You were obviously just saving up in order to make a particularly good post. Well done.

I REALLY like this thought.

Communicating one's well-being is nice but if you don't make contact what can the others do about it? What does it mean?

Seems to me that giving them confidence in your ability to prevail along with intention to make contact *eventually* would be more comforting than frantically scrabbling with a radio wondering if lack of radio contact for half a day means disaster or not (and they still can't do anything about it). Sometimes family just has to wait.

I've used and enjoyed ham radio for better than 30 years (been licensed as Extra for more than 20) but it's not as simple to use for these situations as it first appears.

I was a Red Cross Responder to Katrina. Operated a communications van. Ham Radio was a valuable asset. Several repeaters were functioning within hours after the hurricane.

Gloria and I are hams. For our personal use, we have dual band (2m/70cm) HT's as well as several radios which can become instant cross band repeaters (D-700, TM-732 etc).

I frequently set up our crossband system and find it to be very easy to use, power efficient and provide very robust communications.

We let folks know when we are testing a crossband set-up and find that many hams had dual bands. After a brief learning curve they find the system easy to use.

We also have HF, but after being in several hurricanes, blizzards etc, we find that local communications are far more important than long range.

Rather that depend on others, we are working to provide service to the local ham community (wherever we are).

Nomad

Hello, 2 hints from the UK on mobile phones that may help.

1) Text messaging takes far less band width and can slip through when all you get is a network busy message with a voice call, though even these tiny SMS messages can be badly delayed.

2) Your own local Govt. may have a contract with one/more mobile operators that give them priority bandwidth during a crisis. If so it would probably be best to avoid that particular provider.

Cheers

For a large regional disaster, your communications methods will be limited, and I believe that you've covered them all.

I think your best asset will be HF, because you can reach long distances outside of the affected area. Really, for huge disasters/catastrophes, HF is the only way to go.

For emergencies, you want to get your message to the highest operating level of government so they can pass it down. Hopefully, it doesn't get lost.

Keep local 10 digit numbers handy in a reference. Include every level of government. ( don't forget the U.S. country code for those you might reach outside of the U.S.)

I would also keep handy phone numbers for Federal Government agencies that normally coordinate with Law Enforcement, including:

[list]
[*]U.S. Air Force Rescue Coordination Center
[*]USNORTHCOM
[*]DHS
[*]Local 911 Centers (out of area, perhaps for you some place like Los Angeles!)
[*]State Division of Emergency Management
[*]Disaster Information Lines
[*]etc., you get the idea.

They may be annoyed you're calling, but they should be able to point you in the right direction.

I absolutly agree with having a list of 7 digit numbers of places to call (of course depending on if the service availible). Being a 911 dispatcher I can tell you that for our agency we serve around 800,000 residents. For those residents we have a grand total of 16 911 lines. Even in large local events those lines can fill up very quickly. If an event were to affect all of our residents I am certain that you would be lucky if you could even get a busy signal.

Sounds like you have got about as much covered communications wise as can be expected.

Some possible additions though,

An external high gain directional Yagi antenna for your cell phone. This may allow you to connect to cell stations which aren't damaged or taken out.

Solar PV power device to keep your cell phone working without worrying about the battery drain.

Learn all that there is to use functionality wise on your cell phone. Voice calls might be unavailable and there might be considerable delays to SMS. You may find WAP communications are available to send and receive email through a WAP portal.

http://mail2web.com/wap/

Cable DSL might still be functioning. The main problem here might be the lack of ability to power your DSL cable modem/router. Therefore a UPS might be very useful to power this kit. A 3G capable router or USB dongle might provide an additional comms link. VOIP telephone calls may well then be possible using various Ethernet adapters.

A foreign emergency service telephone number might be useful, such as the UK Coast Guard. You might get a higher priority if the call comes in from a 3rd party and there is some diplomacy, PR, international relations, news media etc at stake especially if you happen to be a NATO general visiting his Grandma on his day off and you are buried under some rubble, ahem...

Also it might be an idea to find out when your telephone twisted pair land line cable goes from your property. The break may only be a few metres away in an earthquake. It should be easy to duct tape a spare POTS hand set to the end of the break.

One unexpected problem I ran into last weekend: I recently purchased a small back-up UPS for my Cable Modem and Router. When I went to test it, my interal home router ran fine but the Cable modem won't run off of the back-up. Talked to the cable company and it seems the frequency generated by the battery back-up may be outside the tolerance (to far outside of 60Hz) the cable modem wants to see. (I probably didn't say that technically correct, but in short, they don't work together). I've read that more expensive units may do a better job and I believe a few even come with guarantees.

So, like any piece of our equipment, be sure to test it before you need it.

Regards,

Michael

True. The issue in New Orleans, though, was that the 911 call center was under water - it was uninhabitable, inoperable, and had no outside connectivity, so attempts to transfer operability failed and callers didn't know it. Eventually calls to 911 in NO were routed to Baton Rouge, but no one told Baton Rouge about it, and the onslaught of callers was unexpected.

We've got portable repeaters in one of our ham clubs, but I'm expecting things to go bad for longer than emergency gas and batteries for repeaters will last, if we have an NO-style earthquake. My hope with HF radio is that we can communicate with the outside world, pass some health and welfare traffic, and maybe get some attention when search and rescue people can actually get here.

Yes, Louise and I volunteer regularly for the bike-athons, run-athons, and walk-athons hosted by the several lung/diabetes/cancer organizations to raise money and awareness, sometimes as net controls, sometimes as rest stop hams, sometimes as comm bosses. Being known among the hams is a good point to raise. When we have our big earthquake, those who are known will be given opportunities first. Having a license plus experience is the key.