A good friend lives about 12 miles away from me, and we have been discussing options for communications in the event of an emergency/disaster situation.
Assuming that phones were not available due to power outages or "all circuits busy" interruptions; and communication through the Internet were not available ... the only possibility I can seem to come up with to keep our communications in tact would be Single Sideband CB radio.

One of the few SSB radios that seems to be on the market now, is the Cobra 148GTL. It seems that radio provides 12 Watts of transmission power in the SSB mode. I would guess that level of power would typically cover the distance that I would need for the scenario mentioned above.(?)
I am just starting to research all of this; so any information folks can share about Single Sideband CB, it's range, radio suggestions, etc... will be greatly appreciated.

Short of a major steel or stone structure directly between you, and assuming both of you have outside tower antennas, you should be able to talk 12 miles easy.

At one time, I was really big into CB, shortwave and such, and we had a decent group around here, but once local internet access came to town, it died off.

Here's an old photo from 1993 of my "station", with CB's (base & handheld, scanners and TV and shortwave.)
I even had a marine battery setup to run everything but the computer if the power went out.



I kinda miss my CB days.

Ah the joys of CB radio, now that I'm a ham I really enjoy getting on the radio and "rag chewing"(talking for those of you non-ham types). We use FRS freqs for neighborhood to neighborhood comms,the nearest neighborhood is approx 1 mile from mine.

A CB with SSB will give you better range than the more common AM CB radios, and given decent antennas on both ends, and decent topology between you, 12 miles is reasonable.

A much better option would be to consider investing some time and getting your ham ticket. You'd have a wealth of communications options from local to worldwide. There is a learning curve, but, it's a lot easier now that they have eliminated the morse code requirement.

You can find good info on Amateur Radio at www.arrl.org

The Cobra is a decent radio as CB's go. My first radio as a kid was a Cobra 138. Still, once you get a taste of having many different bands and modes on the amateur bands, you'll find that the CB is not a very reliable communications service for anything but very short haul use. (Unless of course, we're at the peak of a sunspot cycle, and you're running a big linear amp with it, then you could talk skip worldwide. With an Amateur ticket, you could do that legally on many bands with a modest setup.)

Whatever you choose, it's good that you're thinking about communications with friendlies during difficult scenarios.

73's, N1GFS

If you are near, or on the water, at all you might consider marine band radios (vhf, hfssb, mfssb).


I am not sure what licenses or restrictions apply to them where you are.
I know that if you are on the water in Canada they want you to have marine vhf, so the license is very easy to get and I knew several people who relied on them for emergency use along the BC coast.This was even if they were on the beach.
Marine VHF gives you the marine weather too.

I don't think you even need a license in the States unless you travel into foreign waters. Not sure, but it is easy to check.

If you look through the Icom site you might get some ideas.
http://www.icomamerica.com/default.aspx
Some of the higher end Icom land mobile sets include voice scrambling, if that is of any interest to you.

There are a lot of other options that might even include HAM.

I'd also recommend a ham license. Not only can you communicate over such a distance, but you can also communicate with other hams who might be even further away. Of course, there will always be lots of other CBers to talk to too.

The big factors affecting range capability are the antenna and the terrain. Power is almost a secondary concern. As an example, I recently had a conversation with someone on VHF (about 146 MHz) over a distance of 20 km (about 12 miles). I was using a 1 Watt transmitter, *but* I was 100 metres (about 300') up a hillside. The other guy was on the flat. From the same location I can hit a repeater 80 km (50 miles) away.

I think your idea to use radio when the phones are out is a good one, but it's one of those things that you just have to try, since the specific location of yourself and your friend is going to dictate how best to do it. Both CB and ham radio are hobbies, so you can have fun figuring it out before you need to rely on it.

73,

A

I also endorse the suggestion to look into getting a ham ticket.
Some knowlege about radios is helpful so you can understand why 12w SSB might not do the job.

Antennas are extremely important. Moreso than raw power.
And if there's a mountain between the two ends of that 12 miles- the problem gets a lot harder.

Of course not everyone wants to learn about radio. Firestarters might be more fun (until you learn about charging up electrolytic capacitors and tossing them to a buddy :-)

That can't be stressed enough. The antenna system will make or break a radio setup.

Back in my business/ham radio days, I had enough equipment at hand to converse in just about every mode known to man, on any frequency from below 1Mhz to 300 GHz and beyond, from less than 1 watt to literally several kilowatts, from sea level to 14,000 feet. I've seen it all, done it all, and fully satisfied my appetite for playing with radio equipment.

Nowadays all I have is this crazy dingleberry pearl, which the company pays for, and a couple FRS radios. I no longer have a land line, although my internet service at home is wireless and is supplied by a WI-Max type interface, so no cables there either. I suppose if something went wrong and cell service and phone lines and internet service all went away I would be unable to communicate outside of my immediate area. In that case, I will head for the nearest Red Cross facility and get with the ERS crowd there and see if there's anyone left in the world elsewhere to talk to. Might be handy if I need to get ahold of the girls if the SHTF.

Back before internet, cell phones and satelite phones, HAM operators were my lifeline home when I was deployed. They were awesome and very helpful. For all those who used to do that, thanks.

It is a good system, and I assume would still work. Are there still networks out there? What frequencies would be best in an emergency? What is the most accessible and affordable system out there?

I once had a commo guy on my team who bet me he could have me on the phone with my wife from where we were (in the remote mountains of Peru) and with what he had (ANPRC-70 radio with kit). I was talking to her through a HAM operator two blocks from my house within 15 minutes!

I have been looking at what comms to have in worst case, and I think HAM is probably the most reliable and survivable. I would like to explore this option.

There are still MARS (Military Affiliated Radio Service) operators out there for every branch of the service, although many of them are using digital modes more than voice now. They are Ham operators that volunteer to carry message traffic from our deployed servicemen/women and get it back to loved ones at home. http://www.ares.org/groups/mars/index.htm




When everything else fails, the Amateur service will still be around, it's not as popular as it once was, with the readily available commercial/public comm's now available. Most of them, however, rely heavily on an internet, satellite, and cellular infrastructure that isn't as reliable as you might think. Think of what cell and landline coverage was like after Katrina. Even the local EMS teams had Ham operators sitting in their buildings with gear to communicate anywhere beyond their town in some cases because all the trunked nets were down.

There are 2 services in the Amateur radio community that might be relevant for you, ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services) http://www.ares.org/main.htm , and RACES (Radio Amateur Emergency Services) that are corps of Hams that volunteer to work with state and local EMS teams during emergencies. RACES is more restricted to stations licensed to work with local civil defense org's. You might want to find a local ARES group and see how you can get involved. Even without getting formally involved, just having your license means you'll have many forms of communication available that doesn't rely on the public infrastructure.

In US waters, you don't need a license for Marine VHF gear. However, if you are not actually in a boat, on the water, you are supposed to have a station license, and it's only for communication to marine operators. For example, a Marina might have a station license to talk to boats looking to reserve a slip or request a launch pick up. The FCC doesn't allow, legally anyway, the use of Marine VHF for land based comm's. The band they are on has characteristics similar to the 2 Meter amateur VHF band, so it would be good for local point to point comm's, but, it's not really intended for that.
I guess I'm back my original suggestion...that many have echoed, considered getting your ham license

(to Bear_Claw_Chris_Lapp) It looks like you had a cool setup there in 1993, with your "station". That looks like some serious flexibility for your coms!

(to everyone) I was a little surprised to see how many responders to this thread had various radio setups in the past (from CB through HAM), but seem to have totally "ditched" that gear now.
Do some of you still have that gear stored for a "just in case" backup? Or, did you feel that type of gear became worthless to you with the advent of newer technologies (cell, internet, etc..)?

As always, you all have provided me with some good information already, and given me many things to think about and places to start.
My initial goal of communicating over the 12 mile distance to a friends house, involves mostly flat terrain. There would primarily be a few hills and some trees and houses between us; but no major mountains, valleys, or steel buildings.

Right now, I think we might opt for the Cobra 148GTL radios and try the Single Sideband CB first. Those radios are inexpensive enough (about $150 or less, each), and seem to have a good chance of working for what we need.
I will also investigate the HAM radio community too; as that might be what I need if I decide I want more range or options in radio communications.

Any tips on Antennae setups for the CB radio?
A setup that could easily be changed from fixed location (home) to mobile (car/truck) would seem to be ideal?

Well, fortunately CB (and Amateur) is still a popular hobby so you can find a bunch of accessories to help you set things up the way you want. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the CB license (such as it is) effectively prevents you from modifying or building your own radio gear, which is probably the most significant difference to Amateur radio (plus the extra frequencies that hams can use).

What I'm saying is that if you are going for CB you should be able to find fixed and mobile antennas for the house and car which you can plug your Cobra into.

According to this vendor the Cobra comes with a mobile mounting bracket:

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/cb_radio/4634.html

I take this to mean you could fix the bracket to your car and slide the radio into it, so you could move the radio between house and car. In the house you can put an antenna up on the eaves with a wire running back to a desk inside. You will need some sort of power supply (about 3A @ 13.8V) on the desk too. In the car you'd clamp an antenna mount somewhere on the vehicle (or drill a hole (gasp!)) and run the wire to the same place the mounting bracket is. From there you'd pick up a connection to the vehicle power supply too (and 3A is low enough that you can draw it from the cigarette lighter socket). When you move the radio between house and car you have to disconnect power and antenna, then reconnect.

I don't want to make this sound too easy, since it's highly dependent on what space is available in your car and house, but really it's not too hard. The radio is a "black-box" with a power cable and an antenna cable.

A ham radio installation is much the same, except that you have a myriad more choices about which radio, which band, which antenna, what power level etc. etc.

This is my simplistic view of the situation. I know nothing about this model of radio (or about CB usage in the USA, or about the worthiness of Universal Radio), but one thing I will say is that you will need an antenna- Universal Radio do not state that one is included with this radio.

73,

A

I had fun with that stuff, I had 3 towers on the south end of the house, and could really hear some fun stuff.

I still have a handheld police scanner, and one mobile CB that is setup to quick plug into a cigarette lighter in a car.

My Kenwood radio was $150.00 and $12.00 for the ticket, and my antenna is police surplus ($25.00), I have a lighter plug on the end to go from car to house and back again, my antenna is mag mount, When I'm working late I usually get out my FT-847 Earth Station just to listen. My DW says we need to get a "bigger" antenna for the outside of the house (I'm tearing up just thinking about it)

73 Mike
kd7fqd

Let me toss in one more recco for going with a Ham radio setup. You and your friend could study and take the test together, cost is $14.00 for a technician's class license I think. There are no longer any morse code requirements, if you know Ohm's law and study up on some of the most basic radio operations you can pass the test. You could then pick up some used mobile 2meter and or 70cm band radios for about what you'd pay for the CB's, alternatively you could grab a couple of new HT's, (walkie-talkies) for about the same amount. Add a couple of antennas and a power supply and you're golden.

The problem with the CB's is that you will never get as clear a signal on them as you will on the Ham bands, trust me, I was a serious CB radio guy a million years ago and I'm now a Ham operator, the difference is night and day. In addition, once you get the Ham setups, there's nothing stopping you from putting it your vehicle and using it even more. There are 2m and 70cm band repeaters that will allow you to easily talk 50-100+ miles or more if they're linked together.

I still have a CB in my car, it's fine for very short distance work and for traffic reports, I have the NOAA weather bands on mine so I can easily tune in for weather reports as well but the mobile Ham radio works so much better I seldom even turn the CB on unless I'm on a road trip.

Whatever you decide, get an SWR meter and tune your antennas properly, you'll be amazed at the difference between a properly tuned antenna and an improperly tuned one, that applies to the CB as well as a Ham radio.

If you do go the CB route, save yourself some money and trouble and don't bother with any allegedly "tuned" or "tweaked" radios, all you'll end up with in most cases is a seriously distorted signal.

JohnE

300 Ghz!

Thats fantastic! (Or was it a typo?)

Oh, I just assumed he was referring to infrared transmissions as beyond 300Ghz.
Likely trying to transmit by bouncing lasers off the moon.


EDIT:
Hi Lon, the link Be_Prepared posted to the American Radio Relay League is a very good one.
http://www.arrl.org/
ARRL is the grandaddy of all Amateur Radio organizations in North America.
If you want to know anything about personal radio communications they are the people to go to.

Yep, actually, I think the micro links topped out at about 270 GHz. But you're right, we did some point to point telemetry using collimated IR systems. The really wild stuff was using ultrasonic signals at 530 Khz amplitude modulated at 250 yards.

Er, OK?
Now I am wondering and guessing.
530 Khz is a standard South American AM transmission frequency right?
Good transmission characteristics day or night, yet still in the lower end of a band heavily used for "talk radio" stations, right?
250 yards?
point to point telemetry?

It sounds like an ideal way to measure the way the windows in an office building vibrate.

Check 530 Khz ultrasonic, not radio. No cross talk, very directional.

And yes, some of the IR telemetry was window vibrations. In fact, we had to site acquire using a red beam to before we could switch. You gotta switch because the bright red dot is a giveaway.