Anyone steer me in the direction of good survival radio transceiver out there. Heard there was civilian versions of the an/prc 90 and 112, but haven't found anything.

What are you looking for?

GMRS? Try looking at the Icom F21GM. It also has an optional AA battery pack (BP-208).

HAM? Yaesu, Icom and Kenwood all are pretty popular. You might try http://www.eham.net/reviews.

-john

Looked at them and they are probably the best bet, but am trying to find the civilian versions of the PRC-90 and if one exists, the PRC-112.

I'm curious, the PRC-90 is a military only radio, it doesn't work on the civilian emergency aviation band, as such it would be pretty much useless to the average person, not to mention illegal to transmit with. The PRC-112 is also a military SAR radio, not suited or meant to be used by civilians. I've never heard or seen a "civilian version" of either one of those radios.

What exactly are you looking for? A beacon, a transceiver?

Civilian emergency frequency is 121.5, but I understand this is being phased out for 406.025 MHz for satellite rescue beacons.

I see a PRC-90 on eBay for 45 bucks without some parts.

As another asked, what the heck are your going to use it for?

The PRC-90 uses 282.8 and 243.9, the 243.0 is the primary emergency (military) frequency. Not sure, seem to remember the PRC112 uses the same plus another and an ID signal, unique to a specific radio/aircrewman.

The think your only option is a civilian amatuer radio or a PLB.

Actually, this freq is monitored by aircraft/airliners continuously. Homeland Security rules tell pilots that if they have a second radio, one should always be tuned there so that the interceptors can talk to them before shooting them down for being in the wrong airspace.... (worst case).

The freq also gets used for finding flights who've gotten "lost" on the wrong radio channels to help them get back in touch with air traffic control. Happens at least daily over Denver.

And it's the universal aviation mayday freq.

But it is no longer monitored by satellites looking for distress beacons from aircraft.

So- 121.5 is still a valid aeronautical distress frequency. And there are many handheld aviation VHF transceivers on the market.

But the OP hasn't yet described what he's trying to accomplish with a "survival radio."


I have a LOT of radios and I don't know what is meant by the term.

What I have is a Yaesu VX-7R. Its a compact, weather resistant, handheld HAM radio. It will not transmit on either GMRS or FRS bands. However, it will receive on nearly any band including normal AM and FM, shortwave, VHF and UHF TV and VHF aviation bands. It also has preset weather stations. Its a tri-band HAM radio, so I can transmit on 70cm, 2 meter and 6 meter amateur radio bands. Its approximately 4.5"x3"x1.5" with a 9" antenna. Its shock resistant and rated for thirty minutes of immersion at three feet. MSRP $369.00, although I bought mine for around $300 about three years ago. I'm not suggesting its what you need or want, but its portable, rugged and versatile. If you're looking for a "survival" radio, something along these lines is what you probably want. You do need an amateur radio license. My Ham license cost some where around $20 for testing and license and took a night a week for a couple of weeks.

I have the same radio, the VX-7R. Although not type accepted as an FRS or GMRS radio, it will actually cover those with a readily available modification (in an emergency). I don't encourage that of course but, the radio is designed to transmit on a lot more than what is open on the US version. Like most mfg's, the basic handheld chassis is sometimes used for more than one service. This particular radio is very flexible, handling the family radio band, as well as aircraft, and marine VHF bands.

I keep one in the truck, along with a national repeater directory. I can't think of many places in CONUS that I couldn't find some repeater that I could hit. Plenty of places that I'd never have cell coverage, but that I could trigger a repeater. With ECHOLINK on many repeaters, that means you have worldwide capability with a handheld from almost anywhere.

Since this is a rather old thread, and the OP didn't give much in the way of requirements, I'll just give a couple of good general recommendations:


1. Get an Amateur Radio license, preferably General Class or above, to give access to HF (<30 MHz).

2. Handheld Transceivers - unfortunately, you are not going to find much with serious weatherproofing, aside from marine VHF gear (which is illegal to use on land), but dry bags and cases help here. Personally, I think the most important things in an HT or portable are the availability of common battery packs, full power operation on common batteries, and receive band coverage. Unfortunately, the most important of these (to me), is full power operation on common batteries. It's pretty much impossible to find, so try to find a unit that takes at least 4 AA batteries in it's battery pack. My favorite HT's are therefore the (discontinued) Icom IC-W32A and the Kenwood TH-F6A. Another good option might be the discontinued Kenwood TH-D7A(G), which has ARPS stuff built-in (but I don't remember about the battery pack). The Yaesu VX-6R, VX-7R, and VX-8R are popular, and submersible (JIS-7), but suffer due to their pathetic battery packs.

3. Portables/Mobiles - popular choices here are the Yaesu FT-817ND, which suffers from the lack of WX band receive capability, but otherwise can be a brilliant choice. Going up the weight scale, we have a number of car mountable options, like the Icom IC-706MkIIG and IC-7000, and Yaesu FT-857D, which can be run off a 12V battery pack, and the Yaesu FT-897D, which has a purpose-made battery kit. If "DC-to-Daylight" coverage isn't a concern, there are some esoteric HF only units out there, like the Standard VX-1210 or SGC 2020.

4. Learn about antennae. The most important part of your radio.

5. Take a very close look at the Icom IC-M802. It's built for the marine SSB market, but it has a factory-approved mod for Amateur bands, and is rated for 150W at a 100% duty cycle.

6. Learn about QRP operation. Join the HFPack Yahoo! Group.

7. If your concerns are very modest, take a look at the Uniden MHS550 marine VHF/FRS/WX/Air/AM/FM transceiver. In fact, buy one anyway, just for good measure. It gets AM/FM broadcasts, NOAA Weather radio w/SAME alerts, can be used as an FRS radio, and you can at least listen to Airband and Marine VHF traffic, and if you happen to be on the water and underway, you can actually use the marine VHF transmit.

I live in the Philadelphia area, so I like to keep one side of my Kenwood TM-D700A(G) tuned to the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge operations frequency, so I know if the drawbridge is going up if I'm planning to head in that direction.

Overall, the radio above with the most capabilities is the Yaesu FT-897D, but it's relatively heavy and bulky. Right now, I'm using an Icom IC-W32A, a Kenwood TM-D700A(G) hooked to a Garmin GPS V, a Yaesu FT-817ND, and a Yaesu FT-100. When i get around to it, I'll invest in a Buddipole antenna system just for fun.