Back in September, I met up with a bunch of Taiwanese amateur radio enthusiasts who meet by the river every Tuesday night in Taipei.

You could hear crickets chirping on the campground, the static of the radio.

When communicating with other ham radio operators on the radio waves, a lot of these ham's preferred

Morse code, which is tapped out through two metal paddles. Each time their finger connected

with the right side of the paddle, it would emit a dit or a dot, and on the left side, a daar and a dash.

Together, they created a language that would allow them to communicate with people,

whether it was in Japan, Italy, Greece, or other places.

With this, they could ask simple questions such as,

is anyone there? What's your name? What's your location?

Sikyu, Sikyu.

L.A. Times-China correspondent, Stephanie Yang recently spent time reporting on a ham radio club in Taiwan.

Yep, ham radio.

But what is it?

Think of those really old-, ham radio. But what is it? Think of those really old school wireless radios, the ones that you get a lot of beeps and static on. These are the kinds of radios

that they would use in old war movies. Or on the other end of the spectrum, they would use them

in very futuristic post-apocalyptic movies when there

were no other means of communication left.

Well, it's not just an obscure hobby anymore.

If China declares war on Taiwan, then these ham radio enthusiasts could be crucial for

civilians and officials alike.

And if there's ever nuclear armageddon in the world, goodbye internet and cell phones.

Hello, Ham.

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