Amateur radio is definitely one of those things I’ve neglected over the years and need to dig into.
No doubt being able to communicate with people outside the affected area is important, but being able to communicate with people within the affected area is absolutely critical. From what I’ve been reading, despite the disdain for them as the Hi-Points of radios, the Baofeng radios have been heavily represented in this episode.
I have some handheld radios that I keep on the charger, with spare batteries, specifically for contact with close-by people. If I’m roaming around the neighborhood checking on the situation it’s nice to know that the people back at the house can contact me, and vice versa, if something needs to be communicated.
One thing I’ve been absolutely dragging my feet on is getting the antennae set up for the Icom 7300 I picked up last year. I need to get off my butt, climb up on the roof, and get something up there. I probably should start investigating the local amateur radio scene and see if I can find that particular brand of boffin…the radio nerd who is also a survivalist…to help me get things set up.
In fact, really, I should probably do some sort of communications audit and see what exactly I have, and what I need, in regards to this sort of thing.
We have Baofengs but have not used them; there are also significant distance limitations. When funds permit, I think I want a half dozen of these:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09PSKG7C3/?coliid=I38M3LPGAL93AK&colid=32GKD1KWWI832&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it&th=1
The problem with satellite communication devices is that they require an expensive subscription on both ends.
Point. But I am lazy, and don’t particularly want to study for and take the Ham exams.
The tests are pretty minimal, at least Technician and General
And study materials are freeish:
https://hamstudy.org/
The Tech license test is trivially simple. Do the online practice test a couple of times and you will have no problem passing the official one.
I took the Tech test blind — looked online for test dates and saw the next one was later that day and there wasn’t another for several months — and easily passed it with just vague recollections of my high school freshman-year electronics tech class. The only questions that gave me trouble were the FCC regulations ones — apparently knowing the number of the regulations is more important than knowing the actual regulations.
These would be great if you are going hunting or hiking but can you be SURE satellites won’t be hit if SHTF?
Baofengs are not satellite radios. recommend reading NC renegade. and his book “guerilla guide to the Baofeng radio”.
There are active Ham Radio groups across the country. They have annual field days and interact with other groups.
Ham radio prep;
https://hamradioprep.com/?msclkid=6b894acec98a12ffe0e82dc6d59bee0b
https://www.arrl.org/what-is-ham-radio
Perhaps investigate long wire antennas, and concealing an antenna.
When I was a just a little stinker, I worked ground ropes for a friend who did some tree work for my dad. The job? Topping off a tree on the hill behind the house and mounting a CB base station antenna on it. I asked why not just put the antenna on the house. He replied “WE know we have radios, but I don’t want everyone ELSE to know it too”. He was not from a trusting generation.
Having a big antenna on or near the house is a bit like smoke from a chimney. It says somebody is home, and they have resources.
Great OPSEC.
That InReach is overkill unless you are playing Wolverines in the back country or you are out solo and think you might need to call for help. It is a level of redundancy and capability though, if you really think you need it.
5 watt GMRS radios are popular with offroaders because of their better range. I can’t make any recommendations as I don’t use them myself but there is probably a lot of info in the offroader forums and websites online.
The baofengs might or might not be legal atm to use on FRS and GMRS frequencies, I frankly can’t be bothered to keep up with that, but they WORK on those frequencies. GMRS requires a license but there isn’t a test, it covers your whole family, and it’s good for multiple years. The main benefit seems to be using other peoples’ GMRS repeaters, as they generally want to know your callsign. And being legal at higher power levels, that’s a benefit too.
For most people that don’t want a ham license, business and construction radios that are not FRS or GMRS are an option that is better than blister pack toys. Home Depot sells motorola radios that use those frequencies. They are sturdier and have better range than the little blister pack radios.
FWIW, my experience with the blister pack FRS and GMRS radios is that they are really only good for line of sight, or about 100ft in a structure. If you can’t see your contact, you probably won’t reach him.
I’ve got a half dozen FRS/GMRS radios by Retrevis that are slim, light weight, fairly sturdy, and use USB to charge, that I leave at my BOL. They work fine over the extent of my 1 acre, and beat hollering at each other. Cell coverage is spotty to non-existent on my lot. I’ve got literal buckets full of various brands of FRS/GMRS radios and whenever we try to use them, they disappoint.
Remember that no license is required to listen. Get your old analog scanner out of the garage, put in all the GMRS/FRS freqs, and your local ham repeaters, if any, and just let it run in your garage or office. You’ll find out what sort of traffic is in your area, and learn the unspoken rules of the road for that repeater before you ever get on the air.
Civilian SIGINT is a great use for older scanners.
Ditto for shortwave or HF on the ham bands, listening is easy and often entertaining, as well as educational about how your radio works, and propagation conditions. I try to spend an hour or two a month sitting at night with my shortwave, 30ft of wire as an antenna, and a drink, and just tune around the bands to see what I can hear. It’s very easy to grab my Eton Elite Executive radio and the wire and sit out on the deck listening. It does a great job of handing SSB and the ham bands as well as being a great shortwave radio.
Listening is probably even more important than talking…
nick
Well said.
I’ll add that last night I was listening to the ham repeater network in tampa thru the internet with Broadcastify, and did hear a couple of interesting things. I heard a lot of guys not paying attention to net control, and using their normal operating habits, which aren’t necessarily desirable in an emergency.
If I was there, and didn’t have other sources of info, the hourly NOAA update shared over the net would have been helpful.
There may have been other local repeaters that were more helpful to locals, but they weren’t on broadcastify so I couldn’t listen in… our regional network, that becomes the official SKYWARN hurricane watch network when we have weather in Houston, isn’t that interesting to listen to during storms either.
It’s great backup, but I got more info from the scanner on the sheriff/constable/ and school bus frequencies. (they were using school busses for evac and transport, so they used the bus radios. Digital, but not encrypted. Good listening…)
n
Per FCC:
§ 97.403 Safety of life and protection of property.
No provision of these rules prevents the use by an amateur station of any means of radiocommunication at its disposal to provide essential communication needs in connection with the immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are not available.
Means you don’t need a license in an emergency
Yeah, but if you do not at least study at the General License level you will not come close to implementing the maximum potential of the radio nor will you be equiped to impliment the safety measures. Antennas bite at times.
Could be. I’m an electronics engineer with a specialty in EM fields. I’ve got it covered and can help others with the technical issues. In an emergency, I’m not going to care about optimizing the system so long as it functions. Or an FCC license.
YMMV of course.
I note that hams hate the idea of no license required. Too bad.
Organized hams might as well be called HF Hallway Monitors.
Many of them are obsessed with minding other people’s business and tattling to “the aw-thoritees” even if there’s no violation of law or regulation involved.
And they’ll turn a blind eye to all sorts of vile conduct by others in their little club because they have a government permission slip in their pocket. Power levels well over the legal limits, obnoxious behavior, illegal broadcasting, intentional interference with other licensees and even with government users operating on non-ham bands…
You don’t need a license to fly a jet or perform open heart surgery in an emergency either. However good luck pulling those off.
Radio is a less extreme example but similar. Dude with an unprogrammed baeofang or 3 in a tote somewhere ain’t talking to anybody in an emergency. That’s a fantasy.
Well, I’ve done both – and radio is a lot easier 🙂
That is exactly the reason for not getting any of this is the ComputerComputer Computer fetish that all this seems to needs to be plugged into Bill Gates rectum to operate. How do you expect any of this to operate with the blue screen of death or the blank screen of total failure?
What computer? Don’t need a computer to run a transmitter.
Last I checked, a license was required for both flying jets (or even drones) and performing open heart surgery. I’ve also noted there aren’t (legal) exceptions for those as there are for running a transmitter.
OTOH, reports abound of folks who DID transmit w/o a license, some in credible emergencies who, once the dust settled, got to spend a bunch of money trying to convince the FCC that they should not be fined another bunch of money for unlicensed transmissions. “They” do not think like us. As North Carolinians have recently learned, to their dismay.
I got charged by a small town in So Cal for calling their fire department dispatch on a (modified) ham radio, to report a kid who had been hit and nearly killed in a hit-and-run (pre cell phone days).
The FCC wanted NOTHING to do with it. Strictly a local (not even county) charge. Went to trial, the city attorney presented his opening, the judge asked ‘is that it?’ and dismissed the charges with prejudice.
Lots of stupid people out there. I’d do it again, if I had to.
I feel the little known MURS radios are a great and more flexible option, but the user base is so tiny you can’t rely on others having the capability.
I have a Spot X for when I’m alone in remotw areas – which doesn’t take much around here. Yes, I know it won’t work long term, but for the short disaster I can text from anywhere in the Americas that I have a clear view of the sky.
I like that it doesn’t require a supporting device and does navigation as well. I feel it’s worth the $11 a month.
MURS offers a tiny number — literally a handful — of channels at a frequency that is high enough to be pretty much line-of-sight only and at a maximum of 2 Watts.
I’ve monitored the MURS channels in a couple areas, and heard nothing but non-voice signals from things like gate alarms and intrusion sensors.
No one else out there to speak to and a good chance of disruption of comms by automated transmitters makes MURS a poor choice.
There is a very large crossover between HAM radio folks and preparedness minded folks. Checking the ARRL website, there is a club in Missoula. Most HAM folks are very interested in bringing in new people.
For local communications, the 2 meter Chinese radios work just fine. They may not have a great range, but when used with a repeater, they are frequently good for 10 to 20 miles if you have line of sight to the repeater. RepeaterBook shows there are three repeaters in Missoula. There is only 1 test required to be able to use 2 meter FM.
Your ICOM is better suited for long-range communications. It will not work very well locally unless you set up a special antenna for short range coms. Using the ICOM will require the second level license meaning another test.
Lots of people buy radios to have “just in case” but never use them, so they don’t know how to use them if necessary. Having a gun you have never fired is as useful as a radio that you don’t know how to use. Get a license and attend some field day events with a club and you will learn all you need to know.
The tests are pretty minimal. The three levels these days are Technician, General, and Amateur Extra Class. None require morse code anymore. The differences are the bands (Frequencies) and modes you can transmit in, Extra having all bands/all modes. The perks for having an extra class are very, very small – a few more bits of each band to use.
I’m a volunteer examiner, meaning I help administer the tests. When I do so, and someone comes in to take the entry-level Technician test, and pass it (almost all do), I congratulate them and then tell them to take the General test booklet and go take it RIGHT NOW.
The theory, safety and operating portions of the two tests (Technician and General) are almost identical. The small difference is in the rules, and they are pretty much the differences between the two levels: To know which bands/freqs a tech can transmit on, you have to know the general bands/freqs.
Better than 95% of the people who take the general test under those circumstances that day pass. The test fee is for the day: One flat rate ($15 right now) gets you the chance to take all the tests today. There is no record kept anywhere of your attempt to pass the test, so no record of any failures. The only thing the FCC learns about is that you passed. It is not uncommon to have bright teens come in, put their $15 down, and leave with Extra tickets, if they studied for the Extra test (it does have more theory than the others).
This guy is a vet gun/ preparedness type blogger and worked during the NC event.
https://swiftsilentdeadly.com/working-through-a-major-disaster-helene/
Add 67′ or 132′ of wire to this unun from ebay and you will have a pretty good jack of all trades antenna.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/156438274202?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D777008%26algo%3DPERSONAL.TOPIC%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D274202%26meid%3Da62cd707bbe7497e8df77c0501dd7e3f%26pid%3D102069%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26itm%3D156438274202%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D4375194%26algv%3DRecentlyViewedItemsV2SignedOutMobile&_trksid=p4375194.c102069.m5481&_trkparms=parentrq%3A79f0b01b1920a626e7c66769ffffeebe%7Cpageci%3A5d6e8f97-878d-11ef-917d-72b776974d6b%7Ciid%3A1%7Cvlpname%3Avlp_homepage
The most simple to install, with great band coverage, is a multi-band end fed dipole. Generally no tuner required, capable of the full 100 watts of your Icom 7300.
Try one of these:
https://myantennas.com/wp/product/efhw-7510-2k-plus/
Commander:
Has your delay in fitting an antenna anything to do with your uncertainty how long you will be at this site?
It’s a lot of effort if you will be gone soon…
Ceejay
The future is unknown. Even if I were planning to no longer be where I am now, there is no guarantee that the move would come to fruition…plenty of things could happen to put those plans askew. So, might as well treat wherever I am as if it was where I was always going to be…because it might be.
IIRC, Commander Zero, you’re not yet a ham, so likely not transmitting on your 7300.
If that is the case, then all you need for an antenna to listen is a long wire – about ~60′ long is good. There are dedicated antenna wires you can get, if you happen to have some GI field phone wire (WD-1/TT) around that is sufficient for the task, close to ideal in fact.
You need an insulator at each end: Hams will use something like a ceramic or plastic ‘egg’ insulator, you can make do with a piece of plastic from say a sour cream or butter container. Cut two pieces out, put two holes in each, the end of the wire gets tied off on one, with some paracord to tie it up in a tree.
The other end of the wire, you need to tie off about 10-15′ from the end, to take the strain. Tie to another tree, the house, whatever with the paracord. Attach the stripped end of that wire to the antenna lug (the center pin on the antenna coax connector) on your radio, run a ground from the ground lug to ground. Turn on the radio and you’re done.
My go-everywhere mobile radio is a Yaesu 857, it travels with two spare antennas. One is a G5RV (check Amazon) the other a Hawaii End Fed https://www.earchi.org/proj_homebrew.html
I also have a ball mount for a whip and keep the 9′ whip with 4′ extension handy in the truck, to use when actually mobile, not parked.
The dirty little secret about HF comms is that there is no one antenna that is ‘best’, and most are ‘good enough’. I’ve loaded up a military bunk bed, a roof vent spinner, a piece of WD-1/TT wire tied to a chain link fence with a few sticks to keep it from touching, etc. I also have a mil-surp 1.5-50MHz log-periodic antenna on a 100′ mast with rotator. The log-periodic is directional, the wires tend to be less so (have two at right angles). Hams get into massive fights over antennas because the stakes are so low.
You are correct, transmitting is not what I’m after. What I was after was the ability to listen to as much of what was going on around me as possible.
Just a long wire then
I’ve always wondered about a higher wattage marine band radio, if they would work well on land. Would fed.gov really care about enforcing rules and regulations during a SHTF situation. Is the FCC currently running around Florida arresting people for using radios without a license?
The consensus seems to be that you shouldn’t use the marine freqs on land. The agencies that monitor those freqs specialize in Radio Direction Finding, and they don’t like misuse of their freqs.
Everyone who doesn’t want to go the legit route to comms just armwaves and points out that in TEOTWAWKI and WROL they won’t need a license. Or an emergency. While that may be, the times you’d want to use the radios are much more likely to fall short of complete anarchy, and if you need them, you need to know how and when to use them. And like all preps, you need practice with them.
There are lots of ways to use and learn about radios that don’t involve breaking the law at this time.
n
Output (watts) isn’t everything. It’s not even the main thing. All other things being equal, spending a dollar on a better antenna is worth 20 dollars spent on more power.
VHF (very high frequencies, considered to be 30 MHz or higher up to 300 Mhz) are line of sight – meaning they don’t bend well around the earth, and don’t penetrate ground at all. The terrain in (say) Tennessee or North Carolina is hills and hollows: a radio in a valley will be very hard pressed to talk to a radio in a valley that may only be a half-mile away, but with a hill in the way. There are ways to overcome this problem.
The most common way to overcome is through the use of repeaters – these are automated radios, that listen on one (input) frequency, and automatically, and usually immediately, repeat it on another frequency that everyone is listening to. Your radio switches to the input frequency when you press the talk switch/bar, and switches back when you let go. These repeaters are usually situated on top of mountains, so they are high already, then have very good, efficient antennas on towers. And, they usually transmit a lot of power (50-100 watts, vs 5 on your handheld). Since they are high, they reach a longer way than if they are low. In fact, I used to be able to reach Las Vegas, Nevada from west Los Angeles, Ca using a repeater on a 9,000′ mountain in the San Gabriel Mountains (Blue Ridge). Handy in pre-cellphone days.
The down side to repeaters is they’re expensive, they require some finesse to set up, the good sites to locate them are usually filled with other radios causing interference, etc.
The other method to get one hill over is using a high-frequency (3-30 MHz) radio, and a special kind of antenna and transmission system called NVIS (near vertical incidence skywave). The idea is that you use a lower frequency (2-4 Mhz is ideal, but requires a long antenna) and a long antenna, bent down to parallel the ground (but ideally a quarter-wavelength above it). The signal is radiated more or less straight up into space, hits an ionized layer around the earth and bounces almost straight back down. NVIS is usually good for a circle around 50-300 miles around your transmitter site, but requires skill, luck, the right antennas, and bigger, more power-hungry and more expensive HF radios and bigger antennas – usually, fixed location. It can be done with mobiles (when you see military vehicles with the antennas bent over flat they’re trying NVIS), but success requires the right frequencies, and luck.
And of course, none of the forms of radio communication are ‘secure’ in any way.
i know a lot of readers here are not into red dawn scenarios, but just fyi the russians invading ukraine were very effectively targeted by radio direction finding while using baofeng radios. they suffered from inadequate comms, so they switched to cell phones. those were easily targeted so they switched to baofengs. the enemy dropped missiles right on their heads every time they keyed the mike. when i was in bosnia, we got the bright idea to use grms walkies to talk to our guys on the flight line. we got an unpleasant visit from guys in black suits the next morning, told to never use those radios again, or else. i got the idea they weren’t joking. my commander was not amused.
I was an F4G Wild Weasel pilot when on active duty.
We had a saying: Radiate, and die. Even with 1970’s cold war tech, if you emitted a radio signal, we could find you and given provocation would kill you.
Since then the systems in aircraft have evolved to were the pilot and a computer do it all: The guy in back is superfluous. Drones can locate you, satellites can locate you, aircraft flying 100 miles away can locate you, ground stations can locate you, and you won’t know that you’re about to die until that tenth of a second after the missile hits before the blast front hits you.
I used to design some of that detection equip for our Uncle in the 80s. I know what those systems could do and can imagine what newer systems can do. Your mere living existence radiates in certain frequency bands. If you know about it, it’s probably already obsolete. If they truly want you, you’ll need God and luck to escape. Luckily, they’re usually too busy to bother with you – why else do you think web sites such as this still exist?
Chameleon light end fed is the way to go. I love mine.
https://chameleonantenna.com/shop-here/ols/products/cha-lefs-8010
KM4ABF
Hi hi, Roger. You realize you just outed yourself?
Don’t care. I’m on every list possible.
Amateur Extra (class) here. I also earned a Radio Telephone First Class (commercial) license way back in time, before they got converted to General radiotelephone operators. I got into ham, because of disaster comms and search and rescue, not the other way around.
Baofengs are horrible radios, just barely qualifying for the name. But, they are radios, and they are cheap enough at around $40 each (BTW, don’t believe ANY of the BS on Amazon, etc about this radio having 8W output, or that having 10, or whatever: Measured properly they will have around 4 watts output on UHF freqs, 5 on VHF, the laws of physics are not to be overcome). But, get some, and probably some FRS radios as well, and get the clamshell battery packs (that use AA batteries), and USB chargers.
As far as licensing, well…. It’s better to have a ham license for practice. In an actual disaster? Every part of the FCC rules I’ve seen covering actual radio operations (Commercial Radio Service, Amateur Radio Service, Aviation Radio Service, Maritime Radio Service) has an out clause: For example
FCC 97.405 Station in distress.
(a) No provision of these rules prevents the use by an amateur station in distress of any means at its disposal to attract attention, make known its condition and location, and obtain assistance.
So, in a true emergency, do what you need to do. And the way I look at it, if the FCC can send someone to give me a notice of violation, they can help me clear the roads or whatever
As far as licensing, well…. It’s better to have a ham license for practice. In an actual disaster?
“It’s better to take some classes and spend some time on the range with your gun before hand, but hey, when the bad guys are banging on your door, you can always unbox that pistol you bought 5 years ago, search for some ammo that you might have bought, load a mag, read the manual of arms, and then point the thing at the door and blast away….” said no one ever… So I wonder why we hear it about radios?
If it’s an emergency, and you need a radio to get help, then you NEED to be able to use it. Otherwise, why bother with radios at all?
We’re not talking about someone familiar with radio communications using frequencies or modes you normally aren’t allowed to use, we’re talking about picking up a box you’ve never touched before the need arose and somehow figuring it out? Just getting on a local repeater can be challenging if the radio doesn’t have the offset and pl tone already programmed.
Simplex on a national calling frequency? What’s that?
At the very least, people should do the equivalent of having a friend set up a pistol for them, load some mags, get a holster, familiarize with the safety and mag release, etc — then they can pick it up and point it and blast away.
Have someone program all your baofangs with the same freqs after having decided which ones are appropriate, print little channel cheat sheets and attach them to the radios, replace the antennas with something that actually works, and at least get a walk thru familiarization on how to operate them and which channels to use for what…
Or buy the equivalent of a revolver, one of the business radios from HD or online, that use murs or ‘colored star’ frequencies. You can pick that up, turn the knob to a channel and talk away. No one will be listening for your call, so you won’t be getting help that way, but you can talk to your group. And you can do it legally, while civilization is still standing, which is most of history and is the most likely future. And you get the benefit of actually using a radio to communicate when civilization is still standing.
I’m not a militant ham guy who would turn someone in for using a baofang on FRS because it’s not Part XX compliant, but there are guys like that. I’m just saying that like any tool you expect to use, you should be familiar with its safe and effective operation, and you should be knowledgeable enough to pick the right tool for the job you want to do.
Unless they are already set up, and baofengs and ham radios in general are definitely NOT, they are not just “pick it up and use it.”
Training, knowledge, skill practice – we apply those in every other area of our lives and prepping, the reluctance to do the same for radio and comms is bizarre and counter productive.
nick
Anyone have any exposure to this net based system Maybe not the panacea, but another comm tool.
https://meshtastic.org/docs/introduction/
Interesting, it looks like an open source attempt to do this
https://gotenna.com/
gotenna used to be a sorta new, untried consumer grade product that couldn’t figure out whose problem they were trying to solve. Looks like they figured it out.
n