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During Blackout, Ham Radio Shined

Mark Cantrell writes "An interesting bit on AP through Yahoo today. Seems that ham radio (which recently had a bit of backlash here on Slashdot from a few people thinking it was useless, outdated technology), really shined through during the blackouts. When the power went, ham radio operators, using battery backup power, were able to help coordinate emergency workers while the cell phone networks were overloaded. For anyone wondering why interference due to power line broadband is considered a bad thing, well, there ya go."

4 of 476 comments (clear)

  1. Power line emissions by Mawen · · Score: 5, Funny

    ....Right, because when the power is out, those power lines sure generate a lot of interference.

  2. shined, shone by spasm · · Score: 4, Funny

    Shone! Shone! Dear God, 'shined' hasn't been used as a past tense since the 1700s!

    So Timothy is a time traveller from the 1700s. That explains a lot of slashdot spelling now that I think about it

    Ok, the coffee is kicking in now.

  3. Ham Joke by cnb · · Score: 5, Funny

    An blonde chick ran out of gas one night and a dude pulled over to offer assistance. She got in the car and noticed he had all kinds of radio equipment in the car and several antennas outside. She asked what that was all about. He explained he was a Ham radio operator and he could talk to anywhere in the world from right here in his car. She asked "Anywhere in the world?" and he assured her he could. "Even in Poland?" she asked. "Yes, even Poland." She said "Wow, my mother lives in Poland and today is her birthday. I'd do anything if I could tell her Happy Birthday." He said "You'd do anything?" She said "Yes, anything." So he pulled over on the top of a hill and pulled out his dick and said "Get with it." She grabbed ahold of it and bent over and said "Happy Birthday, Mom."

  4. Re:As if /.'ers care by antibryce · · Score: 5, Funny
    Being a slashdotter means never having to say you're sorry when you ostracize a seemingly archaic, yet dependable, technology that shows its worth when all else fails.


    er, I thought we liked UNIX on Slashdot. Did I not get the memo?

    Oh, you meant ham radio! Nevermind...