Emergency Communication

[Kanon]

Whether as a family or a group or a community, how do you guys address emergency communications outside of government or official announcements, like coordination and such?

 

[Cameramonkey]

Not sure I'm tracking. What does .gov have to do with how I communicate with my family/friends/prepper squad?

 

[Kanon]

Not sure I'm tracking. What does .gov have to do with how I communicate with my family/friends/prepper squad?

The government simple for their emergency broadcasts and such, I've known people who say that's all the communication they need, meanwhile I have a whole HAM setup to communicate and coordinate my group and family.

 

[Ziggidy]

Tin cans and a string

 

[snapping turtle]

Very local we have old fashion farmer bells in a few homes within ear shot. We also have a crank siren ( works well for coyotes also) . (Neighbors and my kids who live next door. ) This is old school but when you think of emergency sirens for weather the principal is valid.

Semi local we have FRS and GMRS radios.

national and international we have am radio, Single side band cb’s, shortwave, And if you know who s2 underground is we have “the wire” we can receive a couple of ways.

 

[Kanon]

Very local we have old fashion farmer bells in a few homes within ear shot. We also have a crank siren ( works well for coyotes also) . (Neighbors and my kids who live next door. ) This is old school but when you think of emergency sirens for weather the principal is valid.

Semi local we have FRS and GMRS radios.

national and international we have am radio, Single side band cb’s, shortwave, And if you know who s2 underground is we have “the wire” we can receive a couple of ways.

Great set up, do you have like a centralized meetup or coordination? Or a good radio setup for communication outside of your community?

 

[snapping turtle]

Great set up, do you have like a centralized meetup or coordination? Or a good radio setup for communication outside of your community?

We have gmrs on a repeater. No ham legally. Cheap ham's available but we need to get someone (me) to take the test.

 

[Kanon]

We have gmrs on a repeater. No ham legally. Cheap ham's available but we need to get someone (me) to take the test.

That's me atm too, taking a class and then the test, most of us have the Baofengs and then I'm working on a serious setup.

 

[PistolBob]

The government simple for their emergency broadcasts and such, I've known people who say that's all the communication they need, meanwhile I have a whole HAM setup to communicate and coordinate my group and family.

Boneless or Semi-boneless....

Interesting...VHF/UHF? Do you have HF coverage? Portable antennas? Fixed antennas? What's your power source?

 

[MrSmitty]

Tin cans and a string

You too?
CB radio...Breaker 19, got yer ears on?

 

[Kanon]

Boneless or Semi-boneless....

Interesting...VHF/UHF? Do you have HF coverage? Portable antennas? Fixed antennas? What's your power source?

Working on HF coverage, fixed antenna, undecided on power currently, I'm also hoping to put together a good truck setup when I get the chance.

 

[KittySlayer]

Well everyone has a cell phone permanently connected to their hand. When cell towers are overwhelmed fall back to sending text messages. A text message will often go through when a voice call will not.

Certainly round out your communication plan with HAMs and other options but I guarantee everyone in your clan will have a cell phone early on in the crisis, including your teenagers.

 

[Mgderf]

Signal fires and smoke signals.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Well everyone has a cell phone permanently connected to their hand. When cell towers are overwhelmed fall back to sending text messages. A text message will often go through when a voice call will not.

Certainly round out your communication plan with HAMs and other options but I guarantee everyone in your clan will have a cell phone early on in the crisis, including your teenagers.

THIS. But you have to turn off MMS first to guarantee SMS is used. Ive seen towers overwhelmed enough that your message just never goes through. But since it sees the tower data capabilities and good signal strength it doesnt think it needs to fall back and will just retry indefinitely.

When it happened to us we couldnt text. But 20 minutes down the road when we got away from the crowd and overloaded towers, all of the sudden all of the texts went through.

Geek speak: The why of that is that MMS uses the primary data pipes and is treated like internet traffic. SMS traffic doesnt. Those data pipes where your calls and internet traffic are what gets jammed up when the towers are overloaded.

SMS traffic uses the smaller secondary data link that is used exclusively for administrative traffic between your device and the tower. Activation, call routing/making the phone ring, tower roaming and handoff, etc. That is where SMS messages ride. And why you are limited to 144 characters; each data packet is 144 bytes in size.

 

[jwamplerusa]

There are emergency scenarios where the first thing you and yours need to do is turn off and shield all your devices, including connected cars.

Any device which connects to a cell tower is an effective tracking device.

I still need to see if I can easily disconnect my connected vehicle with minimal instrusion.

 

[Mij]

Radio Shack Fam. Radio Handhelds , close proximity, 3 miles. Out of band CB, and a bunch of wattage, 60 miles. Ground wave, no repeaters. Some may not concur, but you asked. I answered. No offense meant to the pro’s.

Coordination. = Meet up, get out of city, come home, help. All have there own code words and phrases that can be communicated simply. Kinda like the 10 code or Signals code. But known only to us for OPSEC.

 

[blain]

Whether as a family or a group or a community, how do you guys address emergency communications outside of government or official announcements, like coordination and such?

Facebook & Twitter, of course!
Maybe Instagram, but definitely not Tic Tok, unless the others are shut down.

But on a serious note, two-way radios are local but can still be intercepted.
Smoke signals are so old school, they're likely to work, except when it's dark or too windy.
Two cans connected by string are likely too local to be much good.
Face to face is fairly secure, but limited in range.

 

[Super Bee]

I like to think I am doing ok in this department. To be fair I have zero idea how to use my ham radio. I have turned it on and tried to tune some stuff in a couple times and heard people chatting but thats as far as I have gotten.


I have six of these. We have used them many times and they work great.

Midland GXT-325 Walkie Talkie Yellow Xtra Talk Includes Batteries & Charger New | eBay

Midland GXT-325 Walkie Talkie Yellow Xtra Talk Includes Batteries & Charger New Sealed

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I have this ham radio.

kenwood ts 820s transceiver, AT200 Antenna tuner, VFO 820,D-104 mic | eBay

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I have this scanner

Uniden BCD436HP HomePatrol Series Digital Handheld Scanner for sale online | eBay

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[blain]

I have six of these. We have used them many times and they work great.

Midland GXT-325 Walkie Talkie Yellow Xtra Talk Includes Batteries & Charger New | eBay

Midland GXT-325 Walkie Talkie Yellow Xtra Talk Includes Batteries & Charger New Sealed

www.ebay.com

Their advertised range is 10 miles.
What is your experience, as far as range goes?

 

[Super Bee]

Their advertised range is 10 miles.
What is your experience, as far as range goes?

I have used them driving down the highway in a group, I bet we were no more than 3 to 5 miles apart at times and they worked perfect. I never tested the max distance.