December 4, 2024 • 21 mins
What happens when communication channels falter in the face of global tensions reminiscent of the Civil War era? Join Scott Townsend and executive producer Ben Townsend as they unpack the critical role of communication during these turbulent times. Discover how to navigate the maze of biased media to seek out objective truths amid international conflicts involving China, Taiwan, Russia, and Ukraine. This episode promises to offer insights into the essence of journalism today, highlighting the struggle to discern factual reporting amidst the noise of sensationalism and various agendas, especially in an election year.
In the second half of our conversation, Ben shares his personal journey into the empowering world of ham radio. Motivated by the need to communicate without conventional infrastructure, he explores the basics of ham radio, from regional interactions to essential gear like Yaesu HF and VHF radios. Learn why ham radio is an indispensable tool in emergencies and a means to stay connected across distances. Ben invites aspiring operators to start their journey by obtaining a technician license, using resources like hamstudy.org to prepare. Tune in to see how ham radio offers a reliable communication alternative when traditional methods fail.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Scott Townsend Show brought to you by
Pizza man Productions.
Hey, this is Scott Townsend,welcome back to the Scott
Townsend Show.
And today I have with meexecutive producer of the Scott
Townsend Show, ben Townsend.
You and I were talking theother day and it's your
estimation that things areheating up around the world.
(00:22):
I think everybody would agreewith that.
Things are heating up aroundthe world.
I think everybody would agreewith that.
We've seen discord and disorderto the greatest extent since the
Civil War and division and allthat kind of stuff, and it's
just nobody's there's nobodyhappy out there anymore.
(00:43):
Everybody's got something tosay, an opinion to throw out,
and this is an election year andthose are always especially
fraught with tension and peopletrying to win other people over
(01:05):
to something they'll never winthem over to.
So, uh, everything's kind ofheating up.
There's a boiling, boilingpoint.
It seems like we're china into,was it taiwan?
And uh, or they're talkingabout that, and um, of course,
(01:26):
russia and ukraine and that'sall kinds of stuff going on.
So we are going to talk aboutcommunication.
So, uh, when it comes to thesethese times, what were you
thinking when you made thedecision to become a ham operate
(01:48):
radio operator?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
yeah, well, I mean, I've actually wanted to do it
for a long time because I like,I like I'm a technology kind of
person.
Um, I used to work intechnology I'm presently retired
, but, um, I've always had it ornot always for probably like
seven years, seven years.
(02:11):
But you've gotta in order toget going with video, uh, gotta
go, you gotta study.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
It wasn't high on the priority and your audio is
really breaking up.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Mr Technology.
Yeah, I'm in the city right now.
Is it any better right now?
Speaker 1 (02:52):
yeah, can you move your phone around or something?
Can you move it to anotherlocation, the other side of your
desk, or?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
yeah, let's see, I've got a better idea okay, let's
do this, let's see.
I've got a better idea.
Okay, let's see, let's go here.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
I'm going to join you from my iPad.
It's on a.
It's on a.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Wi-Fi?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Wi-Fi Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Cool, are you going gonna show your face?
Speaker 2 (03:49):
yes, just chill out okay, all right, let's go so so
I guess, yeah, I guess, thereason why I was interested in,
(04:11):
uh, in ham radio, um, was justbecause I like the idea of, you
know, really not needing any,any kind of infrastructure, um,
you know, to communicate withother people, no people because
you know we're all kind ofdispersed here in oklahoma.
Uh, I have a son in houston.
We're in austin here.
(04:32):
I got friends all over theplace I mean texas yeah, yeah.
Well, I got, yeah, oklahoma andtexas, and then friends, you
know, in different states andstuff, so anyway, so I like the
idea of being able tocommunicate without
infrastructure, so I'm notdependent on infrastructure.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Um and you think you're gonna be in a.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
You think we're gonna be at a point where we aren't
gonna be, can't be dependent onthe infrastructure yeah, I mean,
I, I think you know, just Ilisten to some guys who, um,
they, they're, they're formermilitary, they're intelligence
officers and they're no longerin the military but they still
(05:11):
have a like an informationservice for a civilian audience
and they talk about you know alot of different things you know
related to how things are goingdomestically, how things are
going internationally, and justyou know, related to how things
are going domestically, howthings are going internationally
, um, and just you know, kind ofkeep an eye, help people
understand.
(05:31):
You know kind of do what newsused to do years ago, is report.
You know what happened, uhversus look at what happened and
then tell you from theirperspective, kind of the how
versus the what.
So you know, so it's hardbecause you get you get somebody
else's bias, um in that.
(05:51):
And you know, I think I thinknews media today is, um, is
probably more biased than I'veever seen it, and so it makes it
difficult to understand what'sactually going on.
You know, I want to know what'sgoing on, um, from an objective
as objective a viewpoint as Ican get, um, and then you know,
kind of make my owninterpretation, you know, of
(06:13):
what happened.
I don't get somebody else'sinterpretation of what happened
with their bias a lot of biasthrown in there, a lot of agenda
thrown in there, and then tryto make sense of something that
that's already you know.
Maybe if we saw the same event,I wouldn't even see it the same
way.
So you know, I think you know ajournalist.
You know what is a journalist.
A journalist is somebody whotakes a journal of events, you
(06:36):
know, and the idea, I think, isto get yourself out of it and
witness something.
If you're seeing a parade andyou're a journalist and you're
writing to an audience or you'rereporting it, you want to.
You want to make it so real tothem from where you are, take
them in, you know, to whathappened at the parade, what it
(06:56):
sounded like, what floats cameby.
You know all this kind of stuffwithout injecting yourself into
it, because once you've donethat, you kind of tainted the
experience.
You know you're either tryingto sensationalize it or downplay
it or whatever your agendahappens to be.
I think our media is full ofagenda and bias and therefore
it's really hard to know whatthe truth is, kind of like
(07:17):
what's going on, and so I feellike you know, for a paid
service and kind of you know,listening to, you know some
people with their own you knowkind of version of the news, um
and you know, and also theirtheir um prior training as
(07:38):
military intelligence officersyou know to to kind of give you
um the bottom line up front, thebluff you know, and of give you
um the bottom line up front,the bluff you know, and um help
you understand what's going onso you can kind of make your own
determination.
You can start connecting a lotof different you know, dots you
know, and doing that and um drawyour own conclusions.
(08:00):
And it's fine to get somebodyelse's opinion, you know, and I
think that's extremely valuableto get somebody else's opinion,
uh, but they're also it's alsoextremely valuable to be able to
get facts you know, likeactually what happened without
opinion, and I think that'swhat's missing from the mix.
If you're turning on andwatching network television,
(08:21):
okay, what is?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
what?
What are you?
Uh, what's this?
Where are you getting thisinformation?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
so, uh, there's, there's a, um, there's a service
called the early warningnetwork.
I think you can go on to earlywarning networkcom, um, and you
can, um, you go in there andsubscribe to their service, um,
and it's pretty interestingbecause, you know, they do, they
talk about what's going on, youknow, within our nation.
(08:50):
They talk about what's going oninside the Beltway, you know,
in Washington, kind of like thereal intense political scene at
a national excuse me, nationallevel.
And they got, um, some guys whoare kind of experts on, kind of
in that, in that politicalsphere, as part of what they did
(09:13):
as military intelligenceofficers, and now they're just
doing it for a civilian audience.
But you also have guys who are,you know, uh, former um navy
officers you know, who also giveyou know, who also give you
know, um, weigh in frequently onwhat's going on with our Navy,
where they are, um, and some ofthe issues that they're having,
uh, some of the hotspots aroundthe world that they're paying
(09:34):
attention to.
So you get the domestic look,you get inside the beltway look,
and you kind of get aninternational look, um, look at
where the United States isengaging, but also what's going
on internationally where theUnited States may not yet be
engaging.
So what are some of theemerging issues around the globe
(09:59):
?
So, anyway, I found it prettyinformative.
I like that kind of thing ameans of distributing their
national intelligence briefingover ham radio, which is really
cool because, um, like I saidearlier, you know you can get
(10:20):
your um, you can get yourreports and everything, um,
aside from having to haveinfrastructure, uh and I don't
know if we're going to have aninfrastructure problem, but I do
know, just from listening tothese briefs that you know it's
like in.
They're saying that in 2025, youknow we're going to have more
(10:46):
electrical problems.
You have a lot of artificialintelligence capacity that's
trying to spin up across theUnited States.
It's incredibly energyintensive and we're taking down
a lot of electrical generationinfrastructure and we're not
replacing it.
(11:07):
I mean, we are losing ground onour grid capacity.
That's one problem.
The other problem is we'rereplacing a lot of that grid
capacity with either wind orsolar.
I have nothing against wind orsolar, um, but when the wind
stops blowing or the sun stoppedshining, or when we had the
whole snowmageddon thing downhere in the south a couple years
(11:28):
ago, I mean all that stuff shutdown and people were, you know,
in these intense conditions andthey needed, you know, when
they needed energy most.
They couldn't get so.
So I think, I think you know,and they're saying, you know
it's not going to start.
They're not talking about anykind of, like you know,
armageddon kind of thing.
They're just talking aboutstarting in 2025.
This, this equation of the powerconsumption need in the United
(11:53):
States and the power generationcapacity the equation doesn't
work.
The demand is going to a placethat cannot be supplied by our
current infrastructure,especially as we shut down coal.
And, aside from any kind ofenvironmental argument, which I
(12:14):
don't really get too much intothat, um, I just feel like, you
know, as a utility, you know, Ifeel like government state
government most, for the mostpart, but federal too, since
they play in that space I thinkthey have an obligation, you
know, to make sure that we havethe power we need to, you know,
run a orderly society and that'sthat doesn't look like it's the
(12:35):
case going forward.
And so I think what they'rethinking is, you know, we're
going to have more brownouts um,you know, kind of enrolling
blackouts in 2025.
That will impact people, youknow, more than it has in the
past and that's probably goingto continue to be the case for a
number of years.
They'll probably grow inintensity, you know, over the
(12:56):
coming years, because you can'tjust bring a power plant online
all of a sudden, and so we gotto get this figured out.
But in the meantime, you know,it could be a little bit of a
bumpy road.
So I mean, that's what I'manticipating.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
So this with the ham how did you get started in the
ham radio business?
I mean, what, uh, if I wasgoing to start and I told you I
would, so I'm going to be, I'mgoing to be a hammy here pretty
soon.
How do you get started in hamradio?
So someone out there listeningwants to start up and says I
(13:32):
agree with everything Ben justsaid.
Hmm, I think I need to be a hamradio operator yeah, well, I
mean, anybody can get a hamradio.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I mean it can be something as simple as you know
something like this.
You know little radio like this.
It's five watt radio um and youknow people look at that and say
, well, it looks like, lookslike a walkie-talkie.
It kind of is, but it just hasgreater capability, has a
capability of talking to you,can use repeaters.
So, for example, like on thislittle radio that I just showed
(14:04):
you, I can hit a repeater 17miles across town and so when I
hit that repeater I saysomething to that repeater, or
on this frequency, and then therepeater amplifies what I just
said and it shoots out.
You know, a signal that can beheard at much greater distance.
(14:24):
You know, using repeaters,that's on a VHF, uhf radio,
which is what I just showed you.
Then you have high frequencyradio that doesn't and VHF and
UHF.
It doesn't use the atmosphereto propagate, to send its signal
out.
It's basically line of sight HFradio where you see people,
(14:47):
they have a house, you see agigantic antenna.
It's like what are they tryingto do?
Talk to Mars or something?
And it's like what?
Speaker 1 (14:52):
are they trying?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
to talk to mars or something that's like that.
Those hf rigs, radios, you know, they, they do depend on the
ionosphere, so a signal goes upfrom where you are, your
location, it can be your.
Your antenna can be somethingas simple as a wire.
You know which is what I have.
It's a 73 foot long wire, butit's a wire um, and it'll send
it.
It'll send, you know, the hfsignal.
It will bounce off theatmosphere and it'll send it.
It'll send, you know, the HFsignal.
(15:14):
It will bounce off theatmosphere and it will bounce
back down to earth and, andthat's how you know, and it just
keeps bouncing back and forth,you know, between the atmosphere
and the earth.
And that's where you get thosekinds of like extreme distances,
like you can hear, intoconversations with people you
know on different continents,you know, let alone the united.
It's easy, you know, haveconversations within the united
(15:35):
states and I hear people all thetime from california and oregon
and texas and um that's thefarthest you've gone or heard uh
, you know, I think, uh, youknow, I've heard people up in
the northeast like around maine,um, but you know, also here are
people from Puerto Rico andMexico, and you know, just all
(15:58):
over.
And I, you know, I don't havethe kind of gear, like the kind
of heavy duty gear, I would needto talk, you know, to Australia
, like I, I can't do that withmy current setup.
I have the licensing to getthat set up, but that's really
not my interest.
My interest is really more onregional communications.
So, you know, know, just thinkabout drawing a 500 mile circle,
(16:19):
you know, around my locationhere in texas and that kind of
gets me in communication withabout 80 percent of the people
that I feel like I would like tocommunicate with or need to
communicate with, and so that'sreally kind of my objective.
And the rig that I have verynice, it's a newer Yaesu HF
(16:41):
model and with my antenna set upand it accomplishes that
objective.
If I want to talk you know theycall it DXing distance
communications If I want to dothat, I could, but that's not my
objective.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
If I want to do that, I could, but that's not my
objective, so would your littlewalkie talkie looking thing
reach up here to Bartlesville?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
No, no, I mean you can link repeaters, but you know
, I don't.
I don't think there's a bignetwork of linked repeaters.
So, basically, what repeatersdo is that they'll give you the
ability to communicate.
I'll say within um, you knowjust people, as soon as I say
this, somebody's gonna say oh no, you're wrong about that, but
(17:23):
you know, I'll say uh, I'll say40 miles.
Okay, you know, depending on howyou're set up which is really
nice because, like you know,especially in the event, like
those people in north carolina,um, you know, they don't, they
don't have cell tower coverageright now.
They don't have cell tower,they don't have any
communications at all or power,you know.
(17:46):
And so what's kind of savingthe day for those guys over
there is that little radio.
I just held up that one rightthere, but you know vhf radio.
Now I know it's kind of line ofsight and it's a hilly terrain
but, they're using it to greateffect in those areas because
it's their only means ofcommunication right now.
So you know that would beanother scenario, a little more
(18:06):
extreme of course, but one whereyou know.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
We're seeing a lot more extreme going on ever since
the snow, what you call thesnowpocalypse or whatever it's
again texas a couple years ago.
Yeah, um weather, crazy weather, hurricanes, big hurricanes,
you know.
Seems like they're gettingbigger all the time yeah, so you
know.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Back to your question , though you were asking how do
you get ham?
You don't have to be licensedto get a ham radio, you just
have to be licensed to hit thattransmit button so you can
listen all you want.
And there's a lot of valueactually in just listening
without license.
But you know, you kind of haveto learn how to use the
equipment, how you know thevarious frequency ranges that
(18:55):
that are available to you,depending on what kind of rig
you get um.
But you know.
So once you do that, it'sreally about you know passing
your test.
There's basically three levelsyou can get.
The first level is technician,which allows you to talk on that
little radio I just showed you.
It allows you to communicate onvhf and uhf, primarily two
meters also, but um.
And then there's a generalclass, which is which is where I
(19:19):
am that allows me to also usethose hf bounds.
It's bands that skip off the um, the ionosphere, back to earth,
and does that kind of, you know, back and forth, skip
propagation, um.
So that that's that's what I'mdoing to you know, to be able to
get out in a 500 mile circle.
So it's about you can get theequipment you can start, you
(19:39):
know, studying for that thoseexams, take the exams and you
can start transmitting andlearning how to use it right the
Speaker 1 (19:51):
line's really knocking me out there.
So what tip would you givelisteners who are wanting to
start out?
Based on your experience, whatwould you recommend?
Uh?
Speaker 2 (20:08):
what's your interest in ham?
Speaker 1 (20:09):
radio.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah, what's one tip you'd give to other beginners
starting in ham radio um, well,I really think you know, get,
get your radio as you'restarting, because you know I
think it's helpful to turn it on, listen to it and kind of like,
learn how to use it.
Whether or not you can transmitor not, that's a different
thing, but it kind of makes it alittle more real to you.
(20:30):
There's all kinds of studycourses.
You know you can get a book.
Um, you can get a book.
Uh, you know, go through studyguide to go through.
You can go on to like hamstudyorg, just on the internet
and study for free.
You know.
And basically you know they'llhave 20, they'll have all these
chapters like for yourtechnician license you need to
(20:51):
cover.
So I think it's 22 chapters.
There's about 20 questions perchapter that are in those study
guides and when you go take thetest, the test is made up of 35
of all those questions, 20 perchapter, so 450 questions,
whatever it is right.
But those 35 questions aretaken directly from those study
guides and you know verbatim isthe question, the range of
(21:14):
answers that are possible.
So you know it's, it's prettyattainable, it's, it's a little
bit of a pain but it'sattainable, you know, for people
if they really want to do it's,it's pretty attainable.
It's it's a little bit of apain, but it's attainable for
people if they really want to doit.
It's not that hard, you justyou know, you can do it.
You know, if somebody just wantto do it in the evenings and
spend an hour an evening youknow, kind of studying for it, I
bet you could get it done andget your technician license in a
week.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Yeah, what uh wrapping this thing up?
What is, uh what?
I forgot to ask you what youhad for breakfast this morning
uh, I had, uh, two eggs and acouple of blueberry waffles what
(21:57):
kind of syrup?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
uh, it is a?
Uh organic maple syrup thatjanet buys.
It's great slap sap jack.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
I think you can get it at uh heb here yeah, well, as
we wrap it up, any final what'syour?
What last words?
How would you want to wrap thisup for those listening about
learning about ham radiooperation and your, your journey
here?
What, what would you say?
Speaker 2 (22:32):
I mean, if you're, if people are interested, you know
, I think it's, it's worthwhile,you know, to do Some people
really enjoy it.
There's a lot of the oldercrowd on ham radio but there is
a younger set also and as I sithere, at 59 years old.
(22:54):
I'm probably one of the youngerpeople on ham radio, but there
are people under 30, 20, 30s,40s that are on ham radio.
So it's not exactly my hobby.
You know I have a use case forit.
It's not that I don't enjoy it,because you know there's
aspects of it that I do enjoy.
I wouldn't say it's my hobby.
It serves a purpose.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Would you call yourself a prepper?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Forward thinker there you go forward thinker yeah you
know, if you, if you want toget into local communications,
kind of like what's going onlocally, it's like bartlesville,
for example you can go on tobartlesville on to uh, do a web
search and you can look at theham radio club in bartlesville.
They've got a looks like a greatradio club there in
(23:40):
bartlesville you can learn howto talk with other people there
and you know that they'rethey're talking on the radio is
really kind of building up theirskill set to to make sure that
they stay current with how touse it.
So there's value in that, um.
So yeah, it's, it can be fun.
You know, it's the kind ofthing you can wade into um or
you can like dive into and getover your head.
(24:00):
So it's really how you use it.
But I would recommend it.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
All right.
All right, with thatrecommendation, we've got to go,
ben, thanks for joining ustoday and come back and see us
again sometime.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Will do See you.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
All right.
Well for Ben Townsend.
This is Scott Townsend.
Thanks for listening to theScott Townsend Show.
Have a great day, everything'sgoing to be all right and we'll
talk to you later.
The Scott Townsend Show is aDietz-O-Man production.
(24:49):
For more episodes, visit theScott Townsend Show YouTube
channel, listen on ApplePodcasts or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Welcome to the Scott Townsend Show brought to you by
Pizza man Productions.
Hey, this is Scott Townsend,welcome back to the Scott
Townsend Show.
And today I have with meexecutive producer of the Scott
Townsend Show, ben Townsend.
You and I were talking theother day and it's your
estimation that things areheating up around the world.
(00:22):
I think everybody would agreewith that.
Things are heating up aroundthe world.
I think everybody would agreewith that.
We've seen discord and disorderto the greatest extent since the
Civil War and division and allthat kind of stuff, and it's
just nobody's there's nobodyhappy out there anymore.
(00:43):
Everybody's got something tosay, an opinion to throw out,
and this is an election year andthose are always especially
fraught with tension and peopletrying to win other people over
(01:05):
to something they'll never winthem over to.
So, uh, everything's kind ofheating up.
There's a boiling, boilingpoint.
It seems like we're china into,was it taiwan?
And uh, or they're talkingabout that, and um, of course,
(01:26):
russia and ukraine and that'sall kinds of stuff going on.
So we are going to talk aboutcommunication.
So, uh, when it comes to thesethese times, what were you
thinking when you made thedecision to become a ham operate
(01:48):
radio operator?
Speaker 2 (01:51):
yeah, well, I mean, I've actually wanted to do it
for a long time because I like,I like I'm a technology kind of
person.
Um, I used to work intechnology I'm presently retired
, but, um, I've always had it ornot always for probably like
seven years, seven years.
(02:11):
But you've gotta in order toget going with video, uh, gotta
go, you gotta study.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
It wasn't high on the priority and your audio is
really breaking up.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Mr Technology.
Yeah, I'm in the city right now.
Is it any better right now?
Speaker 1 (02:52):
yeah, can you move your phone around or something?
Can you move it to anotherlocation, the other side of your
desk, or?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
yeah, let's see, I've got a better idea okay, let's
do this, let's see.
I've got a better idea.
Okay, let's see, let's go here.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
I'm going to join you from my iPad.
It's on a.
It's on a.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Wi-Fi?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Wi-Fi Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Cool, are you going gonna show your face?
Speaker 2 (03:49):
yes, just chill out okay, all right, let's go so so
I guess, yeah, I guess, thereason why I was interested in,
(04:11):
uh, in ham radio, um, was justbecause I like the idea of, you
know, really not needing any,any kind of infrastructure, um,
you know, to communicate withother people, no people because
you know we're all kind ofdispersed here in oklahoma.
Uh, I have a son in houston.
We're in austin here.
(04:32):
I got friends all over theplace I mean texas yeah, yeah.
Well, I got, yeah, oklahoma andtexas, and then friends, you
know, in different states andstuff, so anyway, so I like the
idea of being able tocommunicate without
infrastructure, so I'm notdependent on infrastructure.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Um and you think you're gonna be in a.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
You think we're gonna be at a point where we aren't
gonna be, can't be dependent onthe infrastructure yeah, I mean,
I, I think you know, just Ilisten to some guys who, um,
they, they're, they're formermilitary, they're intelligence
officers and they're no longerin the military but they still
(05:11):
have a like an informationservice for a civilian audience
and they talk about you know alot of different things you know
related to how things are goingdomestically, how things are
going internationally, and justyou know, related to how things
are going domestically, howthings are going internationally
, um, and just you know, kind ofkeep an eye, help people
understand.
(05:31):
You know kind of do what newsused to do years ago, is report.
You know what happened, uhversus look at what happened and
then tell you from theirperspective, kind of the how
versus the what.
So you know, so it's hardbecause you get you get somebody
else's bias, um in that.
(05:51):
And you know, I think I thinknews media today is, um, is
probably more biased than I'veever seen it, and so it makes it
difficult to understand what'sactually going on.
You know, I want to know what'sgoing on, um, from an objective
as objective a viewpoint as Ican get, um, and then you know,
kind of make my owninterpretation, you know, of
(06:13):
what happened.
I don't get somebody else'sinterpretation of what happened
with their bias a lot of biasthrown in there, a lot of agenda
thrown in there, and then tryto make sense of something that
that's already you know.
Maybe if we saw the same event,I wouldn't even see it the same
way.
So you know, I think you know ajournalist.
You know what is a journalist.
A journalist is somebody whotakes a journal of events, you
(06:36):
know, and the idea, I think, isto get yourself out of it and
witness something.
If you're seeing a parade andyou're a journalist and you're
writing to an audience or you'rereporting it, you want to.
You want to make it so real tothem from where you are, take
them in, you know, to whathappened at the parade, what it
(06:56):
sounded like, what floats cameby.
You know all this kind of stuffwithout injecting yourself into
it, because once you've donethat, you kind of tainted the
experience.
You know you're either tryingto sensationalize it or downplay
it or whatever your agendahappens to be.
I think our media is full ofagenda and bias and therefore
it's really hard to know whatthe truth is, kind of like
(07:17):
what's going on, and so I feellike you know, for a paid
service and kind of you know,listening to, you know some
people with their own you knowkind of version of the news, um
and you know, and also theirtheir um prior training as
(07:38):
military intelligence officersyou know to to kind of give you
um the bottom line up front, thebluff you know, and of give you
um the bottom line up front,the bluff you know, and um help
you understand what's going onso you can kind of make your own
determination.
You can start connecting a lotof different you know, dots you
know, and doing that and um drawyour own conclusions.
(08:00):
And it's fine to get somebodyelse's opinion, you know, and I
think that's extremely valuableto get somebody else's opinion,
uh, but they're also it's alsoextremely valuable to be able to
get facts you know, likeactually what happened without
opinion, and I think that'swhat's missing from the mix.
If you're turning on andwatching network television,
(08:21):
okay, what is?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
what?
What are you?
Uh, what's this?
Where are you getting thisinformation?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
so, uh, there's, there's a, um, there's a service
called the early warningnetwork.
I think you can go on to earlywarning networkcom, um, and you
can, um, you go in there andsubscribe to their service, um,
and it's pretty interestingbecause, you know, they do, they
talk about what's going on, youknow, within our nation.
(08:50):
They talk about what's going oninside the Beltway, you know,
in Washington, kind of like thereal intense political scene at
a national excuse me, nationallevel.
And they got, um, some guys whoare kind of experts on, kind of
in that, in that politicalsphere, as part of what they did
(09:13):
as military intelligenceofficers, and now they're just
doing it for a civilian audience.
But you also have guys who are,you know, uh, former um navy
officers you know, who also giveyou know, who also give you
know, um, weigh in frequently onwhat's going on with our Navy,
where they are, um, and some ofthe issues that they're having,
uh, some of the hotspots aroundthe world that they're paying
(09:34):
attention to.
So you get the domestic look,you get inside the beltway look,
and you kind of get aninternational look, um, look at
where the United States isengaging, but also what's going
on internationally where theUnited States may not yet be
engaging.
So what are some of theemerging issues around the globe
(09:59):
?
So, anyway, I found it prettyinformative.
I like that kind of thing ameans of distributing their
national intelligence briefingover ham radio, which is really
cool because, um, like I saidearlier, you know you can get
(10:20):
your um, you can get yourreports and everything, um,
aside from having to haveinfrastructure, uh and I don't
know if we're going to have aninfrastructure problem, but I do
know, just from listening tothese briefs that you know it's
like in.
They're saying that in 2025, youknow we're going to have more
(10:46):
electrical problems.
You have a lot of artificialintelligence capacity that's
trying to spin up across theUnited States.
It's incredibly energyintensive and we're taking down
a lot of electrical generationinfrastructure and we're not
replacing it.
(11:07):
I mean, we are losing ground onour grid capacity.
That's one problem.
The other problem is we'rereplacing a lot of that grid
capacity with either wind orsolar.
I have nothing against wind orsolar, um, but when the wind
stops blowing or the sun stoppedshining, or when we had the
whole snowmageddon thing downhere in the south a couple years
(11:28):
ago, I mean all that stuff shutdown and people were, you know,
in these intense conditions andthey needed, you know, when
they needed energy most.
They couldn't get so.
So I think, I think you know,and they're saying, you know
it's not going to start.
They're not talking about anykind of, like you know,
armageddon kind of thing.
They're just talking aboutstarting in 2025.
This, this equation of the powerconsumption need in the United
(11:53):
States and the power generationcapacity the equation doesn't
work.
The demand is going to a placethat cannot be supplied by our
current infrastructure,especially as we shut down coal.
And, aside from any kind ofenvironmental argument, which I
(12:14):
don't really get too much intothat, um, I just feel like, you
know, as a utility, you know, Ifeel like government state
government most, for the mostpart, but federal too, since
they play in that space I thinkthey have an obligation, you
know, to make sure that we havethe power we need to, you know,
run a orderly society and that'sthat doesn't look like it's the
(12:35):
case going forward.
And so I think what they'rethinking is, you know, we're
going to have more brownouts um,you know, kind of enrolling
blackouts in 2025.
That will impact people, youknow, more than it has in the
past and that's probably goingto continue to be the case for a
number of years.
They'll probably grow inintensity, you know, over the
(12:56):
coming years, because you can'tjust bring a power plant online
all of a sudden, and so we gotto get this figured out.
But in the meantime, you know,it could be a little bit of a
bumpy road.
So I mean, that's what I'manticipating.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
So this with the ham how did you get started in the
ham radio business?
I mean, what, uh, if I wasgoing to start and I told you I
would, so I'm going to be, I'mgoing to be a hammy here pretty
soon.
How do you get started in hamradio?
So someone out there listeningwants to start up and says I
(13:32):
agree with everything Ben justsaid.
Hmm, I think I need to be a hamradio operator yeah, well, I
mean, anybody can get a hamradio.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I mean it can be something as simple as you know
something like this.
You know little radio like this.
It's five watt radio um and youknow people look at that and say
, well, it looks like, lookslike a walkie-talkie.
It kind of is, but it just hasgreater capability, has a
capability of talking to you,can use repeaters.
So, for example, like on thislittle radio that I just showed
(14:04):
you, I can hit a repeater 17miles across town and so when I
hit that repeater I saysomething to that repeater, or
on this frequency, and then therepeater amplifies what I just
said and it shoots out.
You know, a signal that can beheard at much greater distance.
(14:24):
You know, using repeaters,that's on a VHF, uhf radio,
which is what I just showed you.
Then you have high frequencyradio that doesn't and VHF and
UHF.
It doesn't use the atmosphereto propagate, to send its signal
out.
It's basically line of sight HFradio where you see people,
(14:47):
they have a house, you see agigantic antenna.
It's like what are they tryingto do?
Talk to Mars or something?
And it's like what?
Speaker 1 (14:52):
are they trying?
Speaker 2 (14:53):
to talk to mars or something that's like that.
Those hf rigs, radios, you know, they, they do depend on the
ionosphere, so a signal goes upfrom where you are, your
location, it can be your.
Your antenna can be somethingas simple as a wire.
You know which is what I have.
It's a 73 foot long wire, butit's a wire um, and it'll send
it.
It'll send, you know, the hfsignal.
It will bounce off theatmosphere and it'll send it.
It'll send, you know, the HFsignal.
(15:14):
It will bounce off theatmosphere and it will bounce
back down to earth and, andthat's how you know, and it just
keeps bouncing back and forth,you know, between the atmosphere
and the earth.
And that's where you get thosekinds of like extreme distances,
like you can hear, intoconversations with people you
know on different continents,you know, let alone the united.
It's easy, you know, haveconversations within the united
(15:35):
states and I hear people all thetime from california and oregon
and texas and um that's thefarthest you've gone or heard uh
, you know, I think, uh, youknow, I've heard people up in
the northeast like around maine,um, but you know, also here are
people from Puerto Rico andMexico, and you know, just all
(15:58):
over.
And I, you know, I don't havethe kind of gear, like the kind
of heavy duty gear, I would needto talk, you know, to Australia
, like I, I can't do that withmy current setup.
I have the licensing to getthat set up, but that's really
not my interest.
My interest is really more onregional communications.
So, you know, know, just thinkabout drawing a 500 mile circle,
(16:19):
you know, around my locationhere in texas and that kind of
gets me in communication withabout 80 percent of the people
that I feel like I would like tocommunicate with or need to
communicate with, and so that'sreally kind of my objective.
And the rig that I have verynice, it's a newer Yaesu HF
(16:41):
model and with my antenna set upand it accomplishes that
objective.
If I want to talk you know theycall it DXing distance
communications If I want to dothat, I could, but that's not my
objective.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
If I want to do that, I could, but that's not my
objective, so would your littlewalkie talkie looking thing
reach up here to Bartlesville?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
No, no, I mean you can link repeaters, but you know
, I don't.
I don't think there's a bignetwork of linked repeaters.
So, basically, what repeatersdo is that they'll give you the
ability to communicate.
I'll say within um, you knowjust people, as soon as I say
this, somebody's gonna say oh no, you're wrong about that, but
(17:23):
you know, I'll say uh, I'll say40 miles.
Okay, you know, depending on howyou're set up which is really
nice because, like you know,especially in the event, like
those people in north carolina,um, you know, they don't, they
don't have cell tower coverageright now.
They don't have cell tower,they don't have any
communications at all or power,you know.
(17:46):
And so what's kind of savingthe day for those guys over
there is that little radio.
I just held up that one rightthere, but you know vhf radio.
Now I know it's kind of line ofsight and it's a hilly terrain
but, they're using it to greateffect in those areas because
it's their only means ofcommunication right now.
So you know that would beanother scenario, a little more
(18:06):
extreme of course, but one whereyou know.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
We're seeing a lot more extreme going on ever since
the snow, what you call thesnowpocalypse or whatever it's
again texas a couple years ago.
Yeah, um weather, crazy weather, hurricanes, big hurricanes,
you know.
Seems like they're gettingbigger all the time yeah, so you
know.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Back to your question , though you were asking how do
you get ham?
You don't have to be licensedto get a ham radio, you just
have to be licensed to hit thattransmit button so you can
listen all you want.
And there's a lot of valueactually in just listening
without license.
But you know, you kind of haveto learn how to use the
equipment, how you know thevarious frequency ranges that
(18:55):
that are available to you,depending on what kind of rig
you get um.
But you know.
So once you do that, it'sreally about you know passing
your test.
There's basically three levelsyou can get.
The first level is technician,which allows you to talk on that
little radio I just showed you.
It allows you to communicate onvhf and uhf, primarily two
meters also, but um.
And then there's a generalclass, which is which is where I
(19:19):
am that allows me to also usethose hf bounds.
It's bands that skip off the um, the ionosphere, back to earth,
and does that kind of, you know, back and forth, skip
propagation, um.
So that that's that's what I'mdoing to you know, to be able to
get out in a 500 mile circle.
So it's about you can get theequipment you can start, you
(19:39):
know, studying for that thoseexams, take the exams and you
can start transmitting andlearning how to use it right the
Speaker 1 (19:51):
line's really knocking me out there.
So what tip would you givelisteners who are wanting to
start out?
Based on your experience, whatwould you recommend?
Uh?
Speaker 2 (20:08):
what's your interest in ham?
Speaker 1 (20:09):
radio.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah, what's one tip you'd give to other beginners
starting in ham radio um, well,I really think you know, get,
get your radio as you'restarting, because you know I
think it's helpful to turn it on, listen to it and kind of like,
learn how to use it.
Whether or not you can transmitor not, that's a different
thing, but it kind of makes it alittle more real to you.
(20:30):
There's all kinds of studycourses.
You know you can get a book.
Um, you can get a book.
Uh, you know, go through studyguide to go through.
You can go on to like hamstudyorg, just on the internet
and study for free.
You know.
And basically you know they'llhave 20, they'll have all these
chapters like for yourtechnician license you need to
(20:51):
cover.
So I think it's 22 chapters.
There's about 20 questions perchapter that are in those study
guides and when you go take thetest, the test is made up of 35
of all those questions, 20 perchapter, so 450 questions,
whatever it is right.
But those 35 questions aretaken directly from those study
guides and you know verbatim isthe question, the range of
(21:14):
answers that are possible.
So you know it's, it's prettyattainable, it's, it's a little
bit of a pain but it'sattainable, you know, for people
if they really want to do it's,it's pretty attainable.
It's it's a little bit of apain, but it's attainable for
people if they really want to doit.
It's not that hard, you justyou know, you can do it.
You know, if somebody just wantto do it in the evenings and
spend an hour an evening youknow, kind of studying for it, I
bet you could get it done andget your technician license in a
week.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Yeah, what uh wrapping this thing up?
What is, uh what?
I forgot to ask you what youhad for breakfast this morning
uh, I had, uh, two eggs and acouple of blueberry waffles what
(21:57):
kind of syrup?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
uh, it is a?
Uh organic maple syrup thatjanet buys.
It's great slap sap jack.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
I think you can get it at uh heb here yeah, well, as
we wrap it up, any final what'syour?
What last words?
How would you want to wrap thisup for those listening about
learning about ham radiooperation and your, your journey
here?
What, what would you say?
Speaker 2 (22:32):
I mean, if you're, if people are interested, you know
, I think it's, it's worthwhile,you know, to do Some people
really enjoy it.
There's a lot of the oldercrowd on ham radio but there is
a younger set also and as I sithere, at 59 years old.
(22:54):
I'm probably one of the youngerpeople on ham radio, but there
are people under 30, 20, 30s,40s that are on ham radio.
So it's not exactly my hobby.
You know I have a use case forit.
It's not that I don't enjoy it,because you know there's
aspects of it that I do enjoy.
I wouldn't say it's my hobby.
It serves a purpose.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Would you call yourself a prepper?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Forward thinker there you go forward thinker yeah you
know, if you, if you want toget into local communications,
kind of like what's going onlocally, it's like bartlesville,
for example you can go on tobartlesville on to uh, do a web
search and you can look at theham radio club in bartlesville.
They've got a looks like a greatradio club there in
(23:40):
bartlesville you can learn howto talk with other people there
and you know that they'rethey're talking on the radio is
really kind of building up theirskill set to to make sure that
they stay current with how touse it.
So there's value in that, um.
So yeah, it's, it can be fun.
You know, it's the kind ofthing you can wade into um or
you can like dive into and getover your head.
(24:00):
So it's really how you use it.
But I would recommend it.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
All right.
All right, with thatrecommendation, we've got to go,
ben, thanks for joining ustoday and come back and see us
again sometime.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Will do See you.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
All right.
Well for Ben Townsend.
This is Scott Townsend.
Thanks for listening to theScott Townsend Show.
Have a great day, everything'sgoing to be all right and we'll
talk to you later.
The Scott Townsend Show is aDietz-O-Man production.
(24:49):
For more episodes, visit theScott Townsend Show YouTube
channel, listen on ApplePodcasts or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
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