LA Times: Town criers in the age of Twitter

A growing group of L.A.-area residents share a passion for listening to police scanners and spreading that news online, in real time, via Twitter. 'It's like theater,' one says.

Read the full story at the LA Times

Catastrophe Network

catastrophenetwork.org

I Ran across this new blog that is aimed more towards personal family preparedness. They also publish what the call the "Standardized Amateur Radio Prepper Communications Plan".

Great all we need is someone else trying to coordinate national frequencies.

I can't stand "HAM"

I saw the below image today on FB, It's an add for a "Ham radio social network!" You know what really bothers me, the phrase "ham radio".



Historically this phrase was first used as a pejorative by professional radiotelegraph operators to describe unskilled and incompetent amateur operators but today "Ham" radio is more commonly used then "Amateur" radio. For a lot of operators the phrase is embraced, and usually fits because many times good intentioned "Hams" are unskilled and incompetent operators, and the title "Ham" even matches their physical appearance.