Posted: 5/23/2007 1:08:15 PM EDT
| For those of you (us) that will not be BO alone, what communication devices do you use? I don't have a good system set up right now. Shabby at best. |
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The multi faceted potential of Ham radio is just too good to ignor. A simple tech test and you can use VHF/UHF right now. Buy a radio with HF capability and in an emergency you have the potential for long range coms. 1000's of miles. VHF/UHF has a line of sight recieve/transmit capability of 50-200 miles. Most radios also feature multiple recieve capabilities, ideal for SHTF intel gathering. For example, the Yaseu Vx-6r/7r handheld receives AM/FM/AIR/Marine/Weather/Short Wave/Police/Fire/Public Service and recieves and transmits on VHF/UHF as well. With one of these you have reliable 50 mile coms and just about unlimited intel gathering ability. It really is something to consider for SHTF or worse... |
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I have a 2m mobile rig , a pair of Yaesu 2m HTs, and a ICOM 780 HF, and also about four FRS radios. Antennas are the key. I have a short four or five element Yagi 2m that works wonders, and a G5RV dipole for the HF. I have an extended antenna for one of the HTs. A mobile mag mount would be very useful to have. I keep a couple of lead acid gel batteries, which can run the HF or mobile rig for a couple of days, and have a pair of 40W solar chargers. The only thing is I wish I had a very low power dedicated PSK31 computer, my laptop eats way too much power. |
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About 5 years ago I did a complete evaluation of communications solutions. I planned on cell phones and land lines not being available. I also incorporated power independance into the solution with deep cycle batteries and a solar panel. I wanted to be as self reliant as possible. Because there are so many different communication solutions available, I ended up putting in place a multi-tiered approach basically based on transmit distance. I have a handful of GMRS radios for short range comms lets say less than 1 mile. I also purchased a CB handheld just because so many people have CB's. I don't use it much as it loves to eat batteries. The majority of my comms needs are met with ham radio. The tests are easy and the quality of the gear is significantly higher than GMRS or CB. The capabilities that ham radio give me are nothing short of astounding. The choices are endless, but basically it comes down to the distance you want to be able to transmit and how compatable you want your gear to be with other people. If you decide your needs are short range, say a mile or less, I believe GMRS is hard to beat. The more you spend on the radios the better quality you will get. If you buy the $29 bubble packs you'll get exactly what you pay for. I have some of those radios and they aren't built very well. I also have a pair of $99 GMRS radios and they are significantly better quality. Not up to the level of my ham gear, but not bad. I also use rechargable batteries with these radios. For 1 to 10 mile communications I chose ham VHF/UHF. Many people talk about MURS as an option, but not too many people here are using it and I wanted as much compatability with other people as possible. In your area MURS may be very popular and a very good choice so you may want to look into that. For farther than 10 miles again I rely on ham radio as it seems to really be the only option. The nice thing is talking from Maine to Florida, Texas, or Michigan is no problem most days...just nice to have the option. |
ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=123&t=486162&page=4 ar-jedi |
 ............ I mean....  I really appreciate you taking the time to send me that! |
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I'm going to be a bit bold here and say, the first step in communications planning for survival should be in receiving not necessarily transmitting. Getting information at a time of crisis is critical for survival. AM/FM, weather radio, and television are tops on my list of must haves. Simply put the odds are highest a crisis will be regional usually weather related. Most of us should already have this stuff even if its go out to the car and turn on its radio if the power is out. I do not exclude TV for despite the BS on the tube often a picture can tell more of a story than the sound. Small battery operated TVs are quite inexpensive and some very portable. Next I like a good scanner for emergency services for your area. Everything in a crisis is a matter of timing and the scanner can give you information before the regular average daily methods by listening to where emergency services are reacting to. This can let you know if danger is heading your way or where travel obsticals will be. Then this takes us into the two way communication devices. First on the priority list here should be a land line telephone. Its typically on a separate power from your utilities and doesn't jam as easily as cell phones do due to overload during a crisis event. Warning here, keep at least one phone that isn't a wireless in your home for wireless phones do not work without grid power. Since I mentioned landline, I also like a laptop or backup battery supply for your computer for more often than not the power is off, you can still communicate via land line on the internet. Wireless of course on a laptop can be used in an amazing number of places these days even if its a parking lot of a hotel or the local pizza joint with free wireless. Next of course is the cell phone due to its portability and long-range applciations. Though regional crisis, they become difficult due to overload most crisis in life are personal in nature and the cell phone unbeatable in that regard. Now you move into the radio transcievers. I see these in two catagories, short distance personal communication and long-distance. Kind of think of it as immediate familly in close proximity and town to town. The short-distance there are a number of choices many of them very low cost and how effective depending on how and where you are. I personaly have CB, FRS/GMRS, and Marine band. I plan on adding MURS, see the GMRS thread active now for more information in that regard including applications. Long-distance, it is HAM which has about as many options as short-distance. See the tacked thread on HAM for some great basic information and the guys also did a great write up in the tacked Contents Thread, both at the top of this page. In general, the strength of the short distance radio comm is it can't be heard over long-distance and the opposite is true of HAM for its advantage is it can be heard over long-distances. By application, both play an equal and important role in survival communications planning. Due to preparing for the most likely scenario first and least likely last, it should come as no surprise last on my list I put the long-distance receiver which is shortwave receivers. Though its easy to come up with reasons to want to know what world opinion is, especially in long-term planning as predicting economic upheaval or war. The odds are simply higher any of the other forms of communication would be needed first and that need more immediate. We kid alot about by both here at ARFCOM but from a survival standpoint when it comes to comms the more you have the better off you are. Don't let this boggle your mind for like most things in survival planning it is best to do what you can when you can taking it one step at a time. I think the best place to start is with power for all of these communications types require a power source. I'm personally a fan of Nimh and rechargeables as well as a method to recharge them. Much of my stuff works on both 110AC or 12vdc and have methods to use both when there are outages. For example, I have inverters in every vehicle. Sorry for the longer than usual post but your question is very general and deserves more than just a buy this. TJ |
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Good overview, TJ. Great point about monitoring ability. One of the luxuries I've enjoyed being a ham is having handheld transceivers with wide receiving ranges. I don't own a scanner yet, and probably won't buy one unless a lot of my local agencies go to digital trunking. As long as people are using analog conventional radio, any receiver that covers the freq will pick it up. And ham HT's have jillions of memories that can be assigned to banks and set to scan -- essentially "scanners" themselves (with the aforementioned limitations). I basically have my HT's programmed in banks -- I can switch from a ham repeater bank to police/fire to CB/FRS/GMRS/MURS, and keep them all well organized. Just to avoid confusion, the radio only transmits on ham bands -- it's just set up for monitoring these other services. And mine came from the factory preprogrammed with NOAA all hazard stations, Marine VHF channels, and popular shortwave frequencies burned into permanent memory and instantly accessible. Coupla quickies: 1) I agree that for nearby "squad" comms the unlicensed services of FRS and MURS are best suited for 2 reasons -- no license, so you can pass them out to anyone...and it's inconvenient to have to ID yourself for just quick exchanges (like "dinner's ready," "is this the right breaker?" as you must with both Ham and GMRS. 2) Since we're qualifying our suggestions (as in the GMRS thread) as to what is legal and enforced, it's worth mentioning that the FCC has several recent cases of popping people for using Marine VHF on land (hunting clubs and the like). Marine is for ship to ship and ship to specially-licensed-shore-stations only. And .gov monitors this service faithfully, on both coastal areas and inland. Just want folks to know what they're getting into here. I'm down with having true SHTF options, but don't count on using this service in any other instance other than true SHTF. |
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Yes, I have a boat and most definately I can think of no radio more monitored than marine band. The coast guard monitors the hailing channel and emergency channel 24/7 and if on the water so does wildlife and police. It truly is an emergency radio though used for mundane communications on the open channels after hailing. It too when I first got my first marine band once required a FCC license which a certain protocol like using your callsign or boat name a requirement as well as restrictions on its use. Though the license was dropped for US waters, it is still required for international waters ( a favorite ticket for the Canadian Coast Guard to write btw on the Great Lakes). I was very excited when I got my first marine band and bitterly dissapointed when the first call I heard was "Does anyone have a cork screw", but over the years it has proven its self an invaluable tool. I can't even begin to count the number of people I have towed due to dead motors etc. I've used it to contact the authorities a number of times due to accidents on the water (had a jet ski one time jump my wake to broadside another boat going down river). I've even used it once for an official Mayday as I witnessed an inexperienced captain in a pontoon hit a large wave at full speed submarining his boat washing all 12 of its occupants into the water in the dead of the night. Its way too often we here on this site forget water in our surivival discussions. After all over 80% of this planet is water. Tj |
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I am thinking about investing in a few handheld CBs. First off, I would use them for COM while hunting since we have CBs in our trucks, and it would just be good for squad style communications... Anyhow, I will eventually get a HAM. I need to build a shop first, because that's probably where all my SHTF supplies and communications will go. |
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Probably not what you were looking for, but I thought this is as good of a time to bring it up as any: Sportsmans Guide has Czech field telephones in stock again. 2 new field telephones, with wire; $60 I bought a pair last year, and feel that it is a good thing to have around. |
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So what is the best consumer GMRS out there as far a features/power/quality? I was looking at these this morning www.midlandradio.com/comersus/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=5522 |
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Survival Communications Primer My personal multifaceted approach to comms: internet am/fm weather shortwave receiver phone cell phone gmrs radios ham radios |
In terms of consumer 'features' that is probably going to be the best bet. One thing to note is that JIS4 specification is a splash spec, not a submersion spec:
IPX specs JIS standards I've had a couple of midland frs radios and they were ok, but I have no experience with these. |
I have a question. Is there any way to use a pair of old desktop touch tone phones as field telephones? I have a pair that my parents gave me and I have wondered if it is possible. Vulcan94 |
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I don't see why not, though I've never attempted the project. You could probably fit the battery inside the phone just fine. The DTMF keypad wouldn't have any functionality, but one of the buttons might be rigged to serve the same funciton as the hand crank or clacker on regular field telephones. Would make an interesting weekend project. A lot of people probably have old telephones laying around the attic. It is the wire that is getting expensive. That is one of the major reasons why the SG deal is a good one; lots of wire is included. |
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members.cox.net/caveradioat/CheapFieldTelephone.pdf BTW- The military TA-1/PT field phones are sound powered, and do not require any batteries or external power supply. |
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Standard AA Battery capability is the way to go in a longterm SHTF situation, what happens when the power is down for a week? You gonna charge all your NMHi batteries by idleing your truck with an inverter for 8 hours for every set? Risk killing your battery by not idleing? You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a AA battery, I'd bet a paycheck you could walk down your street and collect 4 or 5 at least from every house. You can buy a mega pack at home depot with 30-40 batts for 9 or 10 bucks. Store those in the fridge and rotate them out into flashlights and radios every couple of years. |
Thanks! Vulcan94 |
