Radio Communications

I regularly use a HAM radio in my work way out of cell coverage. When I was in a city last i turned my hamdheld on scan just for fun and there was quite a bit of communication going on. Seems like a good way to get in touch with people after a collapse (or just when the lines are down for some reason). Today with cheap chinese radios beeing found on ebay for a few dollars and a solar charger for a few dollars more I see no reason a prepper shouldn't get a few of those.
Also, getting a licence. I know, when SHTF noone is gonna care, but a licence also gets you the knowledge to improvise antennas and such and knowing the workings of radio coms. You'll have use for it.
The city I was listening in had a prepper code. A good way to make friends now and build trust between people while there still is trust left in the world. Making friends is not gonna get easier when everything is about survival.

 

Communication would be useful. Even if you never met anyone, knowing there was someone else out there could keep you sane. Since with HAM radio you can bounce your signal off the atmosphere you have an impressive range even with a newbie's licence and limited equipment, probably even greater once most of the background noise and interference is gone. Weather reports, warnings of violet activity in your area and the attackers MO, warnings of illness or epidemic, helpful advice in an emergency would all be usefull information to circulate by radio to replace what would have been circulated by satellite or media broadcast.
Beware someone using RDF equipment if you transmit from a fixed location though.

 

It seems to be quite the thing in my area, there are courses and Examinations available, I also have a mentor who is acting as an instructor.

 

They say here that the worse times are, the more hams there are. I mostly listen. I think in a collapse ot would be useful to know what ateast some people are doing, hear that theres still life.

 

you asked how many ham radio operators....here is a sample:

United States 801,424

Japan 435,581

Thailand 176,278

Germany 75,262

United Kingdom 58,426

 

Yup...Hams ...and I am one of them.

I talk regularly to my friend who retired about a year ago and moved out to a property he bought in Tennessee..some 400 miles from here.

We speak regularly on the weekends on 75 meters and sometimes switch to 160 meters. We will talk up to an hour long on our radios.
When he was living here close we often spoke on 2 meters FM or switched to 2 meter single side band mode.


I taught myself to make my own antennas ...for 2 meters and the 440 MHZ band....simple J pole antennas which I hoisted up into a tree on my property some 60 feet up in the air.

My long distance anteanna is a roll of 12 gauge black insulated wire from Lowes. Black so it is more difficult to see....

It is 500 feet long and I use a tuner to get it to match up. I can even get it to tune on the CB bands if needed.

All my long range radios work transmit and receive on the CB bands.

I can also transmit and receive on the MURS bands..as well as the GMRS/FRS bands.


The GMRS/FRS frequencies are those used by the little walkie talkies you see sold in Wal Mart and Bass Pro Shops.

The Ham Walkie talkies I have will also transmit and receive on the GMRS/FRS frequencies...as well as on the ham bands on UHF/VHF.

There are lots of things you can do in this arena....if you learn and apply yourself.


Oh.....I also keep two of these Short wave sets...around....one at work and one here at home...they too will pick up Single Side Band and thus the hams. Tecsun PL 660 .

https://www.amazon.com/Tecsun-PL-660-Portable-Shortwave-Single/dp/B004H9C4JK


In spite of having my ham license I still listen to shortwave broadcasting frequencies and even foreign stations when they broadcast in English.

This is what taught me ...many many years ago....before home computers...how rigged and unfree our phony/fake media/news in this country really was.

It was the number of news stories which never got into this country or even local stories heard on foreign broadcasts but never covered here on radio or television which finally awoke me to how heavy a paper curtain existed over America.

Fake news is not a new concept to me....even before I got my ham license.

I still listen to short wave on my ham radios on that 500 foot long wire loop antenna.


What many of you do not know ...is that in a bad SHTF.....many of the cell towers go down ...are inoperable.

Just ask those people in Puerto Rico...who are still recovering.

Now today there are portable cell phone towers which can be fielded...with their own generators....but what do you do until those get in and operational??? It could be up to a week or two before any cell phones are operable.

You see!!

When I went on vacation last year....to a cabin up in the mountains.. I brought my long range ham radio, a power supply, tuner ,and cables, along with a G5RV antenna and put it up as a temporary field type radio set up.
I hoisted the antenna into the trees using a small fishing pole.

A G5RV is a simple dipole antenna of the type our fathers and grandfathers used in the olde days...and it works well for little cost. One can even make them if one has the skills. I've made several dipole antennas for different frequency bands.
Dipole antennas are about as simple as one can get.

I talked to my friend in Tennessee every night for which we were at the cabin......and also monitored the shortwave bands as well as local traffic.

The cabin was just outside of cell phone coverage.

There are things you can do to teach yourself..but now is the time to learn...not after SHTF or TEOTWAWKI....but now.

Operational security is up to you how you use or don't use it...and for your own individual reasons.


Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Orangetom

 

I have a radio that receives the SW bands, the CB bands and the weather bands along with the normal radio bands. I always wanted to get involved with radios and short wave. I loved the CB stuff and had a base station along with mobel units in all my cars and trucks but never had the money to get set up with the short wave stuff. I do have a set of the family band radios that are pretty handy.

 

Texdanm,

I use mostly those two short wave sets of which I linked in my previous post when I am out and about . When on my base station up in my radio room I monitor shortwave and ham bands on a Yaesu FT 890 and a Icom 706 MK II G radio.
In my truck I use a Yaesu FT 100 d model radio....in both long and short wave modes...HF/UHF/VHF.

I keep a 2 meter/440 MHZ walkie talkie at work in a special locker and replace the batteries on occasion with ones from home...and recharge the ones I have replaced. So to that Shortwave set I linked.

I have these kinds of commercial walkie talkies.

https://www.amazon.com/BaoFeng-UV-5...pID=41xV3DDhxBL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

and this higher power model

https://www.amazon.com/BaoFeng-BF-F...pID=51n7wNG2N3L&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

These radios are commercial radios and happen to work on the Ham Bands. They are sufficiently inexpensive that one can lose one or get one damaged and not be out a lot of monies. These radios can be programmed to work on the MURS frequencies and also the GMRS/FRS frequencies as are on those Wally World/Bass Pro type radios.

These walkie talkies also put out twice the output power as do those Wally World/Bass Pro walkie talkies on those frequencies.

The actual frequencies which the GMRS/FRS radios operate on are available on line by which one can program into these radios. The actual digital numbers of the MURS frequencies are available as well. This is how I found out and programmed them into my radios.

Oh... a sidelight of these walkie talkies is that with a special antenna adapter I can unscrew the rubber duckie antenna ...screw in the adapter and hook them up to a base station antenna or a roof mount magnetic mobile antenna on m car or truck and use them thusly....extend my range as compared to the factory rubber ducky antennas.

Antenna efficiency is half or better of the game so to speak in two way radio.


I too started on the CB bands and loved it. Even when I was heavy into CB, I was teaching myself to modify and manufacture my own antennas and continued this skill when I got my ham license.
And I still return to the CB bands to say hello to the people I know who still use those frequencies.
I try not to forget from whence I came...as the olde saying goes.

A ham radio license is no more difficult than taking the test for drivers license. You just have to know the material.
Also other hams will help you out with any questions you may have...or refer you to someone who knows if they do not.

Now today there are trial exams/study materials on the computer by which one can study and see if you can pass....before taking the actual exam.
None of this on line material was available when I took my first test. I learned from a Radio Shack books and took the exam.

Also the Morse Code is no longer required as it was in days past.


There are other companies which make these new walkie talkies but those are the models I use...and which I am familiar.

I have taught myself to manually program my walkie talkies as I don't like being dependent on a computer ....in many things I do I prefer to be able to manual override...and not be too dependent on outside technology to navigate for me.

With your history, experience, and work background I believe you are well familiar with self sufficiency...and individual knowledge..self taught ....so to speak....being self sustaining as much as possible. I also suspected this about your way when you described your extensive library .

I also suspect that your math skills are better than average...particularly fractions, decimals and even metric...a big plus...in any field.


It is my way in many things and as much as possible...self taught...and not be too dependent on technology or put another way...dependent on the "Herd."

Two way or even one way radio...a receiver/scanner is a way to do that..particularly if SHTF or TEOTAWKI. Also the way to monitor what is happening around you ...even without transmitting if you so choose to do...operatonal security and that sort of thing.


Thanks,
Watcherchris

 

A machinist quickly starts thinking in thousands of an inch and knows by heart the decimal numbers for all the fractions. Figuring the chord length to space holes around a bolt circle takes an understanding of trig and working in a shipyard that work on ships from all over the world requires an understanding of metrics and converting metrics into decimal inches. My Dad was a pretty good carpenter and I used to drive him crazy giving him wood measurements in decimals to the thousands. (Like .875 for 7/8 and .625 for 5/8. ) My wife and I were talking about this just the other night. There are lots of things that I do in metric and then convert to SAE because it is easier. If you have an aquarium and want to know how much it will weigh when full of water it is just easier to measure it metricly and in the end convert the liters to gallons and the weight from Kilograms to pounds. A kilogram weighs 2.2 pounds. How many gallons is in a cubic foot of water and what does it weigh? Hell if I know!

 

LOL LOL LOL!!!

Bravo!!! Bavo!!!



I'm also grateful for my 6 inch steel scale which I carry with me daily at work. On the back of it is the decimal to fractions conversion which I have found myself using sufficiently to get familiar with these conversions.
I also try always to carry with me a thin Stanley 10 foot tap measure. This too has come in handy and quite often.

I remember being Amazed when I saw and handled my first digital 6 inch caliper. I had been accustomed to the dial type in .001 increments. To my astonishment I learned that these new digital gadgets can convert to mm at a push of a button.

Very nice and convenient. But I still prefer to go by charts...manual override. This in case the batteries run dead.

I am still accustomed to the analog dial type measuring instruments....and prefer them for dead battery reasons in the newer types. Same with outside micrometers...analog.




Yesterday before shoving off,...I charged my spare batteries for my 2 meter/440MZ walkie talkie...the Baofeng BF F8HP.

I have put it in a special locker in a heavy duty protective plastic bag..and now also put into this bag the recharged spare batteries.

In that same protective heavy duty bag is also my Tecsun PL 660 shortwave set.

My spare Tecsun PL 660 is right here next to this computer along with a Baofeng UV 5 R walkie talkie and spare battery.


I need to be manufacturing another two roll up emergency antennas as I gave away my last one to my friend for his Baofeng UV 5 R radio.

I make them out of that 300 ohm flat TV type ...FM radio antenna wire and feed them with RG 58 or RG 8 mini coaxial cable.

I plan to stick this spare emergency antenna in that same locker at work and another to keep around here...for emergencies.


Thanks,
Watcherchris

 

I usually had a 12" hook scale in my pocket that was normal fractional graduations on one side but the other side was in tenths and hundreds of and inch. It was good for quick measurements and to sweep shavings out of the way. That hook scale, a tape measure and a set of 12" channel locks were always on me. I still carry a tape measure at all times.

As I wrote this I looked over on the shelf beside my chair and notice the little 0 to .500/1/2" micrometer that I keep for quick small measurements.

 

Chatted with my Friend out in Tennessee for about 45 minutes last night. We used 75 meters in LSB mode but at times the noise level crept in on us and we had to raise our power levels from 50 watts to 100 watts. That seemed to do the trick.

We can run more but found it unnecessary...and prefer not to so do if not needed.

Expect the noise levels on these bands to get worse as the summer heat takes it's toll on the frequency bands.

Hope to be able to get home this evening and repeat the process on 75 meters.

Thanks,
Watcherchris

 

Actually, Millions of ham operators out there. As for local, most areas have hundreds of licenced Hams. And they are mostly patriotic Americans from my personal experience.