Today I’m chatting with the fellow who runs Federated (see HERE) who has also obtained his Extra license and is doing fun SotA things and QRP with a very cool transceiver… I want one. If anyone out there is not using their Xiegu or LAB599…
So, we are chatting about using Federated to build a live video, audio and chat platform (kinda like YouTube) for streaming and archiving live Masses. We are talking about chess online and Twitch, etc. We are talking about subsets of Catholics involved in all these different activities. The topic turned to prepping and how many Mormon churches had satellite dishes.
I opined that every Catholic diocese should have a shack (in ham terminology, the room where you have your radios, transceivers, etc.). In fact, I thought every parish should have one. There would be hams in every parish, for sure. Lots of them out there.
I then mused that every seminarian should be given classes to obtain an amateur radio license (and Morse for CW). Every priest should be offered classes. Religious should make it part of their formation.
FSSP… SSPX… INSTITUTE… ETC. … you would do well to do this.
There may… heh, will… come a day.
It was spectacularly short sighted for the Holy See to roll back their radio capabilities. I think they will never be able to put it back together. But that’s the Vatican for you… now.
Meanwhile, this new year is underway. I hope WB0YLE will be abl to get all the components of Zednet working again. I’ll try to remember to keep my AllStarLink on and sometimes Echolink when I am just hanging around.
- Echolink WB0YLE-R
- AllStar Node 28868
73
UPDATE: 
Why wait?
This is for the first level exam and it has information for the question pool which will be in use to 2026. BE CAREFUL. Older (used, etc.) editions will have different question pools.
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Brilliant idea. I’d say with the American election approaching that that day may not be far off.
Where could one buy a Ham radio?
Beatify: It is one thing to have the radio and use it for listening. Anyone can listen. It is another thing to transmit. For that you need a license. After The Collapse, you won’t. Now you do. To get one you must pass tests. Studying for the tests is not that hard. Heck, I did it.
I monitored WB0YLE all day today with Echolink but did not hear any stations. Sadly No activity! It’s a great place to keep in touch with each other! Yes, you need a Ham licence!
tomorrow i am meeting up with some KofC friends. our council covers several inner-city parishes. i’m introducing the idea. i doubt i have more than a year left above ground, but i can lay groundwork (ha!) for something will outlast me.
Found the tests online! Thank you.
Canadian tests that is.
Great news! I’ve missed having those nets. Agree with your suggestion that parishes (and their pastors) should have radio clubs. In times of power outages, etc., these clubs could be used to coordinate parishioners-helping-parishioners. Practicing battery powered field comms, which is kinda what POTA can be if you look at it that way, can come in handy in an emergency. But CB radio is also an option: it has the advantages of lower cost equipment, simple chanellized operation, no tests or license needed. On AM it’s decent for local comms; on SSB it’s essentially 11m QRP with lots of skip. And, CB is a traditional “gateway drug” to ham. No reason a parish radio club has to be ham-only! I’ve already been talking-up CB around my parish (not yet to the pastor, mind you) for those reasons.
I remember you use to recommend this a-lot, back when you use to say build the church Brick-by-brick ™. I always thought it was cool. When I was dating my now husband he was a flight instructor and seemed a little incredulous. He said he was already trained in ham radio receiving and the topic got dropped. I think I’ll pick it up again. That and chess. I think it’s a great idea, especially for younger children too.
Ham radio… morse code… and… Latin.
This is the formula!
Wonderful to see one of your Amateur Radio posts again. (Can there be too many chess posts?) And I miss the survivalist posts, too! You could have easily squeezed that subject into this post, too.
We need to start a novena to Maximilian Kolbe!! He would love this idea.
Re what our reverend host said about The Collapse and licenses…
A government that is capable and willing not to give licenses to persons it considers undesirable, such a government is also capable and quite probably willing to revoke the licenses they already have.
deaconjohn: Good to hear from you. I was on with AllStar in the evening, but did not have Echolink going. I chewed the rag a bit this morning with WB0YLE.
I’ll turn on Echolink for a while today on my desk top or an old iPhone.
swvirginia says: Maximilian Kolbe
He would! Also, aside, I have a 1st class relic of St. Maximilian. Not very common.
For the Family Plan, also remember GMRS — the radios are more or less comparable to what a Amateur technical class can use, the license costs $35, it applies to the entire (extended) family, and it does not require a test.
Wonderful for vacations.
And getting the family familiar with using radios requires some work. Probably better to do this pre-crash :)
https://quality2wayradios.com/store/GMRS-FCC-License
Jones wrote “That and chess.” I seem to remember chess played round the world by radio being a feature of some pop culture things from the 1960s which I’ve run into. How much is that still an ever day thing in the right circles?
Also, I wonder how many of those streaming and archiving live Masses on YouTube are also doing so on other platforms, and archiving offline?
Thank you for the shout-out Fr. Z.
With retirement looming (you would not believe the out-of-body experience being a tech sales architect for Big Blue is in terms of being a time suck…12-14 hours a day with a large quota over your head…), I will have more time to devote to this. I’m going to drop support for Wires-X; the conversion/recoding of audio streams is as fragile as a political promise) and re-implement the DMR link (which suffered from, again, fragile open source code, but is a lot more stable 2 years down the road…).
Right now, Echolink works just fine at node WB0YLE-R (node 554286) connected to the Allstar network (accessible via a local repeater, if enabled) on node 28868, or, if you’re willing to invest in a SHARI (https://kits4hams.com/) node, you can have a low-power simplex allstar node directly on your home network. If folks are interested, and you provide the bits, I can build the node for you (Fr Z has one, IIRC, and seems to be working fine.
Allstar has been around for over a decade, the same as Echolink and is a lot more stable than the digital stuff (publicity notwithstanding). I’m listening to Deacon John and our host on the net even as I type this out, so, the network is working properly.
Other modes that seem to be capturing interest are the HF digital capabilities…I’ve been running FT8 and FT4 successfully with 5-25W and working worldwide…so SSB and CW is not the only method for long-distances.
I’ll echo our esteemed host’s invitation…if you are licensed…and have access to the net…echolink IS up and has been (it’s in the cloud!) for over 3 years…and allstar is always an option for now. Give me some time to try and get the rest going…
vry 73 de wb0yle (Bryan)