I'm at the comms stage of my prep, and have no clue where to start. What do you guys recommend as a solid setup for 2 people?

This question is equivalent to what gun is best for SHTF.

In the end it depends on the depth of your interest and what you truly want to invest to include knowledge, training, and money.

There is an ARF sub forum for ham radio, and several past threads discussing options in the SF sections.

Two-way communications?  Monitor only?

Base station? Repeater? Mobile? Portable?

Encrypted? Open on-air options?

Basic services available include:

FRS
GMRS
MURS
CB
Amateur
FCC license for your own frequencies/ setup/ repeater

The question you need to answer is what you are trying to accomplish and what are you willing to invest.

Radio communications as a whole is a lot more involved than ordering a handheld radio and stashing it away.  Sure, a bubble pack FRS radio will work providing you are within the usable distance for whatever equipment you have.

I work in a career that revolves around emergency Communications and learn something new with a high level of frequency.  

Whatever you choose to use will fit somewhere on this chart:

https://www.ntia.gov/sites/default/files/publications/january_2016_spectrum_wall_chart_0.pdf

Yeah I figured this would be another deep rabbit hole. Trying to avoid over-analyzing like I do all my gear, so I am just looking for a basic 2-way so my wife and I could communicate with each other.  Portability and durability would be key.

Baofeng is always the answer for cheap comms.

If with inside a mile or less then the answer will be these programed with FRS and MURS frequencies:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074XPB313?tag=arfcom00-20

Any similar variation of the Baofeng will be similar.  Pick which ever one you like the best that has an abundant of available accessories like spare batteries.  I recommend the regular Baofeng UV5R or similar variant.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071JLTDQF?tag=arfcom00-20

I have over half a dozen of the UV5R type, and they are one of my favorite radios and I carry a $2000 radio on my belt every day for work.

Most of the Baofengs come locked now but a simple key combination will unlock them.  Use "Chirp" to program in the FRS/GMRS/MURS and WX (monitor only.)

Especially if you never take it out of the bad and have no idea how to use it.

But yeah, GMRS license and a couple of decent radios is a good “easy” option.

What distance between you and your spouse are you looking to make contact over? Fully off grid or powered base station?  And, of course, the magic question, how much do you want to spend?

Look at the “S2 Underground” YouTube channel. Some really good discussions there.

Yep. Good advice.

And it is indeed a rabbit hole.

Prepare for your head to inevitably explode.

I decided on my personal course of action due to the proximity of my buddies. Your choices may (necessarily) be far-different.

Choose wisely - and good luck/God bless!

ETA: spelling is a thing!

For two people, short range, with zero time investment in learning, I'd recommend the Motorola Talkabout T200.

This is a very simple FRS radio (no license required unlike GMRS) that supports the bare minimum of features
and can be charged with a  micro-B USB cable like many older phones still use. It can use conventional AA
batteries as well, is fairly rugged but not waterproof. Once the battery pack is on there's nothing you can really lose
other than the entire radio.

It's a very hard to fuck up radio because it's so simple. They're more expensive than a baofeng and
do less, with less power, but they do what they do very well, and that can't be said for everything else
that needs programming and has a learning curve.

Once you go down the radio rabbit hole your choices might change.

^^^ This.

Beyond two people then the first questions become: who do you want to communicate with and about what?

I keep a box of cheap ass radios all programmed the same. If the S ever HTF's in a way that kills conventional comm's I'm going to hand them out to select neighbors for security and mutual support. Beyond that I really don't have anyone I want/need to communicate with.

I will second this statement.  If you're just looking for a power button, channel selector and push to talk then the ready to use options are going to beat out any Baofeng programable option.  Hit the wrong combo of buttons on a programable radio by accident when you have zero familiarity with it...  Good luck putting it back to the way it was.  Privacy code? PL tone? CTCSS? Tone squelch?    

I have a handful of cheap FRS (only) radios for use if necessary.  I even have a set of Motorola T402 talkabouts and while i haven't used them much they have a quality feel to them.

I need about 250 miles for my family. ?????

Get some UV9r Pros. They are waterproof and charge from USB C. They are only a few dollars more than UV5rs. Get a GMRS license. Start using them. If you have GMRS repeaters in your area program them and use them. Get familiar with LOS and repeater capabilities and range. Study for the amateur test so you can start using 70 cm and 2m repeaters. By the time you get through that you will know what you want to do and will only be a couple of hundred bucks invested between the radios and licenses. I you want to be able to communicate hundreds or thousands of miles you will need a license and hundreds of dollars of radio equipment minimum. But the most important thing is to use it. Think about how you will charge them (solar, etc).  You can't buy a couple of radios and pull them out of a box and use them when the balloon goes up.

VHF/UHF, and meshtastic is my plan.

Cell Phone

4G Smartwatch with its own esim and phone number

Satellite communications (Motorola Defy x2) for longer range grid down

GMRS handheld radio with both mobile and home antennas for local / family and friends since it doesn't require any special skills and is interoperable with bubble pack FRS radios. Repeaters are more rare than 2m/70cm though. Some can be programmed to monitor some ham bands too.

CB which is still useful for traffic information in case of a wreck (which lane to get into) and is still so prolific that if the grid was down monitoring might glean useful information about non-local events when they pass through

2m/70cm handheld usually has plenty of repeaters in most areas, can often also be programmed to listen well outside TX freqs (marine, airband, etc), and allows for satellite repeater bounces with a little practice, but downside is both parties need to be licensed so if your family and friends is not as enthused as you are it may not be viable, but you can still participate in communities like ARES. Some GMRS radios can be programmed to listen to these frequencies if you just wanna hear

SDR at home to listen to high frequency shortwave, long wave, and everything in between to glean information regionally and globally if you don't wanna get an amateur radio license to fiddle with an HF transceiver

Also meshtastic sounds like a great way to just make your own network, useful post carrington or whatever

GMRS. Buy your license/radio's, learn your call sign and start talking. You and your family can be up and talking in a few days. They can all share your license.

If want to get Ham ticket after that, you will already have your FRN, so you will only need to study, sit for the test and pay your fee's. As will all of your family members.

But in the meantime you have a platform that you are already talking on.

Starlink.

You won’t have to fuck around with any thing.

Unlikely to go down.

Works with all the current crap.

Another vote for seek2's solution although I have no first hand experience with this radio.  $60 on Amazon.  Think I paid $70 for my GMRS license alone (which I never use).
Features

I'll look into these, thanks. Any good in-ears/mics you recommend for these?

Motorola's own in-ear

Knockoff at half the price

Motorola uses a unique mini-stereo plug that's a bit longer than normal so anything you get has to be specific to
supporting talkabout radios.

Satellite, GMRS if you have the repeater coverage*, or get both ends onboard with amateur radio.

*GMRS is great for short range (a mile or two, but if up to 10-15 if the terrain gives good LOS), but you can use repeaters to really extend the range. The only challenge is not all repeaters are 24/7, not all are "free", and all the ones near me require initial contact with the owners.  

If I had a kid in college 100 miles away, I would probably just get a pair of sat phones and a call plan (most are around $100/month) if I really prioritized crisis communications.  

I don't have my amateur license but have scanned and listed to some broadcasts. Along with some shortwave radio broadcasts, that will likely be your best sources of information if the Internet and mobile phone networks go down.

Just don't expect your GMRS/MURs radios to reach several miles or across town. A good start is GMRS (just purchase the license), but just test out the ranges for your terrain and potential plans. I still need to get my base-station antenna up, but when practicing, my wife can reach me on the edge of our small town, about six miles away.

ROCK6

It won't be a popular opinion here but don't discount CB radio.  CB used to be full of truckers and idiots (and idiot truckers).  However, the CB frequencies are dead now.  Lots of truckers would talk for hours to pass the time but not any more.  I can remember as a kid listening to the CB and it would be non stop chatter.  Not any more.  I have a CB radio (and a ham radio with GMRS/FRS/MURS programed into it) in my Jeep.  This past summer we drove it out west and while driving down interstate highways, I turned it on and put it on channel 19.  It would be silent for hours at a time.  Only time we heard much of anything on it was when we got into the bigger cities and there was some traffic slowdowns due to wrecks....and there still wasn't much talk on the CB then either.  There are 40 channels to use with CB radio and in many places, no one is using them.  You won't get long range with them (normally) but they do work great for talking car to car during travel.  

The Moto radios posted would be good for short range. Longer ranges sat phone is the easy button. If sats go down, we are really screwed.

FRS/GMRS for <1mi, is easiest.
GMRS with repeaters for town-wide
Meshtastic/LORA has interesting text capabilities, within LOS or whatever mesh Network you create.

Satphone or HF ham is you need long range (Sat is more expensive, but simpler to learn)

I don't disagree with you and have posted in a few other threads my experience with the new FM CBs.

When they have CTCSS/DCS squelch turned on in FM mode it's a completely different world that the CB
everyone is used to, and their range easily beats FRS/MURS in nearly all circumstances, and will beat
even a 50W GMRS mobile in complex terrain (hills, ridges) due to CB having a significantly greater
ground wave component.

If you're in the rules-bending crowd that is OK with Baofengs not having type approval, I highly recommend
the Anytone AT-500M radio for FM CB; if you want to stick to the rules, the President Harrison FCC is the
only model I would suggest, as it has CTCSS/DCS squelch support. At AT-500M has certain additional options
regarding output power I won't condone for CB use, and is $80, while the Harrison FCC is $160 with the
type-accepted 4W out. With FM, the full 4W power output is used, resulting in a better range than when in
AM mode which only hits 4W at the very peak of modulation and wastes 1/4 of the signal on the carrier.

There are very few FM users on CB, so it's more of a buy one for both ends of the conversation (just like FRS, etc)
rather than a party line where you'll be talking to others.

For post-SHTF simple comms for two people this is damn sure the answer. /thread.

My wife and I have two, and two more for spares. Already easily programmed with CHIRP.

Interesting.  I'm going to have to look into that one.  I have a small Cobra CB radio in the Jeep and since I don't use it much (most of the people we off road with use GMRS) I'm not sure if there would be a good reason to upgrade or not.  The extra power of the Anytone radio might add a fair amount of range to CB use.  

I use a TYT TH8600 for FRS/GMRS/MURS.  I really like it because it's weather and dust proof.  I have one on my ATV and my side by side as well and have gotten them wet and dusty numerous times without issue.  The Jeep only really sees dust inside.  

FRS/GMRS/MURS is great but if you've ever off roaded in a popular place, those frequencies are used very heavily in places like that.  I have not used CB in a popular area yet but with as many frequencies as CB offers, I suspect CB might be less used in a popular riding area.

If you ever find yourself in an area, either deliberately or incidentally, in which your presence has been identified via correlation attack with presence of your cell phone (stingray), and said presence will result in state level scrutiny, then having your phone in a faraday bag (or left outside the area of interest) and using something like a stand-alone LORA messengers (with their own keypad) for everyone involved may be advantageous for both local and wide area communications (via one of the nodes acting as a gateway to the internet) over analog radios (to include VHF/UHF, GMRS, bubble pack radios, etc) which are not encrypted by law and are likely to be monitored by everyone else who also has one.

Personally LoRa has no place in my comms PACE plan.  Of course neither does undisciplined yakking away on any device after SHTF.  
Direction finding has been a thing since at least WWII...

Well, they've narrowed it down...







Out of curiosity though, what does your PACE plan consist of that isn't vulnerable to direction finding?

It's always going to be situational, but for me, it's simple radio discipline. Use the lowest power you need, limit your conversations with short (brevity codes) transmissions. That's for just general low-signature practices, but if you're being targeted by a superior capability, you might as well go back to message runners and decoder rings

ROCK6

What vulnerability does it have that any other commercial radio does not also have?

^ For me it was encountering this:
"If someone was able to find the node they could link it to their phone if they have the Meshtastic app and then get into your network. Once in your network they can see ALL messages from there on since Meshtastic app is a GROUP text message service. As long as they don't change the name of the node you would never know they were monitoring your network. Also if they found the node but couldn't add their device to it they can read the messages being sent on the screen as they are sent." - Source


That was pretty much a non-starter for me.  I didn't explore LoRa any further.  Too many other things I need to get a firm grasp on.   Someone I respect commented that "this shows promise" with respect to a LoRa article I believe.  
Everything is vulnerably.  I have other options I'm more comfortable with.  

Sure, if anyone physically obtains a node/repeater in a network, they are likely to gain access to message traffic.
You could install a motion sensor or g-force sensor on the board, if you were concerned about physical tampering.

Or just remove the screen once the settings are set

I am thinking about getting some satellite communicators for this.

You don't need a GMRS license if you're not going to use repeaters. The only difference on talk between radio channels is that FRS is limited to 2 watts by rule. In the real world, nobody without high tech gear knows. I'm going to try the new Baofeng UV-21 PRO V2. It has splash resistance and VHF/UHF (and 222 mhz for ham operators). Radio is open so MURS and GMRS can be programmed.  It is about 40 dollars. The regular UV-21 is the same without 222 mhz. I have 3 UV9-R Pro radios with 4 spare battery packs. They are splash proof and cheap. The belt clips suck, but they fit in an AR pouch and the speaker mics are cheap.

For local 2 mile comms, a couple of Baofengs or similar handhelds with spare battery packs is fine. Satellite communications seem to be the way for distance or calling for help, but a functioning earth station is needed for access after some time. Otherwise people would use the system for free all the time.

Something to think about is whether your daily use walkie-talkie is the same as your SHTF unit. Some guys think so or only carry a cell phone for daily comms. My daily use portable doesn't have to be water resistant anymore. No cutting cars with the jaws or searching for the lost in the rain. If the handhelds are to be belt clipped, then having a decent clip is important. If it rides in a plate carrier pouch, then you don't need a clip at all.

For emergencies don't forget to have a good AM/FM radio that can run on batteries. Getting information from AM radio stations will be more useful than just about any other radio you may have. AM stations have much longer ranges than FM stations, and while a disaster that effects you locally may also take down your local FM station, the chances are you'll still be able to receive an AM station within a 100 miles or even more at night.

Since your just starting out, get these:
Shortwave radio. Learn to use it. You can listen to other countries depending on conditions. Get one that has air band.
Handheld CB. 40 channel. FM if you can afford it.
Used ham handheld. Tri band. In a SHTF scenario, who cares about license. If time permits, get your license.
Scanner. Make sure digital capable with P25.
Handheld receiver. Can take place of shortwave radio. Most handheld ham radios have am 1-1000 MHz. that can scan.
Get a chart of what frequencies belong to ham/cb/civil air/military/police.
A good source of radio information: www.radioreference.com .
Who knows if our own government is behind it or invasion. I wouldn’t trust satellites but worth a look.
Make sure all your radios use batteries. With power out, you can’t charge lithium batteries. Stock up.
This is just a start. There is more to get if you have the bucks. Learn whatever you get. Don’t through it on the shelf then turn it on when needed.

Signal strength discipline, directional antenna (Yagi?), and burst transmissions?

Yes to all, but even if you're not doing data bursts, you just use your own brevity code SOP to keep transmissions short. It's simply old-school COMSEC 101...

ROCK6

Perhaps a re-evaluation of a real SHTF such as Hurricane Katrina and its effects on communications is in order.

I am in the mood to burst bubbles today and say it square as I see it ...... so here we go.

Reality

In a real SHTF scenario you had best be doing a hell of a lot more listening than transmitting if you ever transmit at all.

In the modern age if the stuff hits the oscillating air movement device you had best be like the quiet church mouse in your electronic signature if you want to think about surviving long.  Modern direction finding equipment can pinpoint you to 200 yard radius within two or three one second transmissions from a lot further away than you think possible.  For example, I make a phone call for my work to another shop and they pinpoint stuff for me to within half that circular error from a distance of more than 40 air miles.  And this isn't even the .fed world.  Imagine what the feds have available from DARPA or some other alphabet soup agency that loves their techie toys.  Thats commercial off the shelf tech available to anyone with the checkbook to write the check.

With that reality in mind, comms in a SHTF world is much more about gathering intelligence and figuring out who is around you and where they are than it is about telling folks around you what you see or don't see.  Or listening to broader range communications to see whats happening around the wider area or country to see if things are getting worse or better in the broader scheme of things.

Very little of it should be trying to talk to anyone else.  Thats just inviting bad juju to your world.

My opnion and my opinion alone ... but I bet in a SHTF world with society as we know it gone to hell using my comms advice will get you a hell of a lot further than chit chatting what you see to your friends on little or even big radios of any frequency, power, cost, or lack there of.

A couple good sensitive low noise receivers with large omnidirectional antennas and small portable directional antennas to cover VHF, UHF, 7/800MHz and public broadcast frequencies from HF to VHF for both FM AM and SSB modulation types would be your best bet.  7/800 is more for just detecting signals than trying to decode digital modes that might be encrypted.  Hear a modem noise on 7/800 with a strong signal, get to figuring out where its coming from cause you are probably being hunted by someone a lot better off than you are so shut up and get to the important stuff rather than giving away where you are by yapping about it on your baofeng.

YMMV

Radio Man

**edited to make it english rather than typonese**

All that depends on what you are using comms for. Yes the direction finding equipment out there is scary accurate. I have been told from people who are in the know that Russia has a lot of junk equipment but their DF abilities are very very good. I know first hand US DF abilities are also very very good. Heck….any competent HAM club can do some serious DF work.

That said, who is looking for you? Are you out trying to overthrow the government using Baofeng radios? If so, yes the government is probably going to throw some serious resources against you.

In most cases, none of us have anything to worry about that. We are talking about comms between each other during something like an extended power outage. Maybe civil unrest where the cell towers are overwhelmed. Perhaps a localized disaster like a hurricane, tornado, or earthquake.

For citizens looking to live their lives in peace, fearing someone finding you via your radio communications is very very low on the list of things to worry about.

Defining SHTF is important. No offense intended but I suspect the OP and most poster have a different idea of what SHTF is than yours.

I would view your scenario as a societal collapse, leaning more on the extreme side vs what people are doing with their radios here. Hell in that situation, I would agree staying off and listening would benefit you more than giving up your stockpile.    SHTF has become a catch all term for everything from the fabric of society breaking down to zombies to natural disasters to power outages.

People need to figure out what THEIR plan is for their area of the globe. AND than have a plan B to THAT plan.   I am in California, so much of my preps are geared toward earthquakes, than wild fires and to the lesser - power failures. However, they each build to the biggest 'SHTF' threat in my area of a quake.   I am not going to waste my energy planning for a hurricane or Tornado as someone living in Florida/Carolinas/Oklahoma SHOULD be planning for.  

In respect to coms, I am fortunate to have several Amateur and GMRS repeaters, that have backup power sources, that cover my area and areas where my circle works. These repeaters will not last forever on their reserve, but will last long enough to gather or send information.  

I go back to an example I witnessed when a wildfire ripped through a local mountain community that the fire, while not causing to much damage to homes, wiped out power, cell and internet  all at once. They were also cut off due to road closures because of the fires.   Radio operators in the affected community were able to relay up/down the mountain to others in a safer area, with messages or phone numbers to call family to let them know they were ok etc.  General information was also being relayed from media releases by CalFire up to those in the fire zone.  Information such as rally points for information and resources.  

Or when my AO lost cell and internet service, the repeaters that are typically quiet for the most part, were active with people checking in on one another.  These people are going to be more like minded as I am, judging by the foresight to take the time to search out a way to communicate AND it working when they needed it. So linking up isn't far fetched as a possibility IF needed..

SHTF is going to be such a subjective topic one person to the next and to what level each plans for.      Each needs to figure out what they are planning for and start there.





For OP,  do some homework for radios and repeaters in your area. The Baofengs are not a bad, cheap option that works.  Baofengs are the gateway drug radio. If you can use an excel spreadsheet, you can use CHIRP and program a Baofeng.  There is also FRS options that require nothing special but turn them on, click to the same channel and off you go. FRS will be more limited.  While radios do and will work radio to radio, rage will differ depending on A LOT of things.  Infrastructure like repeaters extend the ranges 10 fold.  

Get a set of radios.
Learn to use them, program them.  (Learning how to use them when you need them does no one any good)
I am not going to get into the purse swinging of licensing, yes license is required for; GMRS (Covers you and your family, apply online & pay the fee), Amateur (Covers only you, fee/test), both are 10 years. Emergency, this doesnt matter even outside a SHTF event.
Learn to use them. Learn where you can make contact to different things.
Go down the rabbit hole in the world of radios.

I also share your perspective but have given up trying to "edumacte" others.  Kudos to you sir.

I really wish Anytone (or whoever) would get their heads out of CB nonsense and put in some firmware like any other programmable radio, so that it's programmable to a user-defined list of channels with programmed frequency, mode, CTCSS/DCS, offset, channel name etc.

gmrs mobile base stations for the vehicles. handheld for out and about. depending on your terrain will talk pretty far. license is easy to get and lots of good options at the upper end of the wattage range.

A-men to that. Where I'm at I'd love to just program channels for just a couple CB freqs and different DCS tones and names
assigned to various neighbors, everyone here would be on board with that and it'd take the user interface issues people
have to zero.

There doesn't seem to be many choices at all if you want something that does CB or VHF low band these days, let alone
programmable.

The further craziness of AT-500M is it's a 10M ham rig on paper, but it's channelized -- it'd make far more sense to
have the memories programmable instead and have it frequency-tunable. I think what's going on is that the AT-500M
looks an awful lot like the President Thomas/Harrison CB series, and I suspect President had them do the design and
then AT just made a near clone and didn't do much else.

Any update, OP? I'm in the exact same boat.

I picked up three VHF/UHF Icom walkies for simple (I thought at least) two-way comms. Turns out they need to be programmed.. that means software and compatible USB cable plus replacement belt clips, an antenna replacement (one's missing), likely three new Li-On battery replacements, and one Li-On battery charging hub. Get the picture? Hint: with that amount of money I might as well go with something else.

I know Baofeng also makes two-way UHF walkies that are sold in pairs for cheap.