Re: Reunification and Communication Plans

I think that we have to look at what sort of communications disaster you are talking about.

A localized power outage affecting a city for example. Usually this power outage would normally be resolved within hours to days and would not generally affect the mobile/cellular phone network unless the cellular network towers had also been affected with power outages. If the normal PSTN network has also gone down, then most people would naturally begin to use their cell phones for voice communications. The resulting congestion would make communications difficult. Therefore sending text messages would have a much more likely hood of being sent because of the reduced bandwidth requirements a text message would require. If this fails then attempt to send the text message again at 04:00am when most people are asleep. A solar charger for your phone would be useful to keep the charge on the phone topped up as one of the first priorities for the authorities would be to re-establish the cellular network. Leaving your mobile switched on for that period, it could lose its battery charge.

If the power outages were more widespread, say effecting much larger areas of the country for longer periods i.e. periods greater than 1 week then communications begin to become much more difficult. We now move onto the Global satellite (Iridium) phone type systems. If this fails to work and your GPS also has problems getting a signal then you should begin to worry as there has probably been a space war between the US, China and Russia or a large solar event or a nearby Super Nova, which has destroyed most of the orbiting satellites communications systems. If it does work then the chances of getting through to Europe will probably be better than the central or eastern United States for various reasons (most European telephone networks are a bit more robust than in the US) unless of course your family members elsewhere also have a Sat phone.

If the satellite phone fails then we can move onto the next technology which would be the shortwave radio transceiver sited at both your and your relatives locations respectively. This time around though getting through to central and eastern United States would be more probable. If this fails to work then one or two things have happened. Your SW transceiver electronics have been fried due to an EMP attack (even more worrying as it would appear the space war has been a lot more serious) or the Heaviside Appleton layer of the atmosphere has been affected. (even more worrying because most of the earths radio communications have probably been affected by the astronomic event). To get around the EMP type scenario try getting a SW transceiver which works using old fashioned tube technology.



British Amateur HF transceiver Heathkit HW101

If the Heaviside Appleton layer has been affected therefore not allowing SW transmissions or don't have a Sat phone or SW transceiver then it may be time to start the lost forgotten art of Writing a Letter and sending via the Postal Service. If there is no postal service then you or your family elsewhere would probably be advised to stay where they were unless of course you or you relatives life's depended on moving elsewhere. If the Postal Service is unavailable then the US government is also unavailable to do much either.