Survival Radio Musts, Shoulds, Coulds

[Martin200261]

(2 August 2012, 09:45)NorthernRaider Wrote: I get the feeling we all have slightly different ideas about what we want radio comms for, in my own case i want hand held radios capable of a minimum of 10 miles range for keeping contact with my family during the initial part of the collapse ( esp if the cellphone system fails or is turned off) , but after TSHTF my primary role will be for patroling my AOO, I will need to go scavenging and salvaging for materials and supplies, I will need to patrol for security issues to make sure herds of starving sheeple are not heading towards my home, also so I can provide real time feed back to the rest of my family about what any herds of sheeple consist of so we can plan accordingly. Also if other preppers with whom I have a trusting relationship are driven into my AOO I can radio them from secure spots a long way from my retreat to meet them some dafe place to be able to help them. And I will need comms tween working parties out and about doing everything from rubbish disposal, animal husbandy, gardening duties. So competant two way radios that are primarily HAND PORTABLE, but can be set up in vehicles or as base stations will be my main need.

CB 27 FM and AM is one good option, 4 watts normally but at least 10 watt and longer better aerials after TSHF, OR according to August 2012 copy of Radio User and on CB radio forums, tarted up PMR 446 is becoming an unofficial CB network in many European countrys, but at 4 or 5 watt or MORE, not .5watt

I know about triangulation so broadcasts from my home are going to be very few and very brief, prolly just short pre arranged code words IE "Alas Babylon"

I would suggest to my colleagues on SUK that though base station comms will be of great importance to us overall, they need in the short to medium term avoid broadcasting from the physical locations of their homes as nasty people could be triangulating where you are.?

NR, sounds like you've got a good handle on your radio needs and know which direction you are going

We still need to decide on a calling channel we would all use if we were in your AOO, do we use the standard ch19 or something else? I think this is one of the areas we are all trying to sort out. Do we want to use the same calling channels as everyone else or do we hope to operate hidden from the general mass?