KD4LEI
12-18-2004, 12:53 PM
Morning all,
I received an e-mail at work that I found interesting on a MS Power Point presentation concerning the recent Fallujah operation. Interesting and frightening photos made up the bulk of the presentation. I was surprised and saddened to the following... Unfortunately, I cannot disseminate the presentation since it contained an official use clause in it
Sadly, it seems that ham radio has unknowingly found itself associated (to some extent) into terrorism via IED uses by the insurgents. One of the slides immediately grabbed my attention and I went to lookup the radios that were being used. In the presentation, I saw numerous unopened boxes stacked in a room of a "IED factory".
Here are the following models of radios (still in boxes) from Yaesu used in TX & RX capacities for IED construction from the "IED factories" around Fallujah and elsewhere in Iraq.
FT-2800M (2m FM mobile transceiver)
VX-150 (2m FM HT)
I wonder if Yaesu/Vertex Standard is aware that some customers, possibly in the Middle East region are using them for more than their intended purpose of promoting goodwill through communications.
My hunch is that this is not just limited to Yaesu and that other amateur (Icom, Alinco, Kenwood) & commercial (i.e. Motorola, EF Johnson) radio companies are also being used. One would have to wonder that if Yaesu and the other aforementioned companies saw the photo's that I saw what, if anything, they would be able to do about it.
I want to make it clear to anyone who might think that amateur radio now supports this type of heinous activity, to rethink their conclusion and know IT DOES NOT. More or less, it has fallen victim through the products used by those who wish to do harm to anyone who stands in the way of their fanaticism.
73
I received an e-mail at work that I found interesting on a MS Power Point presentation concerning the recent Fallujah operation. Interesting and frightening photos made up the bulk of the presentation. I was surprised and saddened to the following... Unfortunately, I cannot disseminate the presentation since it contained an official use clause in it
Sadly, it seems that ham radio has unknowingly found itself associated (to some extent) into terrorism via IED uses by the insurgents. One of the slides immediately grabbed my attention and I went to lookup the radios that were being used. In the presentation, I saw numerous unopened boxes stacked in a room of a "IED factory".
Here are the following models of radios (still in boxes) from Yaesu used in TX & RX capacities for IED construction from the "IED factories" around Fallujah and elsewhere in Iraq.
FT-2800M (2m FM mobile transceiver)
VX-150 (2m FM HT)
I wonder if Yaesu/Vertex Standard is aware that some customers, possibly in the Middle East region are using them for more than their intended purpose of promoting goodwill through communications.
My hunch is that this is not just limited to Yaesu and that other amateur (Icom, Alinco, Kenwood) & commercial (i.e. Motorola, EF Johnson) radio companies are also being used. One would have to wonder that if Yaesu and the other aforementioned companies saw the photo's that I saw what, if anything, they would be able to do about it.
I want to make it clear to anyone who might think that amateur radio now supports this type of heinous activity, to rethink their conclusion and know IT DOES NOT. More or less, it has fallen victim through the products used by those who wish to do harm to anyone who stands in the way of their fanaticism.
73