Birthers are not my only hobby — from time to time I listen to shortwave radio.
This afternoon, after seeing a note on the Internet that a Maine shortwave station, WBCQ, was broadcasting on a new frequency, I thought I’d get out a box of cheap radios and give them a comparison workout on 7.490 MHz at 2330 UTC (5:30 PM US Eastern Time). The schedule said they would be airing a program called Financial Survival.
WBCQ calls itself “Free Speech Radio.” It’s not exactly free, though. It costs $50 to have them broadcast your one-hour audio file around the world. The Financial Survival program is from a company called “Discount Gold and Silver Trading.”
For the 30 minutes I was listening, most of my activity was tuning and logging with multiple radios. I got bits and pieces of the program that sounded like fringe Christian millennialist end of the world stuff. I guess you should buy gold as a hedge against the world going to hell.
What caught my ear though, were the words “Barry Soetoro,” which most of you will recognize as the birthers’ name for President Obama. According to the speaker, the government was going to break into all communications: radio, TV and Internet in a couple of days and take it all over. Fearing something I didn’t quite catch, the takeover was going to be limited to 30 seconds. The fellow said that President Soetoro had his finger on the “Internet kill switch” and when it came back up it would be “Internet 2”, consisting of government indoctrination 24-7. [There is a test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) November 9.]
While I’m not worried about the President hitting the Internet kill switch, I am reminded of government control of the Internet in other places in the world and the fact that one way of obtaining uncensored news anonymously is through shortwave radio. It is ironic that a new generation of excellent low-cost receivers is coming out at the same time that international shortwave broadcasting is in decline.
If you’re interested in listening to more of the program I heard, check out the show archives, or the broadcast schedule on the same page. If you’re going to try shortwave, just note that the frequency 7.415 MHz has been replaced by 7.490.
I have> the Grundig M300 ultralight shortwave radio pictured above (mine is black). I was surfing Google images for a shortwave graphic and when I saw this one I said, like the hobbit Pippin in The Fellowship of the Ring who said, “It comes in pints?” [Update: subsequently, I got a pink one too.]
It comes in pink?
The reference to Harry Potter might not be as dated as you think. The DVD of the final movie comes out on Friday. And a national EBS test is scheduled for Wednesday at 2 Eastern.
Oh. My Grundig is black also. The reception isn’t too bad, but there isn’t much SW penetration into the central US, especially compared to when I lived near the Canadian border back east.
Thanks. I will change the article.
The radio is manufactured by the Chinese radio powerhouse Tecsun. There is a Tecsun-branded version of this radio (R-919), and I have ordered a yellow one. I haven’t seen anywhere to buy the blue, red, white, silver, bronze. pink or camo versions.
[Since this comment was made, I have made great progress towards obtaining the various colors. I still lack the pearl and solid orange ones (I have the transparent orange version).]
Buy your kid a job. Buy
Australian…er American.“According to the speaker, the government was going to break into all communications: radio, TV and Internet . . .”
The Birthers on WND were saying that this:
Nationwide Emergency Alert System test Wednesday at 2 p.m. ☞LINK
is all part of the The Greatest Conspiracy Of All Time. A conspiracy involving a certain birth certificate.
The grain of truth here is that the EAS does give the President the ability to break in, with 10 minutes notice, to all broadcasting, including radio, off-the-air TV, cable TV, XM Radio and Satellite TV. But you know, if that meteor the size of an aircraft carrier was flying into the earth instead of close by the earth, I think the President should have a chance confess before the world ends.
The hysteria in the RWNJ-verse over the EAS test is even more pathetic than usual (See Dr K(H)ates passim).
The problem withe teh current system is that, whilst local and regional alerts are seen on a regular basis, inter-state and country wide has NEVER been tested to see if it works.
Now, in the real world that would be seen as a bad thing, that needs to be checked to see if it works or needs fixing.
In the RWNJoverse this is taken as read to be a deliberate ploy to take over the TV’s, computers and broadcasting of the “Lame” stream media to make it all Obaba’s and the NWO’s…..The same LSM and NWO that teh RWNJ’s all say are already in the pocket of said axis of evil…….
Ebay has most of the colors available.
I updated the article to say that the my Grundig M300 can tune 7.490 MHz, although it is outside of the published specifications. Not all of this model radio will tune it.
Hey, Doc, dropped by to see what’s up. Glad to see it’s quiet! The conspiracization of the EAS test was a crackup! There’s no underestimating the whackjobs. At least they’re consistent!
Presumably we’ll all be on tenterhooks later today to hear what nuggets of wisdom and insight Terry Lakin has to offer in his first live radio interview since having been thrown under a bus by then birthers and since leaving the service. This of course has nothing to do with release of his much awaited book…..fnaar fnaar fnaar…..
http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2011/11/terry-lakins-discharge-is-complete.html
Anyone who has an hour of their life that they don’t value too much can listen to this recording of Lakin, aided by Jack Cashill, as he stumbles his way through a radio interview today.
He appears to have total amnesia about breaking down in court and admitting that he was totally wrong in doing what he did and to have seamlessly reverted to the “I have justice and the constitution on my side” position he was adopting while being advised by the half-wit dog bite lawyer.
Nothing new or unexpected. I don’t care what his qualifications are, it’s clearer than ever that he’s just not the full shilling and as gormless as they come.
http://www.terrylakinactionfund.com/tlafradio/148-tlafradio20111121.html