"Partisan Operator Journals Vol. 1 - Book review

[JohnyMac]

OBH shared with me a novel by John Jacob Schmidt (AmRRon Fame) titled, Partisan Operator Journals Volume 1.

Schmidt, although not in the class of maybe James Lee Burk or Hemingway, did a good job on his first book. Bottom-line first, if you are not into comms, encryption, and a bit jingoistic in your soul, stop right now. You will not like the novel.

The plot revolves around a recon team post an EMP and a Chinese takeover of the west coast and Russian takeover of the east coast. The R&S team (Reconnaissance and Surveillance) role is to report back to the TOC (Tactical Operations Center) via ham radio what they observe. On occasion, help artillery or aviation dial in a strike. 

Okay, nothing new there however, the new twist is doing so using digital means and OTP (One Time Pad) encryption along with alternate means of encryption verses phone.

Where the novel fails in the artistic realm it excels in the information it provides: Setting up an air gapped computer like a Raspberry Pi, cutting wires to proper length for differing frequencies, the use of digital software like FLdigi in the field, proper battery & recharging procedures, etcetera.

I highly recommend this novel if you would like to put together field comms where you would use digital QSL's for your comms.

In the new year, I am going to put together a new field comms kit. I will start a thread in the "Radio" board so that we can all share in our field comm kit development. There is a rather large bench of ham radio, digital, and computer geeks here at Unchainedpreppers.com that we could all benefit from with this exercise.

With that written, do not forget the ERIN digital net every Tuesday at 1900E hrs.

In closing, if you want to be effective in the coming conflict, are a ham operator, read the book. Then develop, play, and learn. Remember, if you don't use it, you will lose it.

73 & God Bless, Brothers & Sisters of the air waves.
JohnyMac   

[Jackalope]

A good review of the book, Johny. The book shows the practical application of the techniques taught in NCScout's RTO and other communications courses.  Schmidt isn't a Hemingway, but he does an effective job with enough action to make it interesting.  I am looking forward to the sequel volumes, as they are published.  As Johny noted, the techniques depicted in the novel may keep you and your team mates alive when things get frosty.

Along the same lines, folks may be interested in NCScout's recent publication The Guerrilla's Guide to the Baofeng Radio .  Personally, I didn't like the format, and the book could polishing by an editor.  However, the book does have a lot of information.  I'll try to do a book report soon.

 

[Sir John Honeybucket]

Yes!  POJ vol 1 was an excellent read for me, because I am a 'communicator' accustomed to austere environments and so this book rings true.  I've read too many book written by people who haven't the foggiest idea of what they're talking about - much of which is merely echoes from prepper websites and Hollywood wierd, which rapidly becomes 'doctrine' in The Community of preppers.  JJS (John Jacob Schmidt) on the other hand brings much to the table with this book and , like you, I am looking forward to volume 2.

I should probably write a novel based upon my life; you know Tactical Exotic Dancing for the Overweight Engineer.    No competition -  I've never seen another like it.


de Sir John Honeybucket

Ps.  Happy New Year

[JohnyMac]

@ Jackalope, I am looking forward to the sequel too. 

@ Sir John,