Last Voice From Kuwait: Back in 1990 — 1991 a very brave amateur radio operator named Abdul-Jabbar Ma’rafi, 9K2DZ, became literally the last voice from Kuwait. When Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi army invaded his country, Abdul remained on the ham radio at his peril right under the nose of the invaders.
Excellent article! Ham radio was also useful during “The Poland Crisis” when Soviet troops were massed on the border and ‘special’ units were operating inside of Poland on a not-so-friendly basis. We had more than one ham radio operator keeping us apprised of what was going on at street level, including more than a few reports of ‘polish policemen who speak no Polish…”. [Probably Soviet special operation forces]
Then there was the Grenada Invasion (Go Regan!) and due to a total black-out of news about the invasion by DoD, the ONLY source of news and the safety of 174(?) American medical students, was from a ham radio operator at the medical college. Here is a link to one article about that; there are many more.
http://www.monitoringtimes.com/mtsubscriber/mtGrenada_invasion.pdf
Haaar!
Popeye
The Falklands war is a prime example of radio resistance in action. With Argentinian military all around, radio confiscations of ham radio equipment and etc. amoung the Briticsh population, tactical intelligence was passed to England via ham radio operators and their clandestine stations. This is only one article; there are many more.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/clydebank-radio-ham-helped-to-win-back-the-falklands-1-1371524
Hams often took their antennas down to show compliance. However, clandestine antennas, often disguised as common objects, were erected to make radio contacts , both along the 7,000 miles or so to England and the shorter distance to the British fleet. Britain practically invented the use of clandestine radio as a tool of war and this was evident in the operations during the Falklands/Malvinas war.
Haar!
Popeye
Ps. Did you know that during WW II many U.S. ham radio operators in the Philippines and other parts of Asia used ham radio frequencies and FAKE ham call signs to relay critical war information to the USA? It’s true!
Excellent article thanks for sharing.
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