An ultralight aircraft has some issues I'd like to see resolved. They're very noisy. You can hear them coming for miles when they are flying at low altitudes (below 500 ft above the ground). They have a very limited payload capacity and limited range. That means where ever you flying to, you'd better have supplies in place. Limited safety factors ie glide ratio isn't very good when compared with other conventional aircraft.

That said if we haven't been em pulsed, an ultralight would great eyes in the skies for a convoy. Flying at least 800 ft altitude and painted a mottled pastel gray and blue , ultralights would be very difficult to spot from the ground visually. Remember any aircraft can also be a bomber by simply dropping finned shells by hand like they did in WW1.

Originally posted by NGC2736
dr_strangecraft, in simple form, what all is required to get started with shortwave, and how costly is it?

How much you got?


I have a battery operated (2xAA) handheld receiver that covers FM (longwave), AM (medium wave), and shortwave up to the 22 bands. It cost be like, 30 bucks.

I have a hand-cranked radio/flashlight, but it only has the first two sets of SW bands, and stops at 13. it cost, what 40 bucks.

But these are just receivers, and don't receive that accurately. Which means that most of the SW stations I can pick up tend to be state-sponsored radio from various world govts, plus religious zealots of various stripes. Grundig makes a reciever I'm interested in for about a hundred USD, that has special circuits to help zero in on a station and keep it from fading, and to pick up much weaker signals.

Broadcasting kit probably starts around 250 USD for the total minimum, to 1000 or more. A transmitters SW license in the US is basically sitting for an FCC test, after you've read some workbooks and cover the basics of "how it works" and what US and international laws apply.

I'm interested in numbers stations, and you can't hear that on the devices I own now. I have picked up some dissadent radio transmitters out of Russia and China. They broadcast in English at least every 24 hours or so, and usually have some indepth reporting on local issues. It sounds like a stateside NPR broadcast, or maybe similar to a BBC radio program.

One of my crank radios is actually stored in a faraday cage, and so might be operable after an EMP event. SW is usually critical in disasters; some people in remote areas use them because cell phones won't reach. Since those people often have a generator, they are often the ONLY voices during a disaster. I think it's one of the first ways the world heard about the Tsunami is SE asia. I also remember that in the San Franscisco Earthquake in the early 90's, it was a SW broadcaster that alerted the national guard to lawlessness in certain neighborhoods.

The national news agencies all listen to SW, and use it when there's a US disaster like Katrina. FEMA usually ships SW transmitters INTO an area like that, so that locals are connected to civilization, and not just to the government.

I also sort of remember that solar flare storms actually improve SW radio, unlike cell-phones and satelite. So they are a definite backup when telecommunications is out.

Plus, I can listen to Al Jazeera without being tracked by the feds, like I am here on the interweb.



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Thanks Doc. I want to look into this. Money's scarce, but then if I skip a couple of short trips, the price of gas will cover it.

I'll check the local community college for study material, maybe even a course on it. I would like to be up and running pretty soon.

And I have a home built power source using two old bikes and an alternator and some sweat. Works pretty good for a 12volt system. And in this day of RVs you can get most anything for 12volt. Our little 'fishing' cabin works pretty well that way.

I'd highly recommend that anyone seriously into survival preparation get into HAM radio. With the morse code requirement gone it's pretty easy to get your license. This allows you the ability to transmit as well as receive. Having this ability NOW is very important. Especially on the HF bands (what you call shortwave) there's more to reaching another station than tuning and talking. Parcticing now will prepare you for later.

There alot of excellent used HAM equipment available. For example, my main unit is a multi-mode (AM, FM, SSB, Digital, Packet) unit that operates over 4 bands (HF, 6m, VHF and UHF). It contains a 'general coverage' receiver that runs from below AM broadcast all the way up to microwave. The unit runs on home AC or battery power. Now's the time. Get your communications capabilities sorted out now.