Public Comms SHTF

[Joe]

There are various Shtf events, to say you don’t need comms and intend to stay dark is a mistake. Let’s look at the Boxing Day tsunami, after the event comms consisted of people putting pictures on a wall and leaving a message wtf. You can also look at dozens of other events and lack of comms was a major issue.
If there’s people you need to contact then you need a system in place that will still be working when the phones go down and the power goes off. Not every event consists of military units DFing the surviving population.

[Mortblanc]

(20 June 2021, 15:21)Joe Wrote: If there’s people you need to contact then you need a system in place that will still be working when the phones go down and the power goes off.

See there Joe, you said it right there.

We are not the Civil Defense. Being the town crier is not our job.

Some of us are not in charge of anything, and no one is in charge of us. We have no one to contact, and don't want to go looking for someone to talk too.

The very most we will ever need is a good set of "walkies" or a CB so we can do closed group coms for neighborhood security over a one mile radius. Most of the time we can shout that far or send up smoke signals.

So why should we spend thousands on communications gear just so you can feel justified in spending on your hobby by declaring it a necessity. Yes, that is what you are doing.

Just say it; "This is my hobby, I'm a radio guy." That's OK if that is your hobby, it take all kinds. Just be aware that when things go sideways these are not people that will hold together in the crisis. You only know most of them over the air. Their situational knowledge and help would be of questionable value. Normally they are in a basement or attic room and have no window to look out from.

In my area they meet once a month in the basement of the Methodist Church and communicate in Morse Code and "radio speak". They have little to say to each other face to face due to "radio stuff" being all they communicate about over their costly equipment.

[bigpaul]

there is no one I need to contact post SHTF, wife and I are together pretty much 24/7 in normal times so post SHTF wont be much different.
wife has family but they are too far away to help or be of any help.

[Straight Shooter]

As KE and myself have said .....we will be listening and NOT transmitting .....makes sense to us .......if anyone else does not want to do that ....it’s fine by me .....no big deal is it ? .

[bigpaul]

I prefer the quiet life, mate!!

[Pete Grey]

After an event we will mainly just be listening, we have multi band radio, SW and MW should give us national and international news if there is any.

We will also listen on CB, rule of 3, search PREPCOM on the main site, print it out and keep it handy.

If nesessary we have walkie talkies if one of us is patrolling/foraging.

That should be enough for our needs.

[bigpaul]

any "broadcast" will be government BS.
anything put out by anyone else is probably going to be heresay and gossip.
most of it will be too far away and general in nature to be of any use to anyone not in those areas.

[kellys_eye]

I'd have thought learning about the transmission of illness would be 'on the news' whether broadcast countrywide or from your neighbors CB would be important enough. Even gossip can afford some entertainment - many lives revolved around it! - and quite a lot has enough truth about it to be worth listening to.

This boils down to 'do you bother listening or don't you' and I'd rather spend any downtime listening to the rest of the world grumbling and gleaning what I can from it, good or bad.

It's also the difference between purchasing a multi-band radio or not - a small price to pay when prepping.

[bigpaul]

got better things to do post SHTF than listen to someone grumbling on the radio.

[Skean Dhude]

I'll certainly have a scanner on listening out 24/7 while we have power. Information will always be useful.