Jolly Joker on FRS today...

[Omega-TI]

I was scanning the FRS frequencies today for a few minutes, and one just was having his jollies. He held down the microphone button for a few seconds, I'm assuming to get peoples scanners to lock on frequency, then he said, "Alexa, call 911". So, be careful having a scanner too close to your Amazon Echo, some people are nasty.

 

[chrismol1]

I was watching a youtube of a guy in an accident and he said siri call 911 3 times. oh my god! I flipped the volume knob so fast. I had never thought of that before

 

[mikepdx]

I scan all 14 FRS, and all the GMRS outputs
in my shack for giggles during daytime hours.
I live on a hill above a large county park
with many, many hiking trails.

A lot of interesting comms, as well as the
usual kids hitting that dang call button constantly.

 

[AB5ID]

Good to see that CB hasn't changed, except for the frequencies are now UHF.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

I called my answering machine while away from the house and said ; Alexa turn on the TV. It was on when I got home. This is the real deal.

 

[rf_patriot200]

Who's Alexa ?

 

[Omega-TI]

Who's Alexa ?

Alexa is the little round ball in the photo. To get it's attention you say, "Alexa" then give it a command. I use mine to turn on lights, an older police scanner, check weather, get news, play music, make phone calls, listen to foreign radio broadcasts, etc.

 

[sallen07]

I called my answering machine while away from the house and said ; Alexa turn on the TV. It was on when I got home. This is the real deal.

You have an answering machine?

 

[DVINTHEHOUSEMAN]

GMRS and FRS are almost totally dead here with the exception of tourists occasionally on channel 1 or 2, a low activity grocery store on channel 8, and a low activity unidentified user on channel 7.

Also, I'm guilty of the call button being one of my favorites as a child when we first got walkie talkies. I spent more time listening to the weather though.

 

[Omega-TI]

One of my local Wal*Mart stores is too cheap to use business radios, so they use FRS radios on one particular channel. When the only two checkers were backed up 10 deep, so I got on the FRS radio and said, "We need all available cashier associates to the front." Thirty seconds later over the PA a woman repeated my words nearly verbatim. The guy behind me was laughing, but I did get checked out in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[trentbob]

One of my local Wal*Mart stores is too cheap to use business radios, so they use FRS radios on one particular channel. When the only two checkers were backed up 10 deep, so I got on the FRS radio and said, "We need all available cashier associates to the front." Thirty seconds later over the PA a woman repeated my words nearly verbatim. The guy behind me was laughing, but I did get checked out in a reasonable amount of time.

Mmm.. could be why my Walmart uses DMR😁

 

[Omega-TI]

Mmm.. could be why my Walmart uses DMR😁

Not the one in Chehalis, WA! But yeah, maybe lots of people tried that.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

You have an answering machine?

I have indoor plumbing as well. Nothing to brag about.

 

[KevinC]

One of my local Wal*Mart stores is too cheap to use business radios, so they use FRS radios on one particular channel. When the only two checkers were backed up 10 deep, so I got on the FRS radio and said, "We need all available cashier associates to the front." Thirty seconds later over the PA a woman repeated my words nearly verbatim. The guy behind me was laughing, but I did get checked out in a reasonable amount of time.

You carry a FRS radio around with you?

 

[kg4ehv]

I keep a scanner on FRS, lots of laughs.

 

[sallen07]

I have indoor plumbing as well. Nothing to brag about.

LOL. I meant you STILL have an answering machine? I didn't even know they were a thing anymore!

Of course, having said that, I just glanced over at the cordless phone base here on this desk and realized it has a built-in digital answering machine. But it's probably 20 years old, and AFAIK we never used that feature since we always had voicemail.

 

[trentbob]

I have FRS on a custom search, can be fun, sort of like the days of listening to baby monitors in the neighborhood, now that was fun!

As far as Alexa goes, someone gave me one as a gift a while back, never unwrapped it or opened it, I re-gifted it, it was out of my house faster than I would remove a Ouija board.😄

 

[Omega-TI]

You carry a FRS radio around with you?

Yes, I used to carry one of my Mom's FRS radios when I went over to her house to pick her up to take her shopping (before I had to put her in a nursing home). At the time she was so slow, we had to split up or I'd be there for at least 4 hours. So I did her grocery shopping while she ... s_l_o_w_l_y inched her way through all the other departments. I'd would have never known where she was without them.

 

[BinaryMode]

There's a hack to use a laser microphone but in reverse. You aim a laser at a window and modulate the light with audio. The window picks up the audio vibrations and the microphone in Alexa is such that it can actually hear the voice commands. I'm sure high frequency audio modulation with a directional microphone would work too.

There's another hack for toilet paper as well...

NSFW

In addition to getting rid of YouTube (I use Grayjay) and all of social media I got rid of my crappy Echo Show as well. Won't go back, and get this, I can turn on a lamp with a switch! Who'd a thought?

Latter I plan on flashing a phone with GrapheneOS or some other variant. Maybe CalyxOS. I'm just tired of all the crap, you know?

 

[AJAT]

There's another hack for toilet paper as well.

I use that one all he time. I speak into the toilet paper cardboard roll. It amplifies the sound. I use it as my amplifier on my radio. Not many people know this.