I am posting this because some may find it interesting and useful.

Nomad.
aka Ron, N1AHH
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Every January, 400 or so Hams (Amateur Radio Operators) gather for 8 days in the Arizona desert to teach each other and swap gear. This year I will be presenting a week long seminar titled GRID DOWN COMMS. It will focus on establishing a local communications system for use during an extended Grid Down Communications failure.

The seminar will include the creation and operation of several VHF/UHF remote controlled repeaters which the participants will use throughout the week to study selective calling techniques, radiation patterns, sophisticated scanning methods and to increase their personal skill set.

To supplement the seminar I will be publishing GridDownComms.pdf which provides some suggestions about preparing for a Grid Down event as well as in depth technical presentations on various associated subjects.

Part of the process of authoring GridDownComms.pdf is the creation of a blog that will contain all of the information as I create it. The blog will be used as a sort of peer review for the eventual publication.

Much of the blog is a bit technical as it is meant for Hams, but there will be several very basic sections like "What is Radio?" which gives a very simple explanation of how radio works, a section on tone encoding and several other basic concepts.

There will be a section on non-Ham communication systems like GMRS Repeaters, MURS, FRS, Cell Phone, mesh networking and other technologies.

There is a detailed section on creating a Communications Plan (ComPlan) and a section on Communication Conditions (ComCon) which helps to define when to do what.

All are welcome to participate in the review process and the finished product will be available sometime in December. Until then, the Blog will be presenting the topics for review.

Here is a tinyurl that will take you to the Welcome page.
http://tinyurl.com/GDC-Welcome

In the tradition of Amateur Radio, the Blog, the published GridDownComms.pdf and the QuartzFest Gathering are all free and non-commerical.


The gathering is called QuartzFest and it has been going on for about 20 years or so. It is an open and free gathering, but you must be self sufficient as there are NO FACILITIES OF ANY KIND at the desert site. Information about Quartzfest is linked on the blog.

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I Welcome comments and suggestions.
Nomad.

Excellent! Hats off to you. Fascinating, too: I'm looking forward to your report.

Cannot wait too... Fantastic!.

Nomad... if asked several times, but could you inquire of your fellow enthusiasts about the utility of the "walking staff antennas"... particularly the Gulo Gulo and any advantage for a typical cell phone as opposed to amateur 2m operator... thanks

http://walkingstickantenna.com/

Looking forward to it Nomad!

RE: Walking stick antenna.
I have no information about this antenna, but I have emailed the maker for more information. Looks interesting.

We will be demo'ing a j-pole antenna inside of PVC tube that would work in a similar way, although not robust enough for a walking stick. I will have an article about it and its use on the blog eventually.

You can follow the blog by putting your email address in the box provided on the top right of each page. The system will then send you each new post.

I will post any information I receive about the walking stick antenna.

Nomad
aka Ron, N1AHH.

Many thanks Nomad. I am forwarding this to my HAM friends.

Blake

www.outdoorquest.blogspot.com

Nomad - let me make a constructive suggestion.
In the event that the "grid" really does go down for America, or some part of America, there is going to be a LOT of confusion and anxiety out there. Not to mention very wild rumors (mostly wrong), and people thinking "apocalypse". The public reaction could be an over-reaction, to put it mildly.

It would be trmendously helpful for you short wave guys to figure out how you can transmit some basic news. A lot of people will be listening. A lot. So any news that you send out could go a long way. But emphasize to people the absolute necessity of only communicating the most basic well-established facts ... and absolutely no speculations or conspiracy theories.

In short - you guys could do a lot of good.
Or a lot of harm.
It could cut either way.

No offense to you personally - you've probably already thought about this a bit. It would be very helpful to know what the basic frequencies of transmission will be for your broadcasts.

Pete2

It's illegal for amateur radio operators to send broadcasts aimed at non-amateur listeners. What we do during communications emergencies is provide communications services for the authorities. This is provided most commonly by local RACES/ARES groups (http://www.arrl.org/chapter-4-ares-and-races), often associated with a local sheriff. I belong to such a group. A less common way amateurs can help is with local and long-distance message relays, using the National Traffic System (http://www.arrl.org/chapter-one-national-traffic-system).

As Chaosmagnet said, it is illegal for us to "broadcast" things to the general public. That said, Amateur radio is one of the few remaining communications mediums that is not encrypted (also illegal for us). The most useful place to listen would be in the VHF and UHF amateur bands. You would probably hear lots of us describing what we are seeing and experiencing locally.

We are no more privy to special knowledge than anyone else. And having been in many disasters as well as more than a few riots, it is next to impossible to actually know what is going on.

Your interests in the short term will be local. How bad is it? Where is the damage? Where are events taking place? That much we can tell and we do communicate it to each other.

However part of what I am doing will be trying to get hams to interface with the non-ham population. There are many options like the General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) which is licensed but with no test. This service permits repeaters and licensed the whole family. Many hams (myself included) have GMRS licenses with the intent of providing a service to the general population.

There are other services as well. Rather than getting into all that here, I suggest you follow along with the blog.

Oh, getting a ham license is not all that difficult and then you can not only listen, but you can participate. Become part of the conversation, and part of the solution.

Blog link:

http://tinyurl.com/GDC-Welcome

Nomad.
aka Ron, N1AHH

PS. You asked what frequencies and I replied with GeekSpeak about bands. If you have a scanner, try between 145-148 Mhz. for starters. There are a number of smartphone scanner apps. You can tune in on various repeaters all over the world and listen to their local conversations. I have not messed with that for a few years so I am not up to date on the best ones. Mostly you will hear boring chit-chat. But after you get used to the software you will be able to link to repeaters in areas where something is going on. Like the recent fires, or Boston after the recent unpleasantness.