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Emergency Communications Solutions (lemm.ee)

submitted 2 months ago by pineapplelover@lemm.ee to c/prepper@lemm.ee

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In case phones are down and stuff during a disaster, what would be the best way to communicate? Ham radio? Satellite phone? I need options guys.

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[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Define "communicate".

With who?

Over what distance?

Also for what kind of scenario?

There's probably some more things to define first, which will help guide a solution.

In a nutshell, over short/local distances (1/4 mile to perhaps 5 miles under ideal conditions, which never happen), GMRS can be used. It's easy to learn. But it's very range limited in general.

You could setup your own repeater on something high, and get miles of range then (I regularly pickup folks 10+ miles away because there's a repeater half way between us on a tall building).

Long distance, HAM/HF. But that's very complex, you really have to learn quite a bit to make that happen, and whoever's on the other end would need similar skilset.

CB can do significant distance too.

With any radio, the higher the antenna, the farther the reach - that's the primary driver.

Radio is a helluva rabbit hole, but I'd recommend starting with GMRS - radios are fairly inexpensive, you can get started for about $100 if you find a deal on a radio 2 pack (and not the cheap blister pack crap, something like TidRadio or better).

Cell phones are just radios that link to a repeater nearby - the cell tower. That tower then links to the phone network, typically via cable.

[–] sentientity@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

Your last sentence is something I didn't know. That's cool

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Just with my fam so ideally like 50 miles of range for example, but obviously, the wider the range, the better. I know there are repeaters and stuff but I don't really know how well they work and if that's the best option for this type of thing.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

For 50 miles you're going to either need HAM or a repeater on anything else.

Even then, geography will be a huge determinant. Radio is generally line-of-sight, which is why things like GMRS/FRS and CB are limited to 5 miles - the general distance to the horizon.

I don't remember the math for antenna elevation and line-of-sight, but for some reason I have 30ft in my head for 10 miles, given flat country (no hills in the way). Don't quote me on that, but it's an example of how elevation affects range.

Fifty miles is a challenge, unless you can get an antenna really high, or are able to setup a chain of repeaters (I'm not sure how legal this is, GMRS regs are pretty open).

HAM isn't limited by line-of-sight because it can reflect off the atmosphere, but it takes skill at both ends to know how to manage this. Think of HAM as using the atmosphere as a repeater, but one that's constantly changing frequencies, and you have to figure that out at any given time based on conditions (and it's not always available between 2 locations because of those same varying conditions).

I think your best approach for now is to start with GMRS - it's an inexpensive start, and you'll learn this stuff with hands-on. Setting up your own GMRS repeater is pretty easy (once you have a little knowledge), has minimal regulation, and you can get several miles pretty quickly. There's a repeater about 4 or 5 miles from me (on a tower) that provides a connection to vehicles on the interstate more than 10 miles away. Being elevated means the repeater can "see" a lot farther.

Here's a good place to start.