Daily Briefing For Thursday, August 29, 2013

College Football + AM Radio Technology = Zero

Those of you who follow my Facebook feed saw my post on my efforts to listen to Vanderbilt's home opener tonight against Ole Miss on an AM radio station in Nashville.  My college friend Brennan who works for the Amateur Radio Relay League (and no, ARRL not like fantasy football for geeks) agrees with me that this is the purist's way of listening to college football....and NOT on ESPN.

Sadly, the TV in my office is tuned to ESPN because I'm getting a lot of interference on my good shortwave radio.  The Select-A-Tenna which I'm using to help boost signal isn't much help at the moment....I'm hoping the atmospherics will improve after sunset to allow me to pick up 1510 kHz.  And if you don't think external AM antennas work, think again:



The preparedness nexus here?  AM radio is a great information delivery platform.  Everyone needs an AM radio in their kit.  When there are emergencies, the info you need will be broadcast on AM.  And the great thing about AM is that you can easily pick up signals from distant locations...meaning when your local AM station is inoperative, a station 200 miles away may be tasked with broadcasting pertinent info to your location.

So to review:  Watching college football gives me cool points, while using a multi-component AM radio to hear a game on a station 750 miles away when I could just watch the game on ESPN costs me cool points.  Net result is zero cool points for tonight.


Rand Paul Agrees With Me.

Why on earth would Assad use chemical weapons against his own people, when it would mean a likely visit from America's military industrial complex?  Rand Paul agrees with me. 

Meanwhile, there's a run on gas masks in Israel in anticipation of a chemical weapons attack from Syria.  It would seem Israel's reputation for being prepared may be slipping.


Update On 2014 Suburban Dad Survivalist Conference

I'm pleased to report I have lined up several excellent speakers for this year's conference, scheduled for Saturday, January 4, 2014 at the Cabela's in Buda.  I'll have more info shortly, including Early Bird pricing.