Posted: 2/2/2012 4:50:32 PM EDT
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Currently I'm set up with a yaesu vx-7r handheld which covers 70cm/6m/2m. I'm capable of hitting several nearby repeaters and enjoy listening and checking in every once in a while.
Been kicking around the idea of stepping up to an 857d for more power and obviously the HF bands. My main drive behind that is emergency communications. My thinking is, I could hear what's going on several states away instead of a few counties away as I'm set up now. This would obviously give me more prep/awareness time. Guess I'm just wondering if it's necessary to step up like this or if my handheld will adequately fill the role of EMCOMM. I can probably guess what everyone on this board will advise....$$$$$$ ETA: I guess my question is-what is Emergency Communication mean to you? SCWolverine-thanks for your response. I'm pretty much already set up for off-grid capability if I go this route. Just need a battery and am mindful of the golf cart batts at Sams. |
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for most local shtf, 2m will be golden. compliment ur handheld with a 2m or dual band mobile/base. for farther reaching emer (and lots of fun) u should have an HF rig-lots to listen to there. so yes u should spend more money!
dont forget off grid pwr :) Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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You definitely need to expand to a mobile radio. Those repeaters you can hit now probably won't be available when the shtf. If you're not already involved with ARES or a local radio club do so. Build relationships today that can help you tomorrow. Once you have a mobile it's not a bad idea to get a small beam antenna. This will let you maximize your operating time by minimizing battery consumption. For example, I can hit clear across town on 5W with my 4-element beam. I can't do that with my vertical.
I think HF has limited usefulness depending on your situation. EmComm for me means that I'll probably be in a hurricane shelter communicating with the Red Cross and the Emergency Operations Center. This assumes a hurricane which is what we typically face. I have no use for HF and wouldn't have an antenna available anyway. Now to counter that. If a storm is bearing down on us I can listen to various weather nets where people in the Caribbean are providing ground truth reports. This can be a great advanced warning system. I also used HF several years ago to help re-route a friend on the road. They were in the panhandle and I-10 was closed due to wildfires. I was able to get information from local operators about 150 miles from me to provide a new route. More than anything I'd say to be familiar with your radio and keep a copy of the manual handy. I can't tell you how many times I have people involved in drills or special events that don't know how to perform the most basic of tasks. I had one person tell me they were sending their radio back because it kept losing its memory settings. When I pointed out they kept putting it in VFO mode they said they didn't know it could do that. Another couldn't participate in a net because his tone was screwed up. I fixed it quickly and he turned the radio off and wondered why it was back where it was. I fixed it again. He turned it off again. He couldn't grasp that it was a MEMORY setting and would ALWAYS revert back to what was stored. I finally gave up and overwrote the memory location. You don't want to be scrambling to figure out how to go simplex or set a tone or whatever when you're in an already stressful situation. HTH |
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Yes, some hams can really make a mockery of the term "keyboard programmable" radio. EmComm for me would be assisting the local Races guys setting up comms for a remote area of the county during a plane crash or search. As a matter of fact, I got an email about a comm test for April in the Gorges State Park. I am going to dig out the wide split portable 2 meter repeater again for a range extender.
For my personal group comms, I simply need equipment to assure that family members are able to get home if something disrupts transportation and cell communications in the area. With a new wife on board, it is probably going to be a new GMRS license for 20 mile comms off the local 462.700 repeater. I am planning to get an HF radio in the next couple of years to fill the short wave receiver/HF ham radio role. It is definitely an asset but requires backup power to be effective during real Encomm events. RS |
| I see my EM Comms like this, I have a 2m/70cm base setup in the house with several antennas hidden in the attic, a mobile 2m/70cm rig in the truck with an excellent antenna and a VX-6r hh. I can talk to my base just about anywhere in town on simplex and regularly talk to guys in WY and points Denver and south off the repeater setup around here. I also have 10m radio that I talk to a friend out in Greeley on with only 7w of power (thats about 30 miles away) this seems like a good place to be at for me. |
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Quoted:
Got into ham radio when I lost all comms during Hurricane Gustav. The tree crushing my house severed all landline comms and cell voice was out. A four hour round trip text message and the 18:00 mass media news was all I had. Which in a nutshell means I had nothing useful.
ETA: I guess my question is-what is Emergency Communication mean to you? EmComm for when the next SHTF happens means to me... -To be able to communicate from down the street to across the nation. -To be able to communicate anytime day or night. -To be able to communicate using a variety of modes. -To be able to communicate with a network of people of similar interests for mutual support. -To be able to communicate at home, on the road, or in a remote location. To this end it means having VHF/UHF capability to ping the repeaters. VHF/UHF beams to work simplex when the repeaters go down, which they did in Gustav the locals tell me. HF capability from 40m to 10m to work the appropriate band for the time of day and for longer range comms than VHF/UHF. And competency in phone, CW, and a variety of digital modes to use the best mode for whatever conditions present themselves. Sniffed around and found a group with similar interests in SHTF prep and we meet weekly on VHF simplex. Only thing not started yet is the mobile comms. Need to get a rig in the vehicle and get a go-box going. This and a toss-in-the-trees antenna. Have a copy of AFMs Field Day Antenna but it’s a bit bulky for a grab and go antenna. A fine tune of the home station is something in the NVIS catagory. That 150 to 400 mile range is still a bugger to do. Got a 75m antenna going up at about 18ft that may fill the bill. So far the only semi-reliable mode for that range I have is 40m CW. Now if you’re talking about public service emcomm then this is a different animal. You are there to assist the served agency and what equipment and skills you bring to them is in many ways determined by what the served agency expects of you. Whole different gig that prepping for the next SHTF scenario. |
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While others concentrate on 2m, I built my emergency communications kit for HF.
When a real SHTF situation occurs (and I've been in several), you cannot depend on infrastructure... that is phone lines (forget Echolink), cell towers damaged or overloated, repeaters (antennas down, power failure), etc. And communicating within your area, everyone else is in the same boat you are. You need to be able to communicate out of the area, and even out of the state. Sorry, 2 m can't do that. |
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But, but, but...who are you going to communicate with?
When we have bad weather around here (NH) the repeaters are dead. And I don't mean off the air, I mean nobody is chatting. Fueling generators, moving snow, sawing fallen trees all seem to take priority over blabbing on the radio. I've never even heard the weather fanatics. Nothing has ever been so bad that the broadcast stations don't stay up; most people are probably getting their news and info that way. Of course, when the weather is good nobody is chatting either, except for the usual commute-time die hard's. When conditions are good we can get all of 4 or 5 guys together on HF voice and 8 or 9 guys on HF digital. The set of "like minded individuals" is tiny. Teeny tiny. Under mythical, extended SHTF conditions, with antennas falling down around you, no power, 5W, food, water and heat production priorities, along with keeping an eye out for bad people, who is going to have the time or the energy? Or do you feel that under such conditions radios will become of more importance, even just for entertainment, and radio operators will come out of the woodwork? Certainly FRS use will jump for routine local comm's, but that's not what we're talking about, is it? |
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Quoted:
While others concentrate on 2m, I built my emergency communications kit for HF. When a real SHTF situation occurs (and I've been in several), you cannot depend on infrastructure... that is phone lines (forget Echolink), cell towers damaged or overloated, repeaters (antennas down, power failure), etc. And communicating within your area, everyone else is in the same boat you are. You need to be able to communicate out of the area, and even out of the state. Sorry, 2 m can't do that. AFM makes an excellent point-at the onset of the 'emergency' local comms would be degraded in some sense vs. longer range transmissions. but after spending a few days listening to a fellow ARFOMMER's mom call net control in Joplin following the Tornado Outbreak last year(via the net), I gained a greater respect for the 2m comm. I have both in my EMCOMM Box, did that on purpose...of course there are so many variables...(like recently loosing my HT? no idea where it's at, can't find it ANYWHERE  )
TheBeerSlayer could offer some real insight after surviving the destruction a few times over the last 12 mo or so.... |
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With a beam antenna you can also hit an AMSAT satellite, or even the repeater on the ISS.
the drawback of course is the limited time of coverage and you have to have the schedules ...................... but it is an option for reaching out there with an HT/VHF/UHF |
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Quoted:
This.
While others concentrate on 2m, I built my emergency communications kit for HF. When a real SHTF situation occurs (and I've been in several), you cannot depend on infrastructure... that is phone lines (forget Echolink), cell towers damaged or overloated, repeaters (antennas down, power failure), etc. And communicating within your area, everyone else is in the same boat you are. You need to be able to communicate out of the area, and even out of the state. Sorry, 2 m can't do that. AFM and I have been through many of the same storms. Universally the infrastructure goes down and you are on your own for at least the generally accepted 72 hours. And everyone within 100 miles of you is in the same boat. I have my local mutual support crew to assist and they will be there on 2m simplex. Also keeping 2m around to find out the scoop as to where the relief points are, road closures, and other local info. Other than that I'm depending on HF to get outside of the affected area, my area, to get the word out. |
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Quoted:
While others concentrate on 2m, I built my emergency communications kit for HF. When a real SHTF situation occurs (and I've been in several), you cannot depend on infrastructure... that is phone lines (forget Echolink), cell towers damaged or overloated, repeaters (antennas down, power failure), etc. And communicating within your area, everyone else is in the same boat you are. You need to be able to communicate out of the area, and even out of the state. Sorry, 2 m can't do that. I have the same attitude, but not the experience. I'm still planning on a better 2 meter base antenna but HF is my focus for a shtf event. |
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Quoted:
And communicating within your area, everyone else is in the same boat you are. You need to be able to communicate out of the area, and even out of the state. Sorry, 2 m can't do that. And don't forget to include being that person OUTSIDE the affected area that may be in a better position to get word to family members on behalf of an affected person to let loved ones know they're ok. Or warn them that another storm is coming. Or learn that they need help with x. etc. |
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Quoted: Quoted: And communicating within your area, everyone else is in the same boat you are. You need to be able to communicate out of the area, and even out of the state. Sorry, 2 m can't do that. And don't forget to include being that person OUTSIDE the affected area that may be in a better position to get word to family members on behalf of an affected person to let loved ones know they're ok. Or warn them that another storm is coming. Or learn that they need help with x. etc. That's the basis of our mission in Army MARS, especially in TX. We go into the 'affected area' and bridge the gap between our position and the comms infrastructure outside of the affected area. Think Galveston a couple years ago within 8 hours after the hurricane. Nothing worked. Shit was messed up. No phone service, electricity, water, ice, food, blood, search teams....somebody (the incident command) has to requisition all that stuff through FEMA and the State Operations Center. To do that requires hand signed IC-213 forms going out via HF for fulfillment. That entails getting a signed hard-copy of the form, scanning it, reducing the file size enough, attaching it to a e-mail message and sending it out via Pactor 3 to the PMBO outside the affected area. It is then automatically put onto the internet and delivered via e-mail to the addressee. We also have the ability to send damage assessment photos out using the same method. It's also pretty damned handy to be able to receive message files with attachments like current weather radar images. Nice to know where the tornadoes are.  Having 2 meter is handy for local simplex comms and for some packet ops, but all the 'heavy lifting' is done via HF. Repeaters don't work very well with no power for their operations. IMHO....2 meter has limited use in a true SHTF situation. It's handy for shelter comms, but not much else. All the responders are using 440 gear and/or higher freqs...or they have brought in a radio cache with linked radios, portable repeaters, and sat radio. |
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Quoted: My thoughts exactly.But, but, but...who are you going to communicate with? When we have bad weather around here (NH) the repeaters are dead. And I don't mean off the air, I mean nobody is chatting. Fueling generators, moving snow, sawing fallen trees all seem to take priority over blabbing on the radio. I've never even heard the weather fanatics. Nothing has ever been so bad that the broadcast stations don't stay up; most people are probably getting their news and info that way. Of course, when the weather is good nobody is chatting either, except for the usual commute-time die hard's. When conditions are good we can get all of 4 or 5 guys together on HF voice and 8 or 9 guys on HF digital. The set of "like minded individuals" is tiny. Teeny tiny. Under mythical, extended SHTF conditions, with antennas falling down around you, no power, 5W, food, water and heat production priorities, along with keeping an eye out for bad people, who is going to have the time or the energy? Or do you feel that under such conditions radios will become of more importance, even just for entertainment, and radio operators will come out of the woodwork? Certainly FRS use will jump for routine local comm's, but that's not what we're talking about, is it? |