Remove ships out of the equation entirely. I don't quite see what they could contribute.

But what about the plot devices?

Yeah, because the goal is to make money by selling stuff. Ya know, so the bank will cash your paycheck. Don't like it, then go work for a not-for-profit or start your own firm where sales aren't important (and see how long you last.)

... zillion watt air band voice transmitters...

MAYBE 100w. Maybe. And that's the ground station. I'm thinking the surplus stuff I've seen from the FAA for VHF band was more in the 20-60w range. You don't need much when everything is line-of-site.

The only company I worship anymore is the Bell System. They invented the transistor and wired a nation. They are dead and gone and can't break my heart. (Looking at you HP and Motorola.)

Yeah, hand Anonymous the button. What could possibly go wrong?

Use ham radio to take them down. Not by using RF, but by hanging a lot of wire!

http://www.hamuniverse.com/multidipole.html

Nice old-school method.

Here's one of my favorite chips from back in the 80s that you still might find useful:

http://www.datasheetarchive.com/datasheet-pdf/Datasheet-06/DSA00100400.html

Let's you detect dialtones, busy & ring signals.

This one:
http://www.datasheetarchive.com/datasheet-pdf/Datasheet-06/DSA00100405.html

decodes the SIT (three tone) error signals (there are eight different ones, actually.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_information_tones

Keep hacking and tell me what you end up with.

Agree. Call me if you need to talk, we can get it solved in 2 minutes on the phone rather than 15 minutes of me trying to type on a small touch screen. I'll talk when I'm driving with my blue tooth, but I'll ignore you're text and likely forget about it. Send me an email and I have it on all my "devices" and can get it almost anywhere at anytime, and just as fast as an SMS.

I'm turning 52 next week and I feel like I'm just starting to "get it."

Then there's the Heinlein remark about mature wisdom resembling being too tired.

I guess I wasn't that clear. It's 4G up to 2GB, then it drops to 3G. But since I have just a 3G phone I never notice anyway. Sorry to hear that you don't have them available where you're at. They have the best customer service. They even let me drop a phone from my plan 8 months early without any fees because I had been with them for so long.