7 watt PMR 446 rigs ( I think) £35

[Lightspeed]

(29 June 2012, 09:54)NorthernRaider Wrote: LS, I'm not giving up, I'm leaving to the experts and radio hobbyists to sort out, its way to difficult for me As you pointed out yesterday I have been doing this for ages, and I personally have seen no progress, heck even the various forums dont have a regular system of comms ( another issue that needs sorting). I'm content to stay away from this can of worms.

I misunderstood you, I thought you were giving up on the Comms thing full stop.

Your knowledge and experience are truely valuable to us in this area, please keep chipping in. Lets get a solution taht works for us here and let the system administrators work out how to communicate intra group.

Cheers and best regards

Lightspeed.

[NorthernRaider]

For what little it is worth cos my knowledge of Radio Technical stuff is miniscule, I ( if I read this right) believe the three primary bands most (?) of us are looking at are
26 to 28 Mhz
28 to 30 Mhz
440 to 470 Mhz
on BOTH AM and FM
covering all UK and CEPT bands the 10 meter Ham band (the 28 to 30 Mhz doofah)

So how do you plan on moving forward ? are you and our great leader creating a cunning plan?

---

I have a very strong desire to get the rough end of a Pineapple and to sexually abuse a radio ham with it

[Lightspeed]

(29 June 2012, 10:12)NorthernRaider Wrote: For what little it is worth cos my knowledge of Radio Technical stuff is miniscule, I ( if I read this right) believe the three primary bands most (?) of us are looking at are
26 to 28 Mhz
28 to 30 Mhz
440 to 470 Mhz
on BOTH AM and FM
covering all UK and CEPT bands the 10 meter Ham band (the 28 to 30 Mhz doofah)

So how do you plan on moving forward ? are you and our great leader creating a cunning plan?

---

I have a very strong desire to get the rough end of a Pineapple and to sexually abuse a radio ham with it

Hi NR,

No cunning plan, not great leader as far as I'm concerned.

There is no absolutely rorght or absolutely wrong set of frequencies to useto meet our needs, anything can be made to work, within reason.

Before selecting bands we need to see what we want to do communications wise, and then find the most viable way to achieve this. That doesn't necessarily finding the absolutely best solution possible, rather its a matter of finding a satisfactory solution that is affordable and achievable for the greatest number of us.

As I see it ther are four distinct communications criteria for us to consider. In order of priority these are:

1. Receiving information during and after an eventy( a shorwave / MW/FM receiver will chieve this)

2. Local tactical communications to stay in touch with and coordinate activities among a local community.

3. Communicating with survivor communities and far flung individuals for mutual support across the country ( this is the network discussion we are embarked upon)

4. Possibly Communicating with international survivor communities and individuals

Are your needs & prorities different to this?

[NorthernRaider]

Can I be a complete twat and throw a spanner into the works, but I feel whatever we settle on I think it needs to be a hand portable rig with the capability of being easily connected to a seperate aerial on the vehicle roof and capable of running from the fag lighter socket. and OR run as a home base set using a PSU from the mains and a rooftop aerial.

In many cases I feel ( fear) that survivalists and preppers may need to abandon their vehicle or home in some severe circumstances and if they could just unplug the power supply and aerial they can still have a working commms system ??

I know the ultra mega rich like TL and W & c can probably afford multiple radios but I think most can only afford one unit and its going ton have to be portable ???

Sorrryyyyy
NR

[Lightspeed]

That's not throwing a spanner in the works at all. Its a realistic approach.

I would go further. Anything that needs a PSU and wall socket to run is disqualified as a survival tool from the outset.

Personally my gear is selected to be highly portable and can run off multple power sources, and attach to various external antennas.

Lightspeed

[Timelord]

While Morse may be something that needs a licence at the moment, that will not be an issue after an event. Also, with this , all we need is to have a print out in front of us with the characters displayed so we can start rudimentary transmission. Ok so it will be slow to start off with, but so is texting when you first try it. The end result will be that we can all aquire a low cost transceiver that will reach long distance. The equipment does not matter what make etc, it will all work morse, so we can all be on a uniform global network for minimal cost. the kit is small & portable too. needs hardly any power requirements. etc etc. Like I said, the talkie stuff could be for close range comms. Surely something the equivalent of texting would be damn useful PSHTF.. The beauty is that all prepper networks should be able to converge on this standard, without the Techie element wanting to sway it down their particular favourite route.. Think about it.. There is no way we will ever get the widespread prepper community to agree on one standard of any other type of equipment. Morse is already there for us and is the perfect tool for the job really...TL.

[NorthernRaider]

(29 June 2012, 11:09)Lightspeed Wrote: That's not throwing a spanner in the works at all. Its a realistic approach.

I would go further. Anything that needs a PSU and wall socket to run is disqualified as a survival tool from the outset.

Personally my gear is selected to be highly portable and can run off multple power sources, and attach to various external antennas.

Lightspeed

OK but for now its OK to run a rig via a PSU from the mains, but I think we aught to be looking at recarging from a PV system post TSHTF, but thats fort another day.

[Lightspeed]

TL

Agreed CW is a really good skill to develop both to permit long range comms at low power, and also to keep messages harder to interpret by persons without the necessary knowledge. Certainly anyone serious about prepper wireless communications should at least have a copy of the code stored away safely.

Progress will be slow at first, very slow indeed. Strangely CW is easier to send than it is to "hear" it takes a great deal of time an practice to get proficient. But time will be very much onour side. Who is dictating that messages get sent at any particular speed. One character every few minutes may be sufficient to eensure the message gets across.

Sending Morse need not be illegal. What about tapping morse into an audio signal generator (and loudspeaker) and sending the resulting dah dah dit dit dit sound through any license free FM transmitter ( CB or PMR) That way we can practice legally among ourselves???

[Skean Dhude]

Just to throw another spanner in. Although I agree that we need something hand portable for general use that does not stop us considering heavy, fixed units for the other applications such as long range work.

[Lightspeed]

(29 June 2012, 12:40)Skean Dhude Wrote: Just to throw another spanner in. Although I agree that we need something hand portable for general use that does not stop us considering heavy, fixed units for the other applications such as long range work.

What sort of fixed units are you thinkig od SD?

Mobile units seem to cater for most high power needs now, and I cansider these to be non-fixed and very portable.

Have you got an old Yaesu FT101 boat anchor squrreled away up there??