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Preventing Failure to Communicate- Part 3, by JMD

We’re continuing to evaluate how to prevent a failure to communicate in the event that our normal, electronic communications equipment are not available to us. We are exploring our options. Yesterday, I wrote about common content items and encoding. Let’s continue.

Medium

The medium defines what carries the communication through the channel. For written communication, the medium will usually be paper. For most signal-based communications, the medium will be inseparable from the channel. In the case where communications is sent by a flashing light, light is the medium.

Channel

The channel is critical to all communications. It determines how the message is actually transferred to the receiver. Thus, how much bandwidth is available and how noise may impact the communication. It also tells us likely it is the communication will be noticed/intercepted by someone other than the intended recipient. Channels can also be mixed to improve the overall communications process. For example, say you’re out on a roving patrol and need to use semaphore flags to send a message to someone. How do you know they’ll be watching and see your message?

One option would be to send up from your location a certain color flare. This would alert the receiver that a communication will be coming. They should grab their binoculars and look for flags in the area the flare came from. The receiver can then send up a different color flare when they’re ready to receive communications. (This would be a “handshake” using an alternate channel.) The following sections highlight some potential communications channels along with their pros and cons.

Visual Communications Channels

Visual communications channels are one of the most common forms of communications channels. Human beings tend to be heavily driven by visual influences. Their biggest advantages are that they can typically be seen over long distances by anyone with reasonable vision or binoculars. They tend to be easy to transport and use. Their biggest disadvantages can be that their effectiveness is subject to environmental conditions. Particularly the amount of available light. They can be difficult to restrict to just the desired recipient. A good example of the latter is when you shine a flashlight in the fog. Another example is when there are a lot of suspended particles in the air (pollen, dust, et cetera). The beam of light becomes very visible to everyone around.

Common Visual Channels

Some of the most common forms of visual channels are:

Sound

Sound-based communications are arguably the most common communications channel utilized by human beings. We speak to each other on a daily basis, listen to radio and TV, and listen for sounds when we walk through the woods at night. A sound communications channel has the advantage of being easy to use (voice, whistle, drum, et cetera), and sound tends to carry quite a distance in most circumstances. Sounds can also provide a way for one person to communicate with a lot of other people simultaneously. The biggest disadvantage is that it’s very difficult to make sound directional, meaning that anyone within hearing distance will be aware of the communication, even if you don’t want them to.

Common Audio Channels

Some examples of audio channels are:

Tomorrow we’ll continue looking at other types of communications.

See Also:

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

This has been part three of a five part entry for Round 72 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest [30]. The nearly $11,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
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Round 72 ends on September 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail [40] us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

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#1 Comment By Anonymous On September 7, 2017 @ 3:12 pm

What are good hand held radios and hand held Ham radios ?? Quialty .

#2 Comment By J.M. On September 7, 2017 @ 3:57 pm

This article focuses on being able to communicate when you can’t use a radio. If you’re looking for examples of handheld radios you can check some out here: [41]