Communication

I'm currently building my BOB and SHTF packs for my wife, myself and house. However one thing that I noticed is that all this is great if we're together, she's not exactly "into" teh survial stuff, she understands why and supports me, but I would most definetly want to be with her if something were to happen.

SO...here's my question, if soemthing major were to happen and cell phone towers were down how would you contact your loved ones? My father works for the governemtn and post 9-11 they all carry skytel pagers, no worries if a tower or building goes down, it's tied to a satellite. They are teh two=way pagers that you can send messages back adn forth on. I'm seriously thinking about getting one for each of us. It would be invaluable if something were to happen and we were both at work, in completely different cities, we could meet somewhere or dicuss what was going on.

What are some of your plans, ideas or equipment for something like this?

Thanks,

Well don't you still need a phone to dial skytel number to page somebody? You did mention different cities so maybe the pager idea will work. But if two cities are on the same phone network...

There is no right answer for communication solution. You can try talking her into a ham radio like a vx-2r from yaesu and ham experts here will give you pointers on how to go about it. Keep the cellphones, maybe invest in walkie talkies.

IMHO one of the most important factors in emergency preparedness is planning. I don't know where you live but pre-planning meeting points and destinations (should there be an event) may be an essential part of your bug-out-plan.

Get together, study a map, divide into quadrants or regions and identify different meeting points within these sectors. Make concentric circles on the map; it may be wise to have several options as one travels away from a city. Maps are cheap, make up one these maps for your home and each vehicle.

This planning should take place whether you have communications or not. Without planning, these cool tools we all study with such interest, could be of no use whatsoever. Wouldn't that be a shame.......

Amateur radio (HAM) license.

I'm refering to 2 way pagers, they have a keyboard and you can send messages directly to and from the pager itself, text mssging at its best!!!

Most of the large paging networks use a sat in their system, but the pager does not talk directly to it, nor does it directly receive from it. You transmit and receive via ground based equipment, that in turn is relayed up to the sat and then back down.

The reason that Skytel is so popular is that all of the other paging providers were on the same bird in 2000, when that bird died. Paging service went away for the large carriers (except Skytel, which was using a different bird). They had a backup bird, but a tech needed to go to each ground site and move the dish to see the new bird. So, it took a couple of days before service was restored.

Your text messages outbound may go through the cellular network, or a ground-based data network, before they get to the bird for transmittal back down to the paging network. The advantage to two-way pagers is that the network will continue to try to get the message through (usually) until it gets a confirmation from the receiving unit. One-way paging does not (and cannot).

Communications redundancy is no different than knowing multiple ways to start a fire, or carrying more than one blade. Consider these options:

2-way pagers (pager to pager transmissions)
Cell phone w/ text message capabilities
E-mail to pagers or cell phones
E-mail to free e-mail account (like Yahoo or G-mail)
Changing your voice mail greeting after an incident (lets people know that you are OK, and may let loved ones know where you are going. For example: "Hi, this is James, and yes, I did survive the earthquake, but the house did not. I am going to location number four.")
Ham Radio
Sat phone.
Out-of-area contact person to leave messages with.
Local place to leave messages.

Hope that this helps.

I have a skytel pager but it must not be satalite because reception is very spotty, I've ask my office many times if they can just pay part of my cell phone bill since I miss so many pages.
Sept 11, 2001 so far has been the only day my verizon cell phone has been unable to call and even then it was a fast busy as all the circuits were tied up.
Text messaging was the most reliable on that day since it takes very little bandwidth to get the message through so after a few retries the messages would squeeze through. We went and upgraded phones shortly afterward to get text messaging capability so its there if we need it. Other text services such as blackberry were still working as well.
Cell phone and land line companies have high uptime SLA's they must meet and even have mobile generator trucks which will drive around to each tower and charge the batteries as part of their DR plans.

Amateur radio is the way to go. Some details...

You will have to pass a written test to get your technician license. The fee for the test is under $20, and expect to spend around $20 or so for a study book (you and your wife can share).

About the equipment. A technician license will allow you to use 50MHz and up. 2M (two meters) is your best choice. Get a mobile radio. These mount in your car, and will transmit at around 50 to 60 Watts or so (depends on model). With two of these, you should be able to talk to each other from 20 miles or so (very rough ball-park figure). Of course, this depends on your terrain. Going from mountain-top to mountain--top, you may get 50 miles. From one valley to another, you may get 5 miles. It all depends on where you live.

This assumes that you are talking directly to your wife. This has the advantage of not needing anything else. But you can extend your range a LOT using a repeater. Instead of transmitting to your wife, you would transmit to the repeater, which "repeats" the signal at a higher power. Repeaters usually also have a better antenna, which is mounted on a high tower for better reception. It is not that uncommon to be 60 miles and be able to use a repeater. The only problem is that in an emergency, you might not be able to depend on the repeater. They can loose power (but many have emergency power), or they can be damaged by whatever the problem is (especially weather).

Also, keep in mind that HTs (walkie-talkies) have VERY limited power and rather poor antennas. You can easily work a repeater with one from twenty miles away (depending upon terrain), but going from HT to HT, you will get about the sam range as a good GMRS radio. I would expect five miles at the most. I have had problems talking from one end Disney MGM Studios to the other end using a 5W HT.

If you want to spend a lot of money, you can make HTs more usable. You can get a dual-band mobile unit with cross-band repeat. Your HT can talk on the 440MHz band, which talks to your mobile unit. Your mobile can act as a repeater, and transmit on the 2M band at the full 50 watts. This means that you can have the full 2M range, but you are still limited to being a couple of miles from your car. This will also kill you battery unless you rig up a 2nd battery just fro the radio.

*** EDIT ***
There are several models of 2M mobile radios available in the $160 to $180 range. Expect to spend around $50 or so for an antenna. Throw in some misc. hardware, wire, and cable. So it would take around $250 or so per vehicle, plus a few hours of sweat. You will also need to electrical tools for the installation. A VHF SWR meter is around $35, and a basic multimeter can be had for $20. A soldering iron for $10 may help, too. This assumes that you have access to the usual drill, pliers, screwdrivers, etc. You could likely find a couple of people eager to help give advice on the installation at your local amateur radio club.

For emergency communications, you don't need to have any license, just the right equipment. We've discussed this before, and ultimately, the most primitive seems to be the most reliable, although conversely the most difficult to use.

Home brew QRP (low power HF CW communications in this case) is going to be the cheapest, most reliable (assuming the equipment you buy/build is decent quality), and have the greatest effective range of communication, provided you take the time to do your part. It is like anything else; you can start a fire with a bic lighter, unless the flint wears out, or you run out of butane. You can likewise start a fire rubbing two sticks together, if you learn how to do it right. QRP HF CW can be had for less than $50, can reach over the horizon (five watts QRP CW will go around the world if done right), and can be deployed in rf environments not suited to other forms of communication. It is the fall back for the government when other forms of wireless comms fail. It requires that you learn morse code, have a working knowledge of rf electronics, and think a little about what you are trying to do before you actually start keying the radio.

In a SHTF situation, I could deploy my QRP rig when the cell phone, the pager, the wireless notebook, and even the land line phone have quit working. Sadly, I will have to converse with someone other than my loved ones, as I've failed to impress on them the value of learning such capabilities.

It is kinda neat to set up in the woods with the longwire slung up in the nearest big fir tree, the headphones on, keying the little switch on the project box with 4 AAs stuffed in it, then listening for the Aussie on the other end respond back.

And having taken the time to learn Morse Code, you can also communicate by blinking light, signal mirror, whistle, tapping on a building pipe, etc. It may be slow, but it works when nothing else does.

Right on!!!

I remember back in Crypto school, we used to drive thru the base tapping out code to each other on our horns, sending rendevous info back and forth. Used to drive the gate guards nuts.

.... . ....

When I see another car with a ham plate, I usually send Hi ( .... ..)

--... ...--
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kg2v

73 works too.

I have a couple cheap frs radios in my car but wouldn't think of edc'ing them. They sometimes come in handy for car caravan etc. In normal situations, cell phones do the job and are less nerdy.