Hello everyone,

Quick question. I'm looking into getting an emergency communication device for a wide spread power outage.

Which service would you recommend? Spot, Delorme inReach, or a true satellite phone.

It will only be for very rare usage (unless comms go out here).

And are there small ham radios capable of Dxing yet?
I haven't kept up to date with current tech!


I apologize that this post is likely opening a can of worms.

Yours truly,
James

In recent power outages here (SoCal) the good ol' land line phone has continued to function...and its cheap!

Amateur radio is very flexible, and there are plenty of radios that can perform communication at a distance, some smaller than others. Depending on where you live, you may find that a five watt handheld can get you quite a bit of useful communication

I think I would need more information about your requirements, threats and budget to know which direction to recommend.

Location and geography would help too.

Threats: Mostly large scale / geological area power failures. The more independent the better.

Budget: $600 Max.

Multipurpose: Hope to be able to send txt messages when I'm out hiking in remote locations as an added useful bonus.

Location: Sudbury Ontario with camping trips to fly in locations throughout North/Ontario.

Hikermor Landlines did work during the massive power failure of ten years ago, but I'd like an additional layer of comms.

Ham would be ideal, but to Dx you always needed a car-size setup.

I think a satphone is out for you based on budget. They're expensive to buy and even more expensive to use.

If you're a licensed ham, then you should at least have a ham HT. There's a very inexpensive dual-bander from Baofeng (the UV-5R, about $30 shipped in the USA) that I've added to all of my kits for the use of the three hams in my household. If you are not a licensed ham, it's easy to become one, let me know here or via PM if you would like advice on getting started.

There are places on your list, though, where a ham HT is unlikely to work for your needs. You could put together a backpack ham rig that would, but that may be beyond your interest level/budget/weight limits. Based on what you've told us I think I would suggest the InReach. It might be good, though, if someone who owned an InReach would chime in.

(no affiliation with any companies mentioned here)

I need more to do more research, but at a glance, the DeLorme InReach - Goal Zero package is compelling. Not necessarily buying the package from DeLorme, but the capability of that package. I already have a Goal Zero Solar panel with USB output for charging.

http://www.mec.ca/product/5035-992/spot-global-phone/?q=satellite%2Bphone

MEC has a satellite phone for $499 $25 per month.

My concern is that all of these option require a base station somewhere on earth. No power at the base station means no relayed messages.

Thoughts?

Sounds like ham still isn't portable enough for my needs.

Not much in the way of options beyond ham radio and systems that rely on terrestrial phone or data switches.

As far as Globalstar's (SPOT) gateway earth stations are concerned, I would be very surprised if there was not triple redundancy involving keeping them powered. I never had any issues during the widespread outages caused by Florida hurricanes.

Perhaps you should consider carrier pigeons?

Indeed! They worked on the battlefields of WW I a century ago, so why not now? You could also consider heliographs; they brought Geronimo to his knees in the late 19th century. They did require land based stations, but those are easy to establish.

I have three carrier pigeons already ....and they're OK I suppose. They really can stuff into very small cages, but they don't mention the smell of their poo.

I mean you just can't stuff the cage in the top of your backpack, even if the 'stuff' doesn't fall out (or get flicked out by the stupid birds...god knows they like doing that) the smell is horrible. It gets into absolutely everything!

I know, I know, I've tried starving them a bit, and that does work on short outings, but they'll eventually need to be fed and you risk weakening them so much they won't make the homing flight.

My real issue with them is that I can't get a return message. Stupid, stupid birds.

Heliographs are a possibility, but if I'm injured at the base of the mountain it really sucks to have to crawl up the mountain to use the heliograph. I simply won't do that again.
I won't.


Great suggestions guys. I'm leaning towards an inreach se as it is only $11 per month coupled with a http://www.qrpkits.com/survivor.html

I have no affiliation with either of the above.


-Ontario

Let the sun's rays do the walking! During the Geronimo campaign, the main station was in the center of the Ft. Bowie (AZ) parade ground. Messages were flashed to the summit of Bowie Peak, immediately south, and then relayed to other summits in the network (like present day Heliograph Peak). Labor intensive, but it worked.

Signal mirrors are still a very effective signaling device - light, cheap, and easy (during daylight hours, anyway).

I tried looking into a landline for my mother but had no idea how to go about it anymore.

Chaos -- I just noticed the Yaesu VX-8DR. Didn't know there was a 50MHz ham band. What kind of distance can you get in low VHF?

With a handheld pushing 5W? Antenna height buys you the most, followed by antenna gain, followed last by output power. With flat terrain I'm guessing you'd be lucky to get more than 10 miles without a significant antenna.

We had a tired carrier pigeon show up in our barn a number of years back. We figured it out by the band on its leg, called a phone number from its web site and they sent a local carrier pigeon breeder to pick it up, nurse it back to health, and make sure it got back to its owner.

I was more than impressed with the whole thing and especially their desire to take care of that tired little bird.

From my own experience amateur radio is the route to go. While I'm not a ham, my father spent lots of time working with local ham clubs that provided communications during simulated emergencies. Hams I know around here do the same thing.

I would suppose that these communications focused on urgent communications.

My experience has been that once the emergency and urgent message traffic have been sent on, your local hams will work your lower-priority messages with a smile.

my only experience with a sat phone was on a wilderness canoe trip.a buddy rented one from our outfitter and to save the battery for a real emergency we just made one call home halfway thru the trip.in order to get enough clear sky for the thing to work we had to stand on the boulders by the rivers edge.just 10 feet back in a tree covered campsite it did not get thru.