gotta catch em all

[ThElectriCat]

90's throwback, perhaps this has been said before.
Non Directional Beacons are the SWL's version of pokemon.

1.they just say their names over and over.
2. enthusiasts will go great lengths to "catch" new and unsusual ones, including travelling to remote locations.
3. somewhat special equipment is required to hear them. and people will even get competitive about building special antennas, converters, etc.
4. the more you find, the more you know, the better you get at finding new ones.

i'm sure there are more,  and I also don't know as much about pokemon as I could. Anyone find the resemblance striking?

[redhat]

People get their kick in strange ways.  I just saw a piece on Live PD where a guy (somehow) had tied himself to a bed in fishnets....housekeeping found him.  He was OK but a little emBARE-ASSed about being on TV in front of the local PD.

+-RH

[SevenTrees']

That is a striking resemblance, never thought of it that way before, however pokemon hack works awesome.
Don't have to travel anywhere, teleport to Tokyo or California Pier 39.  That's how you catch em all.   

[Josh]

Oc is oc, no matter the obsession.

[SevenTrees']

Haha OCD, don't taze me bro, it's a prank bro.  And it is totally legit.

[Pigmeat]

You guys need to find women to take care of your Squirtle's or they'll find the bunch of you in your folks basements dead of ruptured Bulbasaur's.

Does anyone remember the hacked Furbees during that craze? They said soothing things to children like, "I'm going to kill you in your sleep", out of the box. A wholesaler sold the things to a couple of low-budget discount chains. A friends daughter got stuck with one of the them.

I don't think it was ever discovered who did it? It happened before they were boxed and shipped in the factory. Creative, but cruel, as it was the 2-4 y.o. set that wanted the things.

[Josh]

Lol@squirtles

[Pigmeat]

It seemed like a natural.

[SevenTrees']

LOL @ the swearing Furbees out of the box, I forgot about that one.  Wonder where they were manufactured, my bet is on China.  How about the China Toy Manufacturer who committed suicide, after getting caught for saving money, by using poisonous paint.  Wonder how many children he killed, and they were shipped to the US!!!  China. 

And China Again... 
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/19/china-based-hacking-breached-satellite-defense-companies-symantec.html
Hacking our satellites, not good.

Anyway, I have great respect for Beacon Operators.  They let us know when the bands are Open.
They run QRP 24/7, 365 days a year.  To me that is Awesome, and deserves much Respect.
Peace.

P.S. My Snorlax, and Blissey will pee on you'r Squirtle... 

[Pigmeat]

I would have called b.s. on the Furbee's if I hadn't heard the thing in action. That poor girl is twenty-five and still talks about her time with the thing before Mom and Dad heard it one night. She was about three then.

The place it came from was part of the old "Value City" chain of stores. I picked up a cheap combo cordless phone and answering machine at one in the early 90's. Unknowingly, it was prone to having it's recorder message chip hacked. I had that thing for about six months, and it got nailed with a bug that made it play, "Deep In The Heart Of Texas", following the "please leave a message" beep. I thought it was hilarious, my wife wasn't happy. Heck, it may have cost all of eight bucks with tax? I bought a better phone.

The best thing to come from there were the cordless doorbells they sold. We lived in a neighborhood about three miles from one of their larger outlets in those days. Half the people on the block must have bought those things? Every time someone had a visitor or a pizza was delivered, there would be five or six doors open w/ people looking around. My wife bought one the things, it got "broken" early on. I figured people could knock if they really needed us.

[SevenTrees']

Things were different in the 90's, Cordless phones, baby monitors, cell phones.  All wide open for us to listen to. 
My favorite thing to do back then was to listen to police scanner, if it was important they would tell other cop to call him on his cell, then he would give out his number, I switch scanner to cell freq, and catch em all. 

[ThElectriCat]

I was about 5 I had figured out how to put batteries in the old baby monitor (my parents had gotten a new one), being an analog device, once I had fiddled with the dip switches(by random chance) it managed to talk to the new one. Scared the hell out of my parents when I dropped it and made a crashing noise.

[SevenTrees']

I used to make miniature cb transmitters, and put them near houses with cb antennas. 
Also it was a great time to make free long distance calls, by making a simple tone generator. 
No ten cents, or quarter needed to make long distance phone calls from any public pay phone. 

[Josh]

https://www.2600.com/


cough

[SevenTrees']

Cool Site Josh, Thank You.