33 Replies to “Hong Kong”

    1. So that’s ONE of the FIVE demands made by THE PEOPLE of HK. And forgive my cynicism … but these are just “words” and political maneuvering by Xi. I doubt he will actually relinquish control over the people of HK.

      Isn’t it curious that a place which calls itself … “The People’s Republic”… crushes its own People’s wishes? Oppresses it’s own PEOPLE? Slogans are almost always LIES.

  3. There are other ways one can maintain communications. Amateur radio is one, though using it for that purpose is likely in violation of regulations, not that it would matter under those circumstances.

    There are also small portable FM broadcast stations designed for local communications in disaster areas. I’ve heard that rebels in Syria have used them to get around what the government is doing.

    1. Yes, but bluetooth is ubiquitous, cheap, fast download/upload (range dependent), difficult to trace (it is ubiquitous after all), and above all – familiar. Mention Ham radio to a millennial these days and they will probably think of a radio mounted on a pig.

      1. One can get on the air with something as simple as a hand-held FM transceiver with capabilities on the 2 metre and 70 centimetre bands. I’ve got two of them and they’re about the size of a bar of soap. From my balcony, I can reach many of the repeaters in the local area using less than 5 Watts.

        Actually, you’d be surprised how many younger people are involved with amateur radio, particularly now that there are so many different ways to get on the air. I’ve seen a lot of them at a local flea market that’s held annually. Many got interested because of things like software-defined radios and digital modes such as FT8. Then there’s the aspect of being able to build equipment, so that appeals to people involved in the so-called maker movement.

        Mind you, I once tried explaining what I was doing to some of the Chinese students living in my apartment complex and they thought I was from somewhere south of Mars. They were so used to their smartphones that they couldn’t conceive of any other way of communication.

          1. I have to admit that I’m not as familiar with GMRS radios.

            For portable communications, GMRS units could work as well, but, at least in the U. S., one needs to be licensed to operate them:

            https://midlandusa.com/gmrs-or-frs-radio-how-to-choose/

            On the other hand, there are FRS (Family Radio Service) rigs that operate on the same frequency bands but their signals aren’t as strong. I don’t think one needs to be certified to use those.

            Then, of course, there’s citizen’s band radio.

            With options like those available, the PLA will have a difficult time in keeping the protesters from keeping in touch with each other.

        2. Hmmmm … I seem to recall Nellie Ohr filing for her Ham Radio license … to communicate outside government surveillance?

          1. Apparently, she does have a valid American amateur callsign. (I’m too lazy to look it up.) I’m not sure when she got it, though.

            But how would she be passing information to her handlers? It’s illegal to use encryption or, I presume, otherwise disguising an actual message on the air.

          3. Kenji:

            Here in Canada, the Radiocommunications Act specifically prohibits deliberately obscuring information on the air. That means that no signals can be encrypted. The airwaves are considered a public resource and are to be treated as such. I believe the same thing applies in the U. S.

            However, here in Canada, the radio inspectors are busy attending to other matters, so they don’t spend much time investigating violations on the amateur bands. For example, there was a ham near Victoria, B. C. who flaunted the rules. (I haven’t listened for him for several years, so I don’t know if he’s still on the air.)

            He regularly insulted and verbally abused radio amateurs on both sides of the border. He also played music and used profanity on the air. A lot of hams wanted him shut down, but he got away with his stunts because there weren’t enough government resources to deal with such violations.

            Those sorts of shenanigans aren’t just restricted to Canada. I heard some wild and woolly amateur traffic coming out of the northern U. S. as well.

          4. ha ha!! that’s interesting B A. my one encounter with the electromagnetic overseers in canaduh was the mid 80s when a nearby source would come squawking distorted thru my hi fi speakers whenever it was just powered on.
            I figured it must be the ham op across the street.

            their opinion was it was all up to me to track down the source and deal with it, despite my hi school physics teacher/ham radio club adviser stating flat out that radio interference from a ham unit is very much frowned upon and will get attention.

            in the real world of bureaucraps, not so.

  4. This reminds me of my old economics professor–he said “never underestimate man’s ingenuity for invention”

    1. Apparently in HK, there’s a section of the city where there are nothing but electronics shops. If the radio gear I referred to isn’t available there, I’m sure that there are people who could build something with works from what’s available from those merchants.

    2. “said “never underestimate man’s ingenuity for invention””

      Clunky way to say, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” ~Benjamin Jowett, Oxford 1871

      1. Actually, he was discussing the old supply and demand curve and someone asked what would happen when all the oil ran out…

        1. And this detailed circumstance is relevant to his expressing an unattributed clunky version of Jowett’s dictum how?

  5. The way to counter this is to have agents positioned in the mesh to poison it. It’s harder to do than having the control of the telco like ChiCom does with the infrastructure of HK telecom, but it’s doable.

    1. Yeah, it sounds as if surveillance would be easy:
      // While you can chat privately with contacts, you can also broadcast to anyone within range, even if they are not a contact.
      That’s clearly an ideal scenario for protesters //

  6. Emperor Xi blinked,

    http://news.trust.org/item/20190904094108-908ip

    “Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on Wednesday announced the formal withdrawal of a controversial extradition bill.”

    Is it too little, too late? Will the protests continue with their demands to investigate police brutality by the brutal Chinese Police? Two months ago, this would have been enough.

    1. I suspect they will just come in and pick them up.. have an ally way trial and sentence to death on the spot.

  7. Most interesting. I was unaware of this type of BT app…yet kinda knew it should have been possible. K, Downloaded…and sent to my peeps. Will likely become my main method. Am Sick to death of the Google BS with constant requests for reviews on every place I go..along with advertisements for anything I even talk about.

    Still thinking of reviving my BlackBerry Z30, get none of that invasive shit there.

  8. Disgusted at how little Canada and Alberta are doing to support Hong Kong protesters and to punish China.

      1. We are too deep in the pockets of China. We need to get out.
        Boycott China whenever you can
        I also wrote my useless mp.
        Need to do more

  9. How did we communicate before the internet? I was a voluminous letter writer and even got the occasional response from those I wrote to. Of course back in the day your mail could only be censored by those who it was mailed to and who opened it. WW2 was the exception that has led us to the level of censorship we now experience. Voluminous was a word I was unsure of the accurate spelling. My wonderful Samsung galaxy 500 xl could not even understand how I pronounced the word. Ah well, tech is improving.

      1. FYI, Hong Kong was ceded to the British in 1842, and had been under continuous British rule until 1997. (Except when occupied by the Japanese in WWII.) If I do my math right, that’s over one and a half centuries. Hong Kong’s population quintupled in 1949 by refugees voting with their feet their preference for British colonial rule over Chinese Communist rule. Most of the Hong Kongers now are descendants of those refugees. Some are the very refugees themselves.
        For comparison, that is a period of time just one year shorter than between the signing of the Mayflower Compact (1620) and the Declaration of Independence (1776). In that time, the colonials came to the realization they valued freedom over being British. Why cannot the Hong Kongers come to the realization they value freedom over being Chinese. In fact they had emphatically make that choice in 1949. And again in 1997 when a plebiscite overwhelmingly chose maintaining the status quo (that is, remain a British colony.)

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