junk and climbing.

      We have been using prepaid Tracfones that cost us $100 per year (1 payment) and we won't waste our bandwidth on internet stuff except incidental stuff like weather radar.

      I keep hearing bout "broadband coming to town" around here but it's just a rumor passed around now and then. Life way back in the sticks. We sit on the porch and watch the wild creatures...sure beats anything on the web, and no spam, malware or viruses!

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    7. Unless the critters are malarial mosquito's or similar :)

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