My entire financial planning model is founded on a lack of global thermonuclear war. Now I need to figure out what to short so I can take advantage of this black swan event?
This is the only thing that makes me want to learn radio. I don't want to buy expensive gear, but being able to build my own DIY QRP (low-power) DX (long-distance) CW (Morse) transceiver? Count me in.
Too bad there doesn't seem to be extensive information to introduce us digital engineers to the hobby.
I don't want a kit. I want to learn the fundamentals so I can be ready when the society collapses and the ham übermenschen rule the world.
The ARRL Handbook is still the best overall introductory material, I think. Depends on how old-school you want to get. SDR? Pre-SDR digital techniques? Analog-only? Analog-only with discrete transistors? Vacuum tubes...? The Handbook will bring you up to speed on all but the latter, and for that, there's always the older editions.
Do it. I got my license from a free course and test in San Diego and have enjoyed it ever since. Finding info can be pretty easy but I'm on my phone so can't provide links right this second.
It's global thermonuclear war. There won't be internet, cell reception, or even a power grid.
The radio in those is pretty short distance (ham can do 1000s of Km) and they draw a lot of power that you'll want to save since (if you're lucky) you'll be running on car batteries in remote areas.
But now I'm wondering how the aftermath will affect propagation conditions.
Target lists of other nations do not include all large metro areas in the US. A list for Russia was leaked once; by NY, LA, Seattle, but the middle of the country was mostly untouched. Presumably local infra in many areas will be disconnected from the old larger grid but locally intact.
Still functioning gadgets with WiFi will be all over and can make a local mesh network. Dams, wind turbines, utility lines, will remain.
It’s not aliens with doomsday weapons hitting all human occupied places from space.
That said it’s really what survivors do about that. Not hard to see many in shock ending themselves given the lack of hands on survival skills, and connection to the manual labor that keeps us alive, like farming.
Why not? I mean, you could ask the same question for 1 week, 1 month, 6 months, whatever.
And I don't think it's an immediate zero-to-normal kind of situation. You might be unable to get much/any food at all for a week or three, and then you might only be able to get emergency rations from the government. And then after a few months, some staples might start trickling in, with increasing quantities over time.
Eventually, after a year or so, things might be back to some reasonable percentage of normal. But all throughout, given high levels of stress, anxiety, and uncertainty, it'd probably be nice to not have to worry too much about what kind and quantity of food you'll be able to get, because you already have enough to last you a long time.
If we're talking about "a couple" years, and the situation is still essentially that no food is available for purchase or from the government, I expect the situation is so bad that society has at least partially collapsed. By that point I would think you would have needed to relocate, and have started growing your own food or hunting, well before you get to the couple-of-years point. But I suppose if you did actually store a couple of years of food, and you had a stable, safe, and secure shelter location, you could probably stay.
Eh, this is good for crypto.