Comms in a Power-Grid Down Sitation

[Jonas]

(29 March 2013, 10:15)bigpaul Wrote: i'm not technically minded, so have decided to give comms a miss but, a few things spring to mind, post SHTF who are you trying to contact? could someone triangulate your signal and locate your position, like the Germans did in occupied Europe in WW2? if only for local use wouldnt a short range walkie talkie be sufficient?

This is a good question BP, and I'll try to answer it completely. As an example, I'll use a mythical "zombie uprising" as the SHTF event, but you can apply this to pretty much any scenario.

First of all, I want to be listening. I know a bunch of folks who are amateur operators scattered through the US, Canada, and Mexico and if anything untoward is going on in their areas from 200 to 2000 miles away from me, (like a zombie uprising) I'd like to know about it. People don't have to be amateur radio operators to listen, just have a battery-powered short-wave radio receiver with single side-band capability. These can be purchased online for about $100 US.

Secondly, if there are zombies here in Deep East Texas, I'm sure these ham operator friends would like to know that, and which way the zombie hoards are headed. To get that information out I'll be using the AmmRON communications plan from TAPRN, which should be downloaded and printed out from the internet.

Third, yes, when I transmit, my signal can be "triangulated" but tracing a HF SSB signal given the number of frequencies available (this isn't CB with 40 channels) is extremely difficult, though not impossible. HF covers 8 bands with literally thousands of options for different frequencies, different modes (AM, AM SSB, FM, Morse Code) plus several "data modes" which cover several different computer-generated modes that use a very narrow bandwidth and are sent very quickly (think of email without the internet). By transmitting on 5 or 10 watts rather than my usual 100 watt output and using a directional beam antenna pointed directly at the station I want to contact, I'll be pretty hard to find.

Fourth, hand-held CB's and such have a very limited power and are generally considered "line of sight" range although freak atmospheric conditions may on occasion make longer ranges possible.

It really comes down to what are you comfortable with for gathering information for your family's safety in a "zombie uprising". If you want to know what's going on a block or two away, then your hand-held CB transceivers will work fine, all things considered. If you want to know if the "zombies" have arrived at the French coast and are starting to swim across the Channel, or if Canada or Austrailia are still safe to move to, then you need to be able to listen to HF short wave. If you want to send information to your sister in Wales or cousin in Canada, then you need an amateur radio license and a HF transceiver.

I'm not "technically minded" either (my college major was history with a minor in English), but it took me about a month of online studying to get my "technician" license, another two months to get my "general-class" license and about 3 months more to get my "amateur-extra" ticket. Believe me, if I can do it, anyone on this board can do it!

For more information head to the Radio Society of Great Britain http://www.rsgb.org/

Good luck and get going, BP. Somehow I don't think we've got a lot of time left. The "zombies" have already cleaned out Cyprus!