Massive South American Power Outage 16 June 2019

[ChrisSmolinski]

Back to radio: I've noticed when I tune to 6000 to check propagation RHC sounds distorted, like it's overdriven. A couple months back it wasnt like this. It happens across all my receivers and antenna systems. Any ideas what could cause this? It's a really strong signal, it just sounds like it is put through a clipping tube fuzz pedal.

The same thing on multiple radios makes me suspect it's on their end.

[Pigmeat]

Maduro's big problem was and is the bottom falling out of the oil market a few years back. That was the only egg in Venuzuela's economic basket.

Guaido and the U.S. have a big problem getting Maduro out of power. Guaido has to do one simple thing by international law, take and hold a piece of Venezuelan territory long enough to call for a powerful ally to intervene. (Guess who?) He's not popular enough to get it done. That was the scheme used at the Bay of Pigs. The door was wide open, but JFK hid in the White House until the Cuban rebel force was taken prisoner or killed.

And people wonder why JFK was assassinated? That turd pissed a lot of people off in his short term in office.

[R4002]

Maduro's big problem was and is the bottom falling out of the oil market a few years back. That was the only egg in Venuzuela's economic basket.

Guaido and the U.S. have a big problem getting Maduro out of power. Guaido has to do one simple thing by international law, take and hold a piece of Venezuelan territory long enough to call for a powerful ally to intervene. (Guess who?) He's not popular enough to get it done. That was the scheme used at the Bay of Pigs. The door was wide open, but JFK hid in the White House until the Cuban rebel force was taken prisoner or killed.

And people wonder why JFK was assassinated? That turd pissed a lot of people off in his short term in office.

Brigade 2506!  Gotta love the Monroe Doctrine, sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn’t....I do hope that I was just being paranoid re: another cyber warfare attack (do we actually know if the GPS issue was a cyber attack?) vs. poor maintenance and cascading failure prone power grids. 

If the Russians were to go full-on cyber attack, I will agree with i_hear_you, we have more to lose than the Russians do. 

Target doesn’t sell ammunition, but there are dozens and dozens of reputable online ammunition retailers (if buying ammunition online is legal in your state, of course),

[BoomboxDX]

Why should we necessarily think it's our government, or even the Russians, for that matter? Why would either country take out the grid to Buenos Aires? There is no geopolitical or strategic benefit.

Al Qaeda took down the twin towers, and they were a non-state actor. There are plenty of nefarious, non-state actor groups out in the wild that are tech savvy.

Then again, all it takes is drooping lines, or something similar, to blackout an entire region. If the grid supporting Buenos Aires alone were taken out, that cuts power to millions of people -- I think B.A. has just less than half of the population of Argentina living there. 15 million in the metro alone.

I'm aware that Russia and the US have been playing hacker towards each other, but I don't think that either would try to take out the other's grid except in time of war, because one Trident sub has enough firepower to turn European Russia into a radioactive wasteland (and vice versa).

[i_hear_you]

Why would either country take out the grid to Buenos Aires? There is no geopolitical or strategic benefit.

I'm aware that Russia and the US have been playing hacker towards each other, but I don't think that either would try to take out the other's grid except in time of war, because one Trident sub has enough firepower to turn European Russia into a radioactive wasteland (and vice versa).

This is the sentiment I tried and failed to succinctly communicate: firstly, that the tactical and strategic value of taking down power grids in uninvolved third-world countries escapes me, and secondly that this would be an act of war, the likes of which will probably signal things going kinetic.

R4002 and I are clearly tuned to the same frequency and his ammo comments have me wondering: grid goes down, what's the next comms step for those of you prepared for this? It's the reason I got involved in HAM. And while I have the gear, energy and skills to communicate,  I don't have a gameplan besides listening on calling frequencies and waiting.

[R4002]

Why should we necessarily think it's our government, or even the Russians, for that matter? Why would either country take out the grid to Buenos Aires? There is no geopolitical or strategic benefit.

Al Qaeda took down the twin towers, and they were a non-state actor. There are plenty of nefarious, non-state actor groups out in the wild that are tech savvy.

Then again, all it takes is drooping lines, or something similar, to blackout an entire region. If the grid supporting Buenos Aires alone were taken out, that cuts power to millions of people -- I think B.A. has just less than half of the population of Argentina living there. 15 million in the metro alone.

I'm aware that Russia and the US have been playing hacker towards each other, but I don't think that either would try to take out the other's grid except in time of war, because one Trident sub has enough firepower to turn European Russia into a radioactive wasteland (and vice versa).

I was implying that if it was a cyber-attack, it was simply a "test", or "proof of concept" - or, to paraphrase Josh again, "to send a message".  Your point about non-state actors is an excellent one though.  Then there's the gray area of non-state actors that are backed by states to various degrees. 

I imagine the infrastructure in Argentina isn't in that great of shape (maybe it is?) but a cascading failure can happen regardless, given the way electrical grids are interconnected and running close to 100% capacity at given points in the 24 hour day cycle and the annual/yearly cycle (increased air conditioning and/or heating demands during certain seasons).  I did make the point that the blackout happened on election day in Argentina, but that could very well be a coincidence. 

Of course any KiwiSDR online probably went offline but the moment the power got cut, I bet that noise floor dropped down to basically nothing when all the cheap switching supplies and LEDs went off at once. 

R4002 and I are clearly tuned to the same frequency and his ammo comments have me wondering: grid goes down, what's the next comms step for those of you prepared for this? It's the reason I got involved in HAM. And while I have the gear, energy and skills to communicate,  I don't have a gameplan besides listening on calling frequencies and waiting.

Presuming you have back up power, HF-SSB for long-haul comms and lots of monitoring of your local radio chatter (CB, FRS/GMRS and MURS as well as amateur and the various land mobile services). 

I have the relevant HF frequencies/nets written down on paper and included in my copies of the US Army Survival Manual and US Army FM 24-18 communications field manual - https://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm24-18.pdf (which has lots of great info on building field-expedient antennas, NVIS propagation and other HF topics in addition to local VHF comms).  Both of those manuals/frequency lists are part of my grab-and-go emergency bags (the bags also include several VHF/UHF handhelds, AM/FM/SW portables, medical gear, and the usual assortment of survival equipment/emergency food and water purification equipment). 

If you're going to stay where you're at, lots of monitoring should probably be done to get an idea of what's going on around you.  Having a list of the calling frequencies and emergency nets puts you way ahead of most folks.  When I think about a lot of people my age (I'm in my early 30s)...I know that most of them don't even own a portable AM/FM radio anymore.  They get all their information from their smartphone. 

As far as supplies go - I make a point to spend a small amount of every paycheck on emergency preparedness supplies, generally ammunition, batteries, emergency food rations and similar things.  I'm lucky enough to live in a place where you can order ammunition online.

[ChrisSmolinski]

Obviously this is all part of a plot by the Amish. If they knock out the power grids, they can easily take over. An Amish family just moved in a mile away. They're located near a major high tension power transmission line. Coincidence? I think not.

[R4002]

Obviously this is all part of a plot by the Amish. If they knock out the power grids, they can easily take over. An Amish family just moved in a mile away. They're located near a major high tension power transmission line. Coincidence? I think not.

Amish hackers in black hats indeed. 

[Pigmeat]

Ask Andy Yoder about the Great Amish Conspiracy, he grew up around them.

BTW, there is a small but sizable Mennonite population in Paraguay. You don't think they've raised the dams on their mill ponds and cut off water flow to the hydro dams that generate power in those Southern Cone countries, do you?

Where's Al to panic about the penguin involvement? They do reside and breed in Argentina

[Josh]

"As always, cui bono? Who benefits?  Why would Putin do this, what does he gain?"

He has an agenda like any other foreign politician, to enrich himself and his family and to steal all he can from the ignorant American taxpayer - the last aim largely supported by his fellow citizens. Also keep in mind he has nukes aimed at our cities. Also keep in mind if Russia, or Israel can get away with it and have some other country take the fall, the more the better for their national agenda, say Russia crashes our grid and North Korea or Iran take the blame. What country wants to see Iran get bombed by the US? The sauds and Israel as well as a few other middle eastern nations are scared of Iran, but too scared to do the right thing and do the job themselves so why not false flag an attack on the US or Europe and let the world burn?

Also keep in mind cyberwarfare is likely the best bang for the buck ever. For example, Iran and North Korea spend a lot on cyberwarfare as a percentage of their total military expenditure. Everyone (int agencies, mil agencies, etc) is in each others nets, and the utility infrastructure is a prime target. Stuxnet is a classic example of this. And then there's the literal nefarious hacker in nefarious hoody with nefarious laptop and those are found in every country with a net connection. These people cause shit just because they can and think they have the right.

Also it wouldn't surprise me to find soros and vox as well as huff compost and most if not all mass media to be cia financed, just like cia financed al quada and isis, no agency has tried to destroy the American way of life more than cia. With the media editors getting their talking points from cia, you're not told the news, you're told what to think, just as in most schools today where one isn't taught how to think but rather what to think.