As long as the boat is afloat and under way, normal communications are authorized.

The Coast Guard is most likely to hear you on Marine frequencies (156.80 MHz, 2182 KHz GMDSS) National Guard, I'm not sure, but I'm beginning to think we need to establish a new inter-service emergency frequency.

Here's an interesting question...if you're in the middle of an emergency situation like the aftermath of Katrina, are the relevant agencies required to give priority to 406 MHz and 121.5 MHz distress calls? If so, I can imagine a run on PLBs and EPIRBs, causing massive disruption of rescue efforts in any similar situation. Has anyone even thought of this before?

Developers could include them with every new house and you could just roll the cost over into your new mortgage. Sweet, a tax advantaged way to buy more survival gear! <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

A backup generator doesn't do much good if it's under water. Some of the new Honda generators are more than enough to run a 100 W mobile station and portable enough to be moved up to the higher stories of a building, if need be. Of course, running a gas-fired generator inside a building is a questionable practice...



Or something like the Yaesu FT-817ND, which will work all-band, all-mode, and isn't much more difficult to transport than the average HT, plus it still runs off of AAs in a pinch, even at 5 watts. Most HT's won't run full power on AAs--they usually automatically turn down to 2 W, 1.5 W, or even .5 or .3 W when running on AAs. The 817 goes automatically to 2.5 W, but can be manually reset to 5 W.

5 Watts will kill your batteries pretty quick.

While in a flooded state, with levees breached, has the flooded area technically become part of the adjoining body of water, however temporary, under the legal definition of avulsion? Or does that apply only to streams/rivers, and/or require a long term change?

In practical terms the ham bands are self-policing. If you do something against the rules, hams will ask you to cut it out. The FCC will generally only get involved if you persist and there are complaints, or if you're causing massive interference (crap equipment spewing RF all over). In some NO-type of situation there's not likely to be any repercussions from using whatever equipment you have available. That said, the question of who exactly you hope to communicate with is important.

I'd say if you want to go the ham route, do it the right way, get a license and get on the air and get familiar with proper on-air procedures. Hams have organized networks for getting emergency traffic out of disaster areas but participation requires knowing what you're doing. You can join RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service) etc. and get involved with preparation and operation, which is much more proactive than just having some rig in the closet and trying to figure out how to use it if the SHTF hoping someone is at the other end.

Arney,

Boat to boat, if you are able to move around, you should be fine. On land, if you are not in an emergency or responding to one, don't transmit. If you get a call from someone in an emergency, and you respond, then that would be allowed, because you are now involved in the emergency.

If you don't have an emergency, and aren't responding to one, then don't make unauthorized transmissions. That is pretty clear cut.

Maybe instead of all this radio license concern, if you want positive communication, get a sat phone and talk from virtually anywhere. We use them here in Baghdad when ALL our other comms go down. They never fail, so long as the unit is juiced and maintained.

Judging from J Park III, they will even survive the digestive processes of dinosaurs. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Immediate family members, and emergency personel.

Well, then, the question then becomes:

How far away are your immediate family members, and/or how far away are they likely to be at the onset of an emergency?

In my own case, due to the nature of my business as a technology consultant, it is likely that I could be anywhere up to 60 miles (or 2 hours) away from my residence on any given day. Secondly, the only family I have nearby is my sister-in-law and her (soon-to-be) husband. The rest of our families generally live about 60-100 miles away.

For the immediate local needs of a single family, GMRS is probably the best option. In our case, two GMRS licenses would cover both households.

If we wanted to communicate with the rest of the extended family, Amateur HF bands would be the best option, probably 40 or 80 meters on an NVIS antenna (read, antenna that's not high/big enough to go around the world). A good NVIS system on those bands should give reliable communications out to 300-500 miles. Amateur Radio would also be my best means of contact while on the job. While 60 miles is a bit of a stretch for simplex comunications, if a suitable repeater is available (not something to be counted upon in an emergency situation), 30 miles each way should be no problem for either UHF or VHF communications. My mobile rig is a Yaesu FT-100, so HF is also an option.

The biggest problem I'm having with all this right now is convincing my wife to study for and obtain a Technician Class license, and of course no other family members other than my wife's grandfather seem to have any interest in Amateur Radio. This is one of the reasons why GMRS is such a good option--it doesn't require wrangling other family members into sitting for examinations! With the 50 W GMRS limit, 60 miles might be do-able with a good antenna system or through a repeater (not sure of any in my area), but even a 5 W HT will cover our whole town without breaking a sweat.

One more thing about marine radios...the Icom IC-M802 is a very, very good marine HF unit that is rated for 150 W @ 100% duty cycle, and has the capability of being programmed to transmit on the Amateur bands. The basic system can be had for less than 2K USD. The marine radios tend to be a bit more robust than your average rig, since when you're far from dry land, you need an utterly reliable communications system.

There are also land-mobile units that are capable of being programmed for both GMRS and Amateur frequencies. These often share accessories with some of the Amateur-specific radios available.

Just remember, like a firearm, a radio is not of optimal use to you in an emergency if it's not with you/not loaded/not setup, or if you are not familiar with it's proper operation...

The secondary question is:

What emergency personnel are you likely to need to communicate with in the event of an emergency, and what frequencies do they use? More and more police units are being outfitted with consumer-type radios, but it would be best to check with public service groups in your area to find out what's going to work best for you and them. I would encourage you to get involved with a CERT Team in your area, as familiarity with the local officials might get them to respond to you better or faster in an emergency than someone they don't know.

Uh, I guess I should have mentioned that the repeaters with diesel generator back up are on local hilltops a few hundred to a couple of thousand feet up, and they are not in buildings (although the generator sets are housed). If the backup generators are underwater, we have more problems than we can deal with. No one will be carrying the generators, as they are fixed in place. Nothing is portable at the repeater sites, and no one is living in the buildings with the generator sets.


I have an FT-817. I would not say it's as portable as a handheld radio. Especially if you are trying to carry it around by hand. See
http://f1.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/sFFRQ2bAZ9o...FOR/manpack.jpg
(or http://tinyurl.com/ac6ao if the above link wraps and breaks)
for the most portable FT-817 I've seen used on HF. Instead of dragging a counterpoise, this user has an antenna with radials -- but be careful, it'll poke your eye out. I'd consider that get up much more difficult to deal with than an HT. Somewhere you cross the line between being hardy enough to carry that gear and being foolhardy for carrying it around. Imagine walking around in a building or getting in and out of an automobile with that rig.

Additionally, if you are trying to do emergency HF communications on an FT-817 at its maximum of 5 watts, you will be sadly disappointed. Five watts on HF even with a decent antenna just doesn't do the job.

My Icom T7H and T2H both run five watts on AAs, by the way. That's why I picked them. The thing about AAs, though, is that they're everywhere. You can scavange AAs from wall clocks, flashlights, transistor radios, backup power for alarm clocks, and on and on. When your rechargeable battery runs out and you have no power, you need another source. My preference is AAs.

Your mileage will vary. As will the Original Poster's.

Phil

[quoteUh, I guess I should have mentioned that the repeaters with diesel generator back up are on local hilltops a few hundred to a couple of thousand feet up, and they are not in buildings (although the generator sets are housed). If the backup generators are underwater, we have more problems than we can deal with. No one will be carrying the generators, as they are fixed in place. Nothing is portable at the repeater sites, and no one is living in the buildings with the generator sets.[/quote]

Good! I was just thinking of the emergency power contest announcement in QST, and their picture of W1AW's backup diesel generator. I think it's a 60 KW unit about the size of a large chest freezer, and probably the weight of a small car. I was thinking W1AW were ever to get flooded, that generator would not be of much use.



I just picked up an FT-817ND for myself, along with an LDG Z-11Pro and a few other accessories. The whole thing fits nicely into my Tenba camera bag with lots of room to spare. It's actually a lot smaller than I expected. Of course, doing HF while walking around is always going to be a compromise. BTW, that link didn't work for me...is that a pic from the HFPack group? I looked for K3FOR, and I didn't see anything in the photo list.



Five watts does just fine with a decent antenna. But, decent HF antennas aren't easily portable. Then again, the FT-817ND and my HT's aren't my only means of communications. There's always my FT-100 in the car.



According to Icom's specs, the T7H only puts out 2 W on 4xAA's. The T2H puts out 6 W on 8xAA's, and my W32A puts out 1.5 W on 4xAA's. The newer Yaesu units are even worse off, with the VX-6R only putting out 300 mW on 2xAA's.