(9 June 2013, 17:33)River Song Wrote: Assuming the landline network has gone; the mobile / cellphone network has been restricted to those organisations Gold/Silver/Bronze who have been issued with the standby SIM cards; what means of communication would you suggest for both a homebase and those out and about
It really depends on who you want to communicate with and the distances involved. For "home base", a good CB (preferably with single side-band capability), a means to power it, and a good antenna may solve your problem for communications within the radius of a few miles or so depending on atmospheric conditions.
Anything much more than that will require high-frequency single side-band amateur equipment, a license, and the knowledge of how to use it properly. I recommend that you go to
http://rsgb.org/main/clubs-and-education/#clubs and find the club nearest you.
As an alternative, a good single side-band capable battery-powered portable short wave receiver with a jack for an external antenna will allow you to listen in to conversations world-wide.
"Out and about" is a bit different. Car-mounted radios (both CB and SW) are available and useful. Hand-held CB radios aren't very effective except at very short distances, and hand-held short-wave radios in the 2-meter to 75 centimeter bands aren't much better without the use of repeater infrastructure which may or may not work in a disaster.
If you have any questions, please PM me, although you will get almost all of your questions answered just by attending a meeting of your local ham club.