I recently purchased what I initially thought was a set of walkie talkies. I live kind of out in the sticks, and cell phone service is spotty (and frequently goes out altogether.) My wife has health issues, so I thought a set of walkie talkies would be a way for us to get ahold of each other when the phones crap out. God forbid she has a health emergency when the phones are down and I'm away from home.
Well, what I got are actually a set of portable Ham radios. In the USA, you have to take a test and get a license to be able to talk on the Ham bands. They are not walkie talkies. If you talk on them without a license, you have broken the law, and could possibly have the FCC come down on you. (There's no laws against just listening to anything on the Ham bands.)
My wife wasn't happy about this. "So you just bought a couple of radios we can't use without getting a license?!" Sadly, yes. But, this is Admiral Taiwos! I am a rebel, a maverick! So, I broke the law and used the Ham radio as a walkie talkie. Talked to my wife for under a minute while she was in the house and I was on the porch feeding one of the neighborhood's stray cats. (The radio worked fine.)
Then, on a whim, I clicked the "talk" button and said "Hail to the King! Long Live Talossa!"
I doubt anyone heard me besides my wife. I've been doing research on Ham radio ever since I got these things. Apparently there are only seven licensed Ham radio operators in my area, and I doubt any of them happened to be tuning in to me when I shouted my Pro-Talossa slogan.
Nonetheless...could this be considered Talossan pirate radio? Has the Admiral become a pirate of the airwaves? Has anything remotely Talossan ever been broadcasted over radio waves?
I may try to get a legit Ham license.
I could get one of those FM radio transmitters and start a Talossan radio station, but the only people who might pick it up are whoever happens to drive past my trailer.
Quote from: Iason Taiwos on October 10, 2025, 05:48:57 PMI recently purchased what I initially thought was a set of walkie talkies. I live kind of out in the sticks, and cell phone service is spotty (and frequently goes out altogether.) My wife has health issues, so I thought a set of walkie talkies would be a way for us to get ahold of each other when the phones crap out. God forbid she has a health emergency when the phones are down and I'm away from home.
Well, what I got are actually a set of portable Ham radios. In the USA, you have to take a test and get a license to be able to talk on the Ham bands. They are not walkie talkies. If you talk on them without a license, you have broken the law, and could possibly have the FCC come down on you. (There's no laws against just listening to anything on the Ham bands.)
My wife wasn't happy about this. "So you just bought a couple of radios we can't use without getting a license?!" Sadly, yes. But, this is Admiral Taiwos! I am a rebel, a maverick! So, I broke the law and used the Ham radio as a walkie talkie. Talked to my wife for under a minute while she was in the house and I was on the porch feeding one of the neighborhood's stray cats. (The radio worked fine.)
Then, on a whim, I clicked the "talk" button and said "Hail to the King! Long Live Talossa!"
I doubt anyone heard me besides my wife. I've been doing research on Ham radio ever since I got these things. Apparently there are only seven licensed Ham radio operators in my area, and I doubt any of them happened to be tuning in to me when I shouted my Pro-Talossa slogan.
Nonetheless...could this be considered Talossan pirate radio? Has the Admiral become a pirate of the airwaves? Has anything remotely Talossan ever been broadcasted over radio waves?
I may try to get a legit Ham license.
I could get one of those FM radio transmitters and start a Talossan radio station, but the only people who might pick it up are whoever happens to drive past my trailer.
Sounds fantastic, I am still interested in helping with the Talossan Naval Relief Corps, Admiral.
I'm actually working on getting my Ham radio license. Do we know if there's any effort to get a Talossan ham radio group together? I know one exists for Esperanto
Iason, if you end up getting an FM radio transmitter or doing more with your ham radio, I bet it would not be too hard to set up a livestream equivalent online. And I would volunteer the back catalog of the podcast that used to run under the banner of my paper, BT.
I actually think it would be fun and not too much work to do some speeches and other audio stuff, actually. It might be fun to record the current Progressive platform, for example. Or to just do some old fashioned campaign speeches. I still have my decent yeti microphone from when I was zoom teaching and doing zoom Dungeons & Dragons. So we could come up with content without too much trouble.