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Having a plan in place for Communication in a disaster or survival situation is important to your preparations. This may be a plan for communicating with your family if you are away. It could entail group communications at a retreat or neighborhood watch scenario or it could be as simple as letting family members know where you are if you are forced to separate? Taking the time to plan your communications now can save someone’s life and make any other plans you have function more smoothly.
Communications also encompass staying aware of news and information. If you are in the middle of a natural weather event and you need to know what if anything else is coming your way or which parts of town are the most impacted, you will want to stay in touch with the outside world. If there are traffic snarls that are blocking your retreat route or rioters or vigilantes have cordoned off a section of town you need to go through, you need to know this well in advance of trying to lead your family through there and adjust your plans accordingly.

Know your neighbors

This has certainly been discussed at great length but it bears repeating. The simplest and closest forms of communication you have are the people who live right next to you. During hurricanes Sandy and Katrina, neighborhoods banded together quickly after both of these tragedies for support and protection. This is another reason to stay focused on your surroundings and practice good Situational Awareness. You as well as your neighbors should know who lives in the houses around you. They may know if one of your neighbors is on vacation and someone strange is lurking around their house. Neighbors can check on people who may be older or need special assistance when regular service isn’t possible.

It is highly likely that after a disaster you may not have the ability to call the police or paramedics to assist people who are injured. Your job in this case would be to join up with your neighbors to take care of the injured and help anyone who needed assistance. The power of the group will make you all much more successful at staying alive, fed and sheltered as much as possible.

Special Family Signals

If you are forced to leave your home for whatever reason and a member of your group isn’t able to leave with you a predetermined symbol comes in handy to pass the unspoken message of where you have gone. Some of you may recall in one of the Doomsday Prepper episodes, Johnny O had a secret communication plan for his family. I think in Johnny’s case there was a wooden bear on his front porch with a fish lying in its lap. His family was taught that if the fish was turned a different way or was not “normal” that was a signal for his family to immediately head to their bugout rendezvous location.

Having a similar signal like this could be beneficial for you. I would caution that the secret signal should be a little harder to accidentally trigger. In my case, it would be easy for one of the neighborhood kids to knock the fish over and I would come home and think everyone had left me. Less obvious signals can be devised that can alert family members to your status and what is to be done next.

Another aspect of this type of survival communication is simply leaving a detailed record or note for someone. If you are a backpacker and plan to go into the woods on a multi-day hike, it is always a good idea to leave a note with your plans and expected arrival date with two people. I would leave one note with a close friend or family member who would contact the police if you didn’t show up at the appointed time. I would also leave another note face down on the dash of my car. The information should let anyone who is looking for you, have a really strong idea of where to start looking.

Solar Powered/Hand Crank Radio

Ambient Weather WR-111B Emergency Solar Hand Crank AM/FM/NOAA Digital Radio

In any emergency situation, staying informed not only gives you information but it can be reassuring or even motivating to you and your family. I would recommend that everyone have at least one emergency or weather radio at any of your locations. I keep one stored with my emergency supplies and only have to walk into the other room to grab it out of its box. You do want a radio that is powered by batteries in case the power is out and a nice option is to have either a solar panel or hand crank to power the radio in case you don’t have batteries.

There are tons of options on radios but The Adventurer is currently the highest rated according to Amazon. It runs off batteries, crank or solar and has an optional USB port to plug your phones in when they run down. Additionally it has a light to shine around while you are listening to either weather/AM/FM or NOAA broadcasts.

 

Cell Phones

Cell phones are the first thing you would think to grab in an emergency scenario and actually, having a fully charged phone and spare battery are great contents of any Bug Out or Get Home Bag, but they might not be in use in a major catastrophe. If you remember 9/11 cell phone traffic was knocked offline. Even during the relatively minor earthquake in Virgina in 2011, cell phone service was interrupted. Imagine if a real catastrophe or earthquake happened.

This problem isn’t limited to cities either. If you are too far off the map, your cell reception may not be sufficient to make a call. For example, you can look at just AT&Ts coverage map and see that there are giant portions of the western US that are completely uncovered by AT&T’s towers. You don’t want to depend on your cell phone in an emergency.

Internet

Can the internet be useful for communications? Of course it can, but like cell phones I wouldn’t rely on that for my disaster plan. In most emergency situations there isn’t power. You could take another route and say that the communications on the internet may compromise you. There are ways to stay anonymous on the internet, but they do require some level of work and every day more systems are designed to snoop on you regardless of the safeguards you have in place. Now if your entire family is a bunch of hackers with backup power generators, have at it! The common person shouldn’t rely on this method in most disasters.

CB Radios

Cobra® 29 LTD BT CB Radio with Bluetooth

CB or Citizens Band radios have been around for a long time. I remember my father had one in his old Mercury Capri and we would turn it on every once in a while and listen to the truckers talk while we were on a drive. I would try to come up with a clever handle, but it usually just revolved around whoever my favorite TV show hero was at the time.

CB Radios generally have a range of 5-20 miles depending on the terrain. Each channel is a different frequency and channel 9 is the emergency channel. You can listen to channel 9 for news updates and stay in touch with friends or family well away from your home. Some models like the Cobra® 29 LTD BT even have Bluetooth now so you can take calls on your CB. You just need a CB and an antenna and you are in business. Installation is simple and you can talk to anyone who is within your range.

 

Scanners

PRO-164 1000-Channel Handheld Scanner

A great companion to a CB Radio is a scanner, sometimes called a Police scanner that randomly scans all of the radio frequency channels. It surfs for you and when it finds traffic, it will stay on that channel during the broadcast. Some scanners hold thousands of frequencies and you can use this to hear what emergency service personnel are saying. You can also hear news before it makes it to the TV. If the scanners are still working and your police department isn’t blocking the frequency somehow you can hear what is happening in other parts of your town and make plans to bugout if necessary.

Two-Way FRS radios

FRS Band Radios

Everyone who has ever been to WalMart has seen the FRS radios or walkie talkies. These are great on car trips when you want to stay in contact with another driver in a different vehicle. They are also good for camping trips when one group wants to separate from another group. They do have a much smaller range and this is highly impacted by line of sight. I think on the pair I bought, the range says “up to 23 miles”. Yeah, right! Maybe if you are standing the in middle of the desert and you can see the person 10 miles away. And you have a tail wind…

These radios are better than nothing, but the communication (as with CB’s) isn’t secure so don’t think you can purchase two of these and set up a foolproof command center at your bugout location. They would be great if your communication didn’t need to be secure though and most models now have sub channels so you can set your main frequency to channel 12 and your sub or “privacy” code to 110. This way, without a scanner someone would have to be dialed into the exact same frequency to hear you.

Military Surplus

TA-312/PT Military Telephone

Once again, one of my favorite options (for certain scenarios) is a good old field telephone (TA-312/PT). These are pretty simple. You have two phones and they are connected by a line. Communication line, it’s really just a two strand line. When you want to talk to someone you crank the arm and the other phone rings. I think you need two D batteries also to power them, but since this is really low voltage, they will last a long time. This is as secure as the phone line and may work at a retreat area with one phone out in an OP and the other inside the house as long as the line is buried.

Regardless of the method you choose (we have several) it is wise to think about different scenarios and the communication plan you would use to keep in contact with your family. What other ideas do you have for communicating with your group?

What about Short Wave or Ham Radio? Good question. I think Ham Radio is an excellent option, but it is a complicated topic with a higher entry cost, learning curve and commitment which means its worthy of its own post. I will be discussing Ham radio in the future.

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Having a plan in place for Communication in a disaster or survival situation is important to your preparations. This may be a plan for communicating with your family if you

NOAA Weather Radio allows for access to important weather information across the country 24 hours a day. The ability to tune in and monitor this information can be vital during emergency situations or outdoor ventures. Learn how to tune NOAA Weather Radio frequencies on your amateur radio and don’t be dependent on a special radio or programmed memory channel.

What Is NOAA Weather Radio?

NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR) is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting continuous weather information directly from the nearest local National Weather Service office.  The stations transmit vital weather information such as local forecasts, watches, and warnings all day, everyday.

This book offers real-life solutions for the average person. That’s where the power lies. Get you copy here.

The National Weather Service offices also integrate into the EAS system (Federal Emergency Alert System) and local authorities so other types of information such as Amber Alerts or Civil Emergency messages also get transmitted across the weather radio system.

Most have heard of  the Weather Alert Radios that sound an alarm for a tornado warning or severe weather alert for your area.  This is the network those radios monitor to trigger the audible alert.

Bottom line, when the power is out or cell phones don’t work, NOAA weather radio (just like ham radio) can still get the emergency message through.  Get information on severe weather warnings, tornado warnings, evacuations in your area and more.

Dedicated Radio Not Required

While a dedicated radio can bring you a visual or audible siren alarm in the middle of the night due to a weather alert, that type of radio is not required to monitor the NOAA Weather Radio signal.  In fact, it is only half the value.  The rest of the value in the system is that you can tune in any time during the day and get current weather information within a couple minutes.

It’s like the Weather Channel, but without cable.  And can be accessed on just about any radio that can receive in the 160 MHz spectrum.

Benefits to Tuning In vs Programming a Channel

There are a number of benefits to tuning in the NOAA Weather Radio signal versus programming it into a channel. Here are a few of the main ones that come to mind.

Save Memory Channels

Many chinese radios such as the Baofeng UV-5R or older model amateur radios have a limited number of channels.  Save these channels for programming repeaters or other simplex frequencies with dedicated tones, offsets, or other settings.  No reason to waste a memory on a receive only frequency that doesn’t change.

Don’t Mess with your Scan

Since the NOAA Weather Radio signal is transmitted on at all times and non stop, if programmed in to your memory incorrectly, it can cause your scan function to become inoperable in the field.

Free NOAA Weather Radio Channel Quick Guide

Worried you will forget the NOAA Weather Channels?  Download our free quick reference card.  It is formatted to print on Avery Business Card stock for quick tear out and compact storage (uses Avery Template 8371).  Or simply print on your favorite card stock and cut out with scissors.

Other self-sufficiency and preparedness solutions recommended for you:

The Lost Ways (The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us)

Survival MD (Knowledge to survive any medical crisis situation)

Backyard Liberty (Liberal’s hidden agenda: more than just your guns…)

Alive After the Fall (Build yourself the only unlimited water source you’ll ever need)

The Lost ways II (4 Important Forgotten Skills used by our Ancestors that can help you in any crisis)

The Patriot Privacy Kit (Secure your privacy in just 10 simple steps)

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NOAA Weather Radio allows for access to important weather information across the country 24 hours a day. The ability to tune in and monitor this information can be vital during

Remember the 80s? If you were a kid of the 80s like I was, you probably grew up blabbing to your friends over a walkie-talkie. If you were really cool, you had one that was disguised as a Pepsi bottle too. If you’re stewing at how young I am, I promise I had a string phone too.

Meanwhile, cell phones have become our main, if not only, communication devices because of their versatility, portability and ease of use. However, the problem with relying on them too heavily is that during an emergency, the likelihood of them failing can become a big concern.

If we think about contingencies and recognise the limitations of the devices we rely on so heavily these days, what can we use to fill that gap if the cell networks become overloaded? Enter the venerable radio.

Radio communication is an extensive subject and one that causes a lot of head scratching. I’m not claiming to be an expert, but I have been learning over the years and I’d like to share that experience with you today.

Here are 7 things I wish I knew about radio prepping before I started. And let’s thank Darryl for contributing.

1. How to get a License

We have all heard that if SHTF, no one is going to care if you have a license or not. There are two problems with this:

#1. Operating an amateur radio is a skill.

#2. Hams won’t talk to unlicensed operators.

Ham radio has much more power than other public radio service.

I have also heard that during an emergency, I won’t need a license. There is no such exception to FCC Part 97. Some misquote para. 97.403 and 97.405 as justification, but 97.403 makes it clear that the exception is for the immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property.

I am sorry, but hams are very snobby about their licenses. If they suspect that you aren’t licensed, they will dig until they find out. We have our ways.

Related: Radio Silence – Communication Without Electronics

2. FCC License Information Is Public

#1. This includes your address, so I recommend that you don’t use your SHTF address as your mailing address for your license. Many hams, including me, have the full FCC database download.

#2. Call signs are in one of ten call areas based upon where you live. Since call areas are fairly large, your call area isn’t a dead giveaway of your location, but it won’t hurt to have a vanity call with a different call area than where you live. Vanity calls are now free and aren’t hard to get. Of course, anyone that has the FCC database will know close to where you are at.

There are three classes of license: Technician, General, and Extra.

Techs have very limited HF privileges; General and Extra have quite a bit more. What HF privileges Techs have aren’t really useful during SHTF. So if you want to talk more than a few miles without the aid of a repeater, then you need a General class license.

3. Bands and Uses (Background for Other Important Information)

There are two main groups of ham bands: HF from 0 to 30 Mhz and VUHF+ from 30Mhz to microwave plus.

I won’t bore you with all the non-HF bands as there are many of them. For full details, see here.

4. VUHF(VHF and UHF) bands are mainly line of sight. This includes the following:

#1. 6 Meters 50-54 Mhz

This band is called the magic band as when conditions are right, its range is thousands of miles, but you can’t depend on it

#2. 2 Meters 144-148 Mhz (just above the FM broadcast band and below the public service VHF band)

This is the heavy lifting band of amateur radio. Most amateur traffic is on this band. Very few people reading this won’t be within the range of a 2-meter repeater. A repeater is ham speak for a station that receives on one frequency and transmits on another frequency to extend the range to tens or hundreds of miles. However, don’t count on repeaters being up after TSHTF.

#3. 1.25 Meter 222.0-225.0 Mhz (This isn’t used much, and not a lot of radios and repeaters can transmit on this band. This would be a good band for near private comms.)

#4. 70 Centimeter 420-450 Mhz (note: There is as much bandwidth on this single band as there is in the entire HF section (not just ham HF). This is also close to FRM/GMRS/.)

Related: The Keys To Effective Prepper Communication

5. HF going from the bottom to the top (Again, I am omitting some of the non-useful bands):

(160-40 Meters will “get longer” during the night, which means it will skip over closer stations and reach greater distances. 20-10 Meters will skip or shut down at times.)

#1. 160 Meters 1.8-2.0 Mhz (regional area) (just above AM broadcast band)

This is a hard band because it takes a very long antenna; therefore, it isn’t heavily used.

It is mainly a nighttime band when it can reach thousands of miles if conditions are right and hundreds of miles during normal conditions. It is mainly used in winter when thunderstorms are at a minimum as the lighting causes interference, called QRN in ham speak.

#2. 80 Meters 3.5-4.0 Mhz (regional area)

This is kind of a hard band, but there are lots of low-cost wire antennas that will get the job done because the length that is required is only to have the 160-meter antenna.

This is the ideal band for preppers to communicate for a few hundred miles because it is easy to bounce it off the sky. More on that later.

#3. 40 Meters 7.0-7.3 Mhz (regional area)

This is another good band for preppers. It’s mainly a nighttime band, but it is usable during daytime for shorter distances.

#4. 20 (14.0-14.35 Mhz, 17(18.068-18.168), 15(21.0-21.45), 12(24.89-24.99 Mhz), and 10 Meters (28.0-29.7 Mhz)

I have lumped these bands together because they are similar in propagation, which is mainly daylight. Twenty meters is the bread and butter band. It is open the longest, and everyone flocks to it.

Twelve and 10 meters are really only open during maximum sunspot cycles.

6. Radio Transmissions Are Not Anonymous!

This is something most people don’t think about. When you press that transmit button, you are sending up a flare for miles (maybe hundreds of miles) saying, “Here I am.” This is done with Radio Direction Finding (RDF), which hams call fox hunting, and they do it for sport.

From the time the SHTF until people start to get hungry and gangs form, there will be a grace period when you can transmit without a lot of concern. However, at some point, the zombie gangs will learn to hunt foxes. It isn’t hard to learn either.

Since the gangs will be looking for low hanging fruit, they will most likely hunt in this order:

#1. CB. They are cheap and powerful. They are the prepper’s go-to radio.

#2. GRMS, FRS, MURS, etc. Lots of FRSs but limit range means they have to be close to hunt. GRMS has more power and therefore greater range. Lots of overlapping channels.

#3. Public service VUHF, HAM VHF

#4. Ham UHF 30 Mhz is a lot of bandwidth to scan through.

#5. Ham HF is hard, so most scanners don’t go below about 26 Mhz.

If you want to communicate with others, you will need to know how to take countermeasures to prevent being hunted. Most of these countermeasures only apply to ham radios. None are foolproof.

Related Prepping 101 – Communication Options

7. Countermeasures

All

  • Keep transmissions short.
  • Rotate frequencies.
  • Use code words for locations.
  • Night time is safer, but that is relative.
  • Set up a hiding cross band repeater as far away from your location as possible. This will extend your range, and if it goes down, then you know there are hunters in the area.
  • Use stealth. Wire antennas are hard to see.

VUHF

  • Avoid channelized radio services. (i.e., CB, FRS, GMRS, MURS, etc.) CBs are the worst!
  • Transmit and receive on different frequencies.
  • Use amateur satellite with directional.
  • Use odd frequencies.
  • Make up your own call signs when not communicating with hams.

HF

HF will be the last to be hunted because most of the signals that can be picked up will be too far away to raid. I don’t think they will ever be hunted, but I am not going to bet my life on it.

  • Use digital modes (PSK-31 may be the best). Lots of signals sound like noise, and it takes good equipment to pick out a DF individual.
  • Use NVIS antennas for 80 and 40 meters. With NVIS, most of the signal goes straight up then bounces down in all directions.

On a different note, here’s some other self-sufficiency and preparedness solutions recommended for you:

The Lost Ways (The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us)
Survival MD (Knowledge to survive any medical crisis situation)
Backyard Liberty (Liberal’s hidden agenda: more than just your guns…)
Alive After the Fall (Build yourself the only unlimited water source you’ll ever need)
The Lost ways II (4 Important Forgotten Skills used by our Ancestors that can help you in any crisis)
The Patriot Privacy Kit (Secure your privacy in just 10 simple steps)

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The problem with relying on your phone too heavily is that during an emergency, the likelihood of them failing can become a big concern.

There’s a very old and astute adage by George Santayana stating: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.

How many times in the past have people condemned or criticized people that they didn’t understand for their beliefs or practices?

Let’s quickly look at just a few examples of what I mean:

In the colonial days predating our United States of America, there were women who were practiced healers, who used various extracts and potions made from various natural sources (plants and animals) to heal sick and injured people. The masses of ignorant people around them were quick to condemn what they themselves could not comprehend or understand, and called these early naturopaths ‘Witches’ and prompted rallied to have them burned at the stake.

Not more than 20-30 years ago, our so-called ‘modern’ medical institutes condemned acupuncture as hokum, and those who practiced it were labeled with many derogatory terms. Of course as of late, the masses have come to embrace the value of that ancient medical discipline.

In the movie ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’, when the extra-terrestrial being emerged from his space ship, what did the ignorant masses do? Their first reaction was to kill what they couldn’t comprehend or understand. In reality, there are too many of those kind of people, some of whom are in places of power and or have the ability to influence many others.

Sadly, it seems that even today, we are still surrounded by people who are quite willing to demonize and condemn anything or anyone that they cannot understand, even if it is a function of their own lack of knowledge or ability. And possibly worst of all, some people are in fact intimidated by knowledge, and will openly or secretly lash-out against it.

I’m sure that some readers are already thinking that this is certainly the case with the perception of ‘Preppers’ by a lot of people, and I would have to agree, but that is not necessarily the focus of this article.

In the early 1900’s. Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was working on an amazing project that would-have allowed people and households to capture useful amounts of energy from the empty space around them without using any wires. I am not referring to solar, wind or hydroelectric power. I am talking about energy derived from electromagnetic radiation at radio frequencies (RF energy).

Back in Tesla’s day, most people laughed and thought of his idea as ‘crazy’ and scoffed at the concept calling it insane. Not to mention that such a revolutionary idea was an affront to the wealthy industrialists who were mining the copper that would be used for wiring to electrify the nations of the world. Of course today, the long-distance high-voltage transmission cables that span the north American continent are the Achilles-heel of the national electrical grid, given their vulnerability to Geomagnetic storming.

Of course, there were a few people who realized the genius of Tesla’s ideas and inventions and realized he had knowledge of things well-beyond the comprehension of most people.

And even today, there are many people who still don’t realize that you can transmit and harvest electromagnetic radiation (not solar) and that RF energy is all around us and passing through most structures as well as our bodies on a 27/7 basis.

Here is a very enlightening video that makes this particular point clearly:

As we now clearly see; there is a lot of electromagnetic energy that exists all-around us and which happens to also be passing through our bodies, our organs and our brains 24/7.

A considerable amount of that energy is produced by man-made devices and systems, which have been introduced into our environment relatively recently in terms of the historical timelines related to the evolution of biologic systems. As a result, scientists are playing a desperate game of catch-up in their attempts to assess the effects of the myriad number of frequencies of electromagnetic/RF radiation that are being continuously transmitted through the tissues and cells of our bodies and those of all the organisms around us. This is a daunting task, given that there are likely hundreds of thousands of potential cellular and chemical structures in the organic life-forms on earth, each potentially having a unique resonant frequency (the exact frequency that would stimulate a potential adverse effect).

Bioelectromagnetism is the field of study that relates to the affects and interactions between biologic organisms and electromagnetic fields. It is science-fact that electromagnetic fields can induce various effects in animals and humans, including changes in behavior. The experts in this field are just beginning to understand and realize some of the effects that are part of a much bigger picture.

There are relatively very few people who are cognizant of the foregoing situation, and who may be taking certain precautionary measures to protect themselves. Such behavior is logical and is obviously based upon solid scientific information, not unlike an x-ray technician who wears a lead apron, or places a lead blanket on a patient before giving an x-ray. (Note: Even though I am intrigued by the science, I have not started wearing any form of protection)

There are also some people who are cognizant of these same phenomena but are taking a less measured approach in prophylaxis, and hoping for the best. However as we have seen historically, hoping for the best doesn’t always pay-off.

Occasionally, you might actually see one of the people who are aware of the potential risks associated with the increased levels of man-made RF in our intimate living space and environment. These people are sometimes called the ’tin-hat’ people. Most of them are actually using metal shielding materials other than tin, which is usually camouflaged so that they remain ’stylish’ in public, where the protective shielding remains unseen by casual observers.

I have heard (and read) people make jokes about ’tin hats’ and the people who wear them. I would caution such people against making any such jokes; the people wearing the ‘tin hats’ may have the last laugh! This is the same paradigm with Preppers who are also sometimes at the brunt of many jokes, and who may also have the last laugh, so to speak.

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There’s a very old and astute adage by George Santayana stating: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. How many times in the past have people condemned