LOTS of batteries - figure 3 or 4 (maybe more) 90Ah gel cells. If the repeater draws say, 25 amps, that 360 Ah will get you 1/2 day of continuious use. You'll find however, that after the first couple of hours, the use falls off to about 50% duty cycle. In addition, most repeaters that ARE on battery have foldback setups that will drop their output from around 100 watts to around 50 watts if running on battery - Now your only drawing 10 amps or so, so you can go 36 hours full time, and with duty cycle built in, usually a bit more than 2 days

Our repeater systems are very similar out here. Most have some battery backup, some have excellent backup including generators. My RACES groups practice simplex relays in case everything goes out.

Unfortunately the Ham license is just hard enough to keep people out of the service, but actually requires only a few hours of study to pass. A book, a few hours of reading, a couple of on-line practice tests and just about anyone can get the Technician ticket. This allows full use of the best local VHF and UHF frequencies for community service.

I highly recommend a HAM license to everyone who wants an alternative communication method. The best thing about HAM is that it has had emergency use as a part of its plan from the very beginning. The infrastructure and training is all a part of the "hobby". It is a rare community of any size that does not have an ARES or RACES group with an emergency plan in place and depending on volunteer HAM's.

FRS works fine in cities, with a range of a few blocks. That's plenty for many purposes and completely inadequate for many others. Ham repeaters have much more range. In a real emergency, ham communications can switch over to a message handling mode with emergency traffic (medical stuff etc., where someone will die if the message doesn't get through) taking priority. Stuff like coordinating family movements (what it sounds like you have in mind) would be lower priority.

I've been thinking for a while that the ham world needs a good, portable, text-only communications device that would use very low bandwidth (up to several minutes to send a 100 character text message). Because of the low data rate, it could cover long distances with very little xmit power. I'd been thinking of it more as a cheap alternative to a satellite phone for remote locations, but it could also be good in those urban situations.

Low data rate, low power, ham radio, text only........ QRP CW?? <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

PSK31? Pactor?

APRS?

Is there such a thing as a single handheld radio that can operate on FRS, GMRS and CB as well as receive NOAA Alerts? More specifically what I'm looking for is simply a radio that can use CB channel 9 and also receive NOAA alerts. Having other CB channels and/or GMRS/FRS capabilities would be considered a bonus but not necessary. Licensing is not any issue. I can and am willing to get a license.

Not low data rate, low power. Requires a bunch of infrastructure. This comes from someone who runs a 24x7 relay

So in order to get NOAA alerts and also have access to CB channel 9, my only option would be to carry two radios?

I guess I am getting a little off topic in this already large thread. I will address my question more accuratly in a new thread. Sorry.

Thanks all for your insight. I thought this might be a little more complicated than going to Wall-Mart and picking up a couple of radios. Looks like I need to do more research. Thanks again.