(1 August 2012, 21:32)NorthernRaider Wrote: (1 August 2012, 21:20)The Local Ned Wrote: (1 August 2012, 09:05)NorthernRaider Wrote: Makes sense to me, so why have we just spent bloody weeks waffling on about HAM, PMR , CB and every other possible permutation? Why did you folks just say " We are the Hamburgers and CB is the easiest way to go?
Theres about forty threads posted recently talking about anything EXCEPT the simplest option ??? 
NR - what you've been seeing over the past few weeks are clued up people doing their level best to second guess an infinite number of solutions to each and everyones standard radio comms setup.
The truth is - there is no holy grail - there is no single workable system that will get someone in Wales in regular contact with someone in Scotland outside of HAM equipment.
CB will be fine for nearly everyones local comms - <>5-10 mile range - but as with all radio comms - your geographical location will determine your coverage , and sometimes somebody will need a bit more power , on a different band , to be heard.
I've spent a lot of time looking at handsets , mobile units , antennas , and refreshing myself with up to date info on the best available gear , I know what I require now , and have tried to share some of my findings with all of you.
Your requirements may not be the same as mine , please heed this.
If you want an existing system , tried and tested - then go the UKFM CB route , it may not be perfect for some , but , things start getting complicated beyond this.
Yeah your spot on right mon ami, each of us has individually specific needs, I'm lucky I realised I dont need or want a radio system at all. Its oh so easy for us to get sucked along with the infectous enthuisiasm that is driving the radio comms issue along, it dawned on me that actually I dont really have any need for radios.
Trouble is everyone wants a magic answer but radio aint that simple
For short range handy comms (up to a couple of miles) PMR 446 is great, the sets are small, cheap, low powered but you're not going to get any distance (that can be a good thing for opsec).
For medium range (up to 20 miles + in good terrain or far less in bad terrain) then CB is great. I favour uk 27/81 fm as it is so readily available but we would need to look seriously at 12w ssb if they ever make it legal in this country.
We've all known people getting thousands of miles using cb (especially with a burner attached) but as LS pointed out this is down to 'skip' and is no use at all for covering the uk.
It's important to be able to use the kit legally otherwise we pack it away in a box and never test it until tshtf and find it doesn't work for some reason.
The one thing we don't seem to have covered is communicating across the uk and perhaps a little wider, you could ask why we'd want to.... I figure that we've made lots of contacts with fellow preppers but the trouble is that in this wonderful world of the internet they're spread out all over the country and I'm not gonna be able to contact them using CB so I want to find something that will work for a few hundred miles.
Unless there is something I've missed, the only way I can communicate across the uk is using two of the ham bands - 40m (7MHz) and 80m (3.5MHz) and an antenna set up for NVIS, sounds complicated but it isn't really.
To do this legally I need a ham licence - the foundation test is dead easy and allows you to use up to 10W straight away. Again - important to be able to use the kit before shtf or I'll find that post shtf everyone else is on different frequencies and I can't find them.
As for the radio, hf sets don't come cheap but they can be bought second hand for £150 or so if you get lucky. Another thought is to learn morse so that I can use a nice cheap low powered set (low power is important post shtf) that I can carry in my pocket.
Many people won't be interested in comms across the uk and will be happy with pmr 446 and cb to cover their needs but it would be really useful if enough of us get together with the kit to communicate across the country so that messages could be passed to and from other preppers in the area.
Cheers,
Martin
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