[CoCo] OT - Hams & Plans

[James C. Hrubik, Sr.]

I know this is not directly CoCo related, but there are a lot of ham 
operators in CoColand and I wanted to bounce some ideas off them.

A growing concern to our national security is the possibility of an EMP 
attack, which would wipe out most modern electronics and the equipment 
that uses them.  However, bicycles, breaker-point ignition cars, and 
older electronics (tube, possibly individual transistor, old kit-style 
radios) -- just about anything pre-1980 design -- would still be usable 
after an EMP attack.  Communications in a post-EMP era might depend to 
a large part for a time on old-style transmitters and receivers.  Since 
a lot of Cocoistas are hardware hacker-oriented anyway, a set of plans 
for a simple transceiver would make a lot of sense in a disaster kit ( 
or better yet, having such a critter pre-assembled and ready to go).  I 
keep having visions of the old crystal set I built while in Cub Scouts 
- wound my own coil, found my piece of quartz, tuned in to far-off 
stations using no battery [gets glassy-eyed....].  Also, I have a 
thought that electronics which are not actually plugged in or "on" 
during an EMP attack might not be affected.  In such cases, a battery 
powered CoCo brought out of storage, with a packet modem, might be an 
early step in bringing systems back on board ( I actually had 
originally thought about this problem back during Y2K).

So, in a small way, maybe this is CoCo related, if it leads to more 
discussion of battery-powered CoCos.  I think, though, that the people 
on this list probably have a good deal of expertise, scattered 
world-wide, as to how to revive power and communication services after 
such a disaster.  Feedback?


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