Category: Communications & Receivers

Communications for When SHTF, by N.M.

Communications is a key element in our everyday lives. If you don’t believe me, try going a whole day with no cell phone, Internet, television, or any other means of communications (COMMS). So it stands to reason that having COMMS, when SHTF, is essential to gaining intelligence (COMINT), the safety and security of your family, keeping informed, and keeping at least one step ahead of anybody with bad intentions. Like any skill, it is essential to practice; that means practicing before SHTF, so that you have the necessary skills. While most of the communications methods discussed in this article are …


Two Letters Re: Covert Communications

Hugh, Reading H.R.’s correction on the Covert Communication article I must correct him. He cites 146.00MHz as the National Calling Frequency. That is incorrect. The generally agreed upon simplex frequency (there is no law or regulation requiring the use of any frequency as a National Calling Frequency) for calling others known and/or unknown is 146.52MHz. Do a Google search for “amateur radio national simplex frequency” and navigate to any of the top five or ten citations and you will find that 146.52 is listed in each as the 2 meter national simplex frequency. (There are many National Simplex Frequencies on …


Three Letters Re: Covert Communications

Dear Hugh: Regarding the captioned article posted 23 September 2014, I call your attention to the following quote, pulled from near the middle of the second paragraph: “These radios do have ‘Privacy Codes’, but anyone can switch around until they find the code you are on, as they all use the same codes and scanners will hear them, coded or not. Switching codes every hour or time you decide will help not being discovered by other FRS/GMRS radio users, but others will scan the codes. It may help but will get you found if others find which code channel you …


Covert Communications, by J.K.

When it all hits the wall, one thing you should be sure of is that someone is listening to every communication you make within reception range. Many will use scanners to try and find you or your group. If they hear radio activity, especially activity on the short-range radios, they will know you are near. Some will use direction-finding antennas to get your exact location. The idea with radio comms is to use the least power and radio with the least range that will get you reliable comms. If all has gone south, you will want to use radio only …


An Emergency Frequencies List

1

The following frequency list is part of a blog post from Graywolf Survival. 34.90: Used nationwide by the National Guard during emergencies. 39.46: Used for inter-department emergency communications by local and state police forces. 47.42: Used across the United States by the Red Cross for relief operations. 52.525: Calling frequency used by ham radio operators in FM on their six-meter band. 121.50: International aeronautical emergency frequency. 138.225: Disaster relief operations channel used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency; it is active during earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, and other catastrophic events. 146.52: Used by ham radio operators for non-repeater communications on the …


Letter Re: My Journey To The “Summits On The Air”

HI, I just read the article on SOTA by Banjo Ninja. I see a lot of parallels with my own journey, and have had my FCC general license for a little over two years now. BN mentioned Field Day being a once-a-year event. It is coming up THIS WEEKEND (June 28/29)! I would encourage anyone who is even a little curious to find a local club who will be participating. The club I belong to, Huber Heights Amateur Radio Club, will be operating a “Get On The Air” (GOTA) station where visitors can try to make radio contacts with the …


My Journey To The “Summits On The Air”, by Banjo Ninja

The Meta Game of Portable Communications as Practice for Prepping 1968 I had an interest in electronics from an early age. Back before most consumer electronics went digital, people actually repaired things when they stopped working. One of my earliest memories was Mr. D. coming to the house to fix our TV. In those days, the TV repairman came to your house, tested and replaced vacuum tubes, which was the dominant technology of the times, and Star Trek magically returned to your screen. This whole process fascinated me. Plus, Mr. D was a retired Air Force Colonel, so he was …


Letter Re: Fast Communications

Dear Hugh, I wanted to take a minute to put this out. If you have an old 12vdc power plug from say any old unwanted device you can make a power source for your CB. I did this in my all wheel drive car. It took all of 20 minutes, just plug it in while the car is on and it works. You can pop a magnetic antenna on the roof and you’re in business. Finish the CB chassis install using two screws to hold the radio to wherever you want to mount it, and another two for the mic. …


Letter Re: A Multi-Faceted Approach to Post-Disaster Information Gathering

This article was very informative, well written and pulled it all together for the reader. Good job! Radio communications has been a prepping priority for me from the days when the LAPD could be heard at the top end of the standard AM broadcast band by detuning the radio and scanners were just a dream. That aside, a recent experience of mine regarding the Plain Old telephone (POT) mentioned by D.C. might save some SurvivalBlog readers a few headaches. A POT has always been a prepping priority for me. I’ll try to keep the story brief without sacrificing detail. About …


A Multi-Faceted Approach to Post-Disaster Information Gathering, by D.C.

In a post-disaster scenario, good information will equate to life, while bad information or a lack of information could lead to death. I have recently been discussing the issue of post-disaster information gathering with many Christian/Patriot/Prepper friends of mine. We came to the consensus that while information on this specific topic is widely available, it is scattered around in different places, and we have not seen one definitive source that covers all the bases of effective information gathering. It is my intention to write this article in a way that a person that is anywhere on their prepper journey may …


Letter: Russian Takeover in Ukraine

Dear Hugh, I am surprised that you did not touch on the tactics used by the Russians in the recent annex of Crimea. One of the first things the Russians shut down was the local Internet and cell phone communication. They were able to isolate the area from communications in and out. I thought CB and Ham radios were a thing of the past, but after seeing what happened in the Ukraine I am looking to set up a base CB in my home and a mobile in my Jeep. For Jeep owners, there are numerous after-market CB kits available …


Letter Re: ARES Volunteering

Thinking about volunteering your time with your County Department of Emergency Management? You may have to leave your concealed carry weapon at home! As a fairly new licensed Ham Radio Operator, I thought it would be great to volunteer and become a member of the local Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) organization. I submitted an application for membership and completed the required FEMA on-line courses. I received a packet in the mail that contained additional forms that needed to be submitted. One of the forms was a County Department of Emergency Management Emergency Worker Registration Form. The second item on …


Letter: Google Replacement

Hugh, I have switched from Google to Startpage.com as my search engine to gain some privacy on the web. Is there anyone providing an email service that would get me away from the eyes of gmail? I am sure most of your readers would appreciate the same information if you know of any resources. Hugh Replies: Currently, one of the best places you can start with is https://prism-break.org. They list services and programs that are open-sourced and free from spying eyes. They will also tell you the weaknesses of any as they become known. It didn’t take them long at …


Letter Re: EMP

Hugh, While the routers and switches do require power (which will be spotty at best), they too will be fried by the EMP. Many of the modern ASICs are based on IBM proprietary copper chips and as a result really don’t get along well with any form of EMP. It’s bad enough that I’ve seen a floating ground stretched between two buildings fry Cisco, ACC / Wellfleet, and Extreme gear. The only purpose-built router that is tempest hardened is the very old TGS router by Cisco. This was an AGS that was built into a hardened shell. Wide scale deployment …


Letter Re: Amateur Radio Licensees

Hello Hugh, I’m a ham radio operator, and in my monthly ham radio magazine, QST, I saw a chart of ham radio licensees by year. See http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-showing-steady-growth-in-the-us. It is amazing. Take a look at the chart at the bottom of the page and observe the steep increase in licensees, after four years of decline. What’s the pivotal year? 2008! That coincides with the point in time many of us first took an interest in preparedness, coincident with the acceleration of the political decline in America. It appears that SIXTY THOUSAND people have received ham radio licenses during the Obama administration, …