Category: Communications & Receivers

Communications For a Dystopian Future – Part 2, by Tunnel Rabbit

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Antenna Selection Advntages For COMSEC, it is always the best policy to use the lowest power setting that still allows reliable communication. Using the best antenna for a particular situation is often overlooked as it is much more convenient to increase the power until we can be heard. If our equipment is low power then we can use a high-gain directional, or omnidirectional antenna to compensate. And using a better antenna to listen to weak signals increases our effectiveness. In a communication circuit using common 1/4-watt FRS transceivers, I can reliably communicate …


Panasonic RF-1600 Radio, by Thomas Christianson

The Panasonic RF-1600 is a vintage, six-band radio with many premium features. It delivers great sound. I found it easy to tune into stations on the FM and AM bands, but had trouble at first finding stations on the other bands. I thought this might be due to a defect in the equipment. Alas, that was not the case. The defect was in the operator, not the equipment. I consulted with a friend, who is an experienced radio operator. He experienced good reception on all of the bands. As is often the case, it is not sufficient to just own …


Follow the Yellow Brick Road – Part 4, by J.M.

(Continued from Part 3. This concludes the article.) Resources Once you have your route options figured out and taken into account potential obstacles and hazards, the next step should be to take a look at potential resource requirements and availability. The first resource I will typically look at is food – I always have some amount of emergency food stocked in my travel kit, including bags of nuts, trail mix, Fritos, emergency ration bars, small freeze-dried meals, etc. However, for any trip home longer than 3-to-4 days it becomes difficult to pack enough food to account for the whole trip, …


The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods. This column is a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from JWR. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. In today’s column, we look at ham radio emergency communications. The Vintage Radio Enthusiasts Prepping for Disaster Over at Commander Zero’s Notes From The Bunker blog: Article – No cellphone? No …


Commo for Family, Group, or Community – Part 5, by Tunnel Rabbit

(Continued from Part 4. This concludes the article.) There is a serious weakness in the Baofeng UV-5R and several other similar radios, since there is no off-the-shelf charger made to charge these radios from a standard 12vdc source. Fortunately, we can make our own 12vdc step-down charger power supply by putting together the parts that I list below. It can charge up to four Baofeng UV5R radios, or any brand handheld radios, and even some Kenwood and Midland radios (transceivers), or any radio that requires 9vdc  to 10vdc at its charger base. It can charge more than 4 handhelds at …


Commo for Family, Group, or Community – Part 3, by Tunnel Rabbit

(Continued from Part 2.) Test All Antennas for Acceptable SWR The antenna manufacturer of the Tram 1481 boosts an impressive gain on the VHF side of 8 dBi. Given the low power tests conducted, I found this figure plausible as 3.5 watts sent to the dual band Tram 1481 antenna mount only a few feet off the ground was easily received by a Baofeng UV5R on a J-pole located at a distance of 18.3 miles away LOS, and on the other side of a small mountain. The signal was reflect around the mountain. The SWR on low power at that …


Commo for Family, Group, or Community – Part 2, by Tunnel Rabbit

(Continued from Part 1.) Antennas, Expedient Techniques, and Construction Methods A radio tech should be sure to have several SWR meters, one of which is for the 11-meter band, and have the ability to improvise and construct antennas of all kinds — even if it is only a dipole.  For CB, an expedient 1/2 wave dipole (216-inches long) made from coaxial cable propagates much better than a 52″ long 1/8-wave ground plane CB antenna. CBs have a very long radio wave as compared to UHF/VHF radio and thus require much taller and larger antennas to propagate to their full potential.  …


Commo for Family, Group, or Community – Part 1, by Tunnel Rabbit

Long-term survival necessarily requires a community that can sustain itself.  As I have no family, I am more focused on this objective than those who must be concerned with a family to feed.  However, this topic should be of more concern to those with progeny to consider.  Without a plan in place and in action now, we might as well be planning to fail. A plan, any plan, is better than no plan.  The process of continually planning is also more important than any one plan,  As a rule, we should be continually be assessing a changing environment and discovering …


When War Comes – Part 2, by 3AD Scout

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) The People’s Land Army During the Second World War, young women were enlisted to leave the cities to go work in the countryside on English farms. Given that our modern Argibusiness will fall due to the lack of replacement/repair parts, Bio-robots will need be used, that is humans. There is a long history of the draft for war for conscripting soldiers and sailors but what about a draft for factory and farm workers? We may have a clue that “conscription” for non-military functions may be planned for our post-apocalypse life. In the …


Compact Power To Go – Part 2, by J.M.

(Continued from Part 1.  This concludes the article.) Battery The next item to consider is a portable USB battery, frequently referred to as a USB power bank. These range in size from a little credit card-sized 2500mAh up to massive power bricks with over 60,000mAh. Note that USB power banks that provide QC or PD charging levels have recently started hitting the market, and they tend to be somewhat more expensive than the older ones that only provide 5V/2A outputs. I ended up using one that I picked up a while back, which is the Miisso 5000mAh model. It provides …


Compact Power To Go – Part 1, by J.M.

There have been numerous articles on SurvivalBlog.com about the use of various pieces of electronic technology such as flashlights, cell phones, night vision devices, radios, drones, etc., in disaster and survival situations – ‘Tactical Technology for TEOTWAWKI’, ‘Technology After TEOTWAWKI’, ‘Survival Electronics’, ‘Surviving With Electronics’, ‘Survival Electronics’, ‘How To Use a Baofeng UV-5R’ and many others. (Some of those were written by me.) As part of my general effort to lighten up my load and develop a lightweight modular approach to my mobile kit, I recently started focusing on how to power the various electronics I’m carrying. To that end, …


A 12-Month Preparedness Checklist – Part 2, by Reltney McFee

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) June June is the month to assess the animals: are their vaccinations current? How is that Veterinary Medic Bag coming along? In addition, while I am out and about, June might be a nice month to function test my generator, and, following the thought that a power failure might require my generator to function, would it not be nice to have, gosh, LIGHT, while poking around getting such things set up? Why, now that you ask, yes! Yes, light would be pleasant! I checked the batteries in January, and this month’s check …


The Modern Breadcrumb Trail, by BowtiedPartisan

Introduction Modern life in a First World country is fantastic. Access to everything you need. What’s even more beneficial, is having a computer in your pocket. That’s right, your smartphone, it’s a computer and a radio transceiver. It can communicate with almost anyone in the world via radio waves and the Internet. All it needs to do is reach a cell phone tower. Let’s focus on a few aspects of this though, what the cell phone was originally created for, and what it has replaced. It plays a part in understanding your reliance on this device. Cellphones were primarily created …


The Prepper Potential of an Old Cell Phone, by Mr. Zipph

Over the years, I have read many articles on communications in a grid-down situation. Those articles typically focus on using ham radios or CB radios to communicate with other like-minded folks in a TEOTWAWKI scenario. I have also read articles focused on the importance of gathering and accessing important information that you would need if the Schumer hiints the fan (TSHTF). These articles typically discuss the importance of having hard-copy books and printed planning information, contact information, and other important information that would be valuable to have. I first suggested the importance of a cell phone in preparedness efforts in …


Making a Simplex Voice Channel Plan, by Don Shift

The average person who gets a Baofeng radio will have no idea how to tune in when they turn it on and see an input like 445.000 staring back at them. Pushing the buttons to blindly tune the frequencies up or down doesn’t work like a CB radio, car stereo, or marine radio. You can’t just pick a frequency at random and start using it. First, there will probably be no one to talk to. Second, you could be transmitting on a frequency or in a mode that is prohibited. My pre-ham radio experience was with VHF law enforcement radios; …