Most of them will never get a Ham license or learn how to use one properly. So I've been considering alternatives like GMRS for emergency communication if cell towers and internet are down. Most members of my family will stick the radio in a drawer and never take it out unless there's a SHTF situation and only then after they've tried everything else.  My SIL and BIL already have GMRS handhelds for camping/boating and days at the racetrack.

I got a gmrs license for that purpose, as well as some CB handhelds. Range is very limited.

Some of the GMRS handhelds are 5w.  I'm thinking that, and a repeater on a hill or tall building, would cover our needed area pretty well.  And the expense is low and there would be other uses for the radios as well.

Those clamshell gmrs radios don't work on a repeater. The radios that would, are expensive. Can you get a couple hundred dollar buy in on a HT and a family repeater?

 
The Motorola MR355R is repeater capable and they're $70 for a pair. Or at least they say that they are. So are a couple of others that are less than $100 a pair.

Quote snipped, relevant bits highlighted for your further reflection and consideration.

Frankly, it doesn't sound like you can buy enough gear to get yourself out of this one. Expecting magical "Take Radio out of Box after 10 years, Turn On, Have Comms" is a fantasy. Further, planning on a group of individuals who will rarely (if ever) use the equipment to be able to even remember they have it, or how to load the batteries and/or select a channel, is planning to fail.

Do not take this personally. It is not a death sentence. My intent is to highlight the issues with your situation and point you in the right direction, which is to more completely understand the reality of two-way communications.


Now, that said, I will point you in a few directions (other than research and experience) for spending.

First, get a GMRS license. No test, just send in the money and check back in the ULS a few weeks later. This will be even easier after you get your amateur radio license and "take control" over your profile on the ULS. It covers your immediate family, is good for many years, and is cheap. Just do it.

Second, consider what you need to do gear-wise if things will be sitting for years without attention - one option is running AA Clamshells/Trays for power. Quality AA cells from major brands can be good for 10 years. You care about this.

Third, consider using surplus Part 90/LMR radios. Pick a model that has a AA Clamshell for the reasons above, and ideally, can cover the range of frequencies between 440-470 MHz. That'll give you options on amateur, GMRS, and Part 90 should you later decide to go itinerant.

Fourth, if you are planning to use a GMRS repeater, and you sure as shit should have a license before even asking, you need to contact the repeater owner and ask permission. That's a great time to ask technical questions about said repeater: Does it have emergency power, and what type? How long can it run after a power outage? The answers to this, as well as your impression of the repeater owner, will tell you volumes about whether or not you can trust the site in an emergency.

(Spoiler alert - you may not be able to trust any of them, for any number of reasons. You'll need to have other options, and will need to understand the fundamentals of how radios and radio infrastructure works.)


Happy studies.

[Edit - also this.]

Not 5W though. Can't handle split tones (if that's of interest of the OP).

I'd honestly suggest building your own intranet as it would be easier and more natural for your stick in the drawer and only pull out if needed family members. Downside of course, it's fixed point.

How about that! I still wouldn't rely on a private repeater, if you rig one up yourself with part 95 equipment and then write up comm procedures for everyone, it could work. Wouldn't count on everyone doing it right.

 
Great info, thanks!

 
How would a repeater at my house help?  Wouldn't it need to be somewhere central and high up?


I don't trust everyone to do it right.  The more I think about it, the more I expect that 1/3 the radios will go in a drawer and be forgotten, 1/3 will be given to kids or grandkids, and 1/3 will be lost or destroyed.


But I have to give them something for Christmas, and the Motorola radios are affordable and could actually be useful and might get some of them interested in something better.

I wonder if you could under your ham license run a high power, high elevation WiFi router, then have everyone connect to that with their smartphones, and run a Mumble server locally so all they'd need is the Android or IOS Mumble apps and some LAN config.

If you were going the radio route, the only batteries you can trust are those you recharge constantly and/or test regularly, and don't forget to test your radios on weekly nets in case of sudden electronics death syndrome.

Not all the gmrs repeaters are public use, it's not exactly like ham.

I'm just going to point out the obvious, that would technically require the users to still have their amateur licenses. Aside from that, running on the amateur side of the spectrum is great and all for power output is great and all up until you look at the fact it technically has to be unencrypted so in the scheme of 802.11 as most people understand it, there is no form of access control. Yes you can whitelist only specific users by MAC address but that doesn't mean someone can't easily spoof those (anyone familiar with 802.11 can do it pretty quickly).

Throwing power at it is actually a pretty poor idea though as it unbalances the entire system. If a 100 mW (maybe 200 mW ERP) subscriber's uplink isn't making it to the AP, what good is having an AP that puts out 5W and 400W ERP? Answer is it doesn't and at that point you might as well build with over the self 802.11 gear using AES encryption and other forms of access control.

Receive amplifier? Directional antennas pointed at everyone's QTHs? VPN? IANARE

VPN's encrypt traffic. A some power amplifiers have receive preamps in them but those begin to get pricey (several hundred to thousand dollars). Directional antennas are the way to do it. More specifically, I'd try and setup AP's using sector antennas. My personal favorites come from RF Elements and have waveguide couplers to the feed horns. They can accept Cambium, Mikrotik and Ubiquiti radios.