Mission Crit. Communication durring a SHTF scenario

S

Silverguns6

Joined
Mar 31, 2013
Messages
158
Likes
13
Location
Off Grid NWCt
Feedback: 0 / 0 / 0
Whos first to know about a disaster, attack or emergency situation? Not the Media and not the local radio stations.
Law enforcement and emergency responders know what is going on before anyone else. In some situations a trucker has the upper hand on the first alert before LE and Emergency responders. So when you need to Bug Out or Bug In and "Get ready," time is everything and you cannot waste any of it. I am a registered first responder/EMT and I am currently a volunteer fire fighter. From my point of view as a prepper and as a emergency responder, here is my take on neccissary, mission critical pieces of equiptment for SHTF communications. Although you may not be communicating with some of these, hearing things as the happen means you are one step ahead of the not prepared neighbor. Be it a nuclear plant meltdown, a leaking city-wide gas pipe system, a terrorist attack, shoot out, massive MVA, HAZMAT spill or miltary invasion; if you are first hearing about it from Mr. Newsman, you lost valuable time.

-Programmable scanner with NOAA weather frequencies.
I own a handheld Radioshack scanner with NOAA and trunking capabilities as well as a Uniden Bearcat mounted in my car. The both ran in the $110-$150 range and both have an aprox range with the stock antennas of 40mi. Although I don't drive statewide often, I have every state and local town frequency in New Haven county, Litchfield county, Hartford county and the Springfield MA area, NYC and other areas around me. The Radioshack scanner has about 100 pre-programmed frequencies including aircraft unicom and HAM 2M Repeater.
The NOAA frequencies are great for weather updates (Capt. Obvious here).

-CB radio.
I own two but none are currently installed in my vehicle. One is a Cobra and the other is a vintage Brutt CB. I am sure everyone over the age of 30 had a CB radio in their vehicle at one time or another. I hope that most every person viewing this knows what a CB radio is and why it is good to own one. When I would drive down I-91 or I-95, if there was an unusal build up of traffic, I would turn on the CB and tune to channel 19. If there was an MVA and a trucker was near it, he/she would most likely alert other truck drivers (and me) to the MVA. When I would drive to Okemo VT, if the weather wasn't clear I would call out every couple of hours and ask how I91 north ahead of me is. If it is icy, moving slow etc, a trucker would be able to give me an accurate heads up. CB radios have upto 40 channels. most wouldn't be cluttered so if you have 5 people that are bugging in or out with you and cell towers are down (like we saw in Boston a short time ago) you all can communicate via the CB radio. Although the channels are all open, if you use codes and callsigns known only to your group, opsec shouldn't be violated.
I love eBay, and I was looking for a portable handheld CB radio. I came across many CB kits that I believe were around durring the Cold War and part of some sort of Civil Defense thing. Here is the one I purchased. Vintage Brutt Power Hand Held CB with Antenna and Car Lighter Power Cord Case | eBay
I tested it when I got it and it works, but because I am not near any major highways, I could not conduct a complete radiocheck. I do know it is 100% functional though and I did hear some chatter although it was not clear. For the $$, I believe it was worth it and I advised my friends and prepper buddies to buy similar ones as well. They are 100% mobile and I keep it in my vehicle "go bag."

Other than that, two way radios are a must have.[smile]

Thanks for reading
-Dave
 
Does that Brutt Power CB take batteries? SOme of those old school emergency CBs only worked off the 12 volt cord which will limit the portability. The nice thing is you can find them for short money as most got thrown in the trunk and left there.
 
Silverguns, you are correct. Situational awareness is an important part of your prepping.

Midland handheld 40-channel CB reviews here. If it's mission critical then battery life is important as well as range. If you don't have these, then you might as well buy a talkabout instead. My thoughts only.

I have a Bearcat 396T on at work and heard the Marathon incident directly from BPD and BFD at the push of a button by turning these programmed banks on. I learned about it from Cambridge Fire personnel that were helping BFD at the finish line (because I work in Cambridge and listen to them at work).

When I am at the workbench at home (aka the command center!) I have 4 scanners running: A Bearcat portable, a base, a Radioshack trunking scanner, and an ICOM. I am close enough to get Logan emergency, Staties, and operations on their trunking frequencies. It is an interesting hobby that fits in with my prepping.
 
Another CB option is to get one with single side band channels. This gives you upper and lower sidebands effectively increasing your channel number to 120. Also with sideband channels it uses the available power more efficiently and you are able to get longer distances.

Not a fan of CB for my only source of comms but it definitely has it's uses and it's certainly better than nothing.
 
For line of sight contact I'd suggest 2 meter handheld's, pick a frequency, change out the "rubber ducky" antenna for a 1/4 wave and go simplex, or you can hit a repeater if need be. You will need a tech ticket for this or the net nazi's might make things difficult for you.

A 2 meter mobile can have 50 to 70 watts of transmit power.
Get on high ground with a portable yagi on a tripod and you can listen or talk out to the horizion.

Another option is FRS / GMRS handhelds, the better ones have a "privacy feature" which prevents eavesdropping.

There another forum I'm on which has a thread about using old PTT cell phones as secure digital comms.
 
For mission critical, SHTF communications, your suggestions would qualify as woefully inadequate in my eyes. Understand though that I have full two-way radio communications from HF through 900 MHZ, both mobile and at home. In addition, I have some AN/PRC127EFJ military grade radios in UHF that have encryption capabilities. I also have matching EFJ radios in 900 MHZ with the same encryption capabilities. I also have the Keyloader so I can make up and program my own encryption keys into the radios.

Having a scanner is an excellent idea, but it is only one small part of an overall comm plan. When the SHTF, I don't want you or the government or anyone else listening in on my family's comms. You won't be able to and neither will they.
 
n1oty said:
For mission critical, SHTF communications, your suggestions would qualify as woefully inadequate in my eyes. Understand though that I have full two-way radio communications from HF through 900 MHZ, both mobile and at home. In addition, I have some AN/PRC127EFJ military grade radios in UHF that have encryption capabilities. I also have matching EFJ radios in 900 MHZ with the same encryption capabilities. I also have the Keyloader so I can make up and program my own encryption keys into the radios.

Having a scanner is an excellent idea, but it is only one small part of an overall comm plan. When the SHTF, I don't want you or the government or anyone else listening in on my family's comms. You won't be able to and neither will they.
Click to expand...

Sorry if this is a real dumb question, I know very little about radio communication and am trying to learn about it. Does the encryption keeps others from listening or from understanding what they hear?
 
What would be the range of a setup like this?

n1oty said:
For mission critical, SHTF communications, your suggestions would qualify as woefully inadequate in my eyes. Understand though that I have full two-way radio communications from HF through 900 MHZ, both mobile and at home. In addition, I have some AN/PRC127EFJ military grade radios in UHF that have encryption capabilities. I also have matching EFJ radios in 900 MHZ with the same encryption capabilities. I also have the Keyloader so I can make up and program my own encryption keys into the radios.

Having a scanner is an excellent idea, but it is only one small part of an overall comm plan. When the SHTF, I don't want you or the government or anyone else listening in on my family's comms. You won't be able to and neither will they.
Click to expand...
 
links?

n1oty said:
For mission critical, SHTF communications, your suggestions would qualify as woefully inadequate in my eyes. Understand though that I have full two-way radio communications from HF through 900 MHZ, both mobile and at home. In addition, I have some AN/PRC127EFJ military grade radios in UHF that have encryption capabilities. I also have matching EFJ radios in 900 MHZ with the same encryption capabilities. I also have the Keyloader so I can make up and program my own encryption keys into the radios.

Having a scanner is an excellent idea, but it is only one small part of an overall comm plan. When the SHTF, I don't want you or the government or anyone else listening in on my family's comms. You won't be able to and neither will they.
Click to expand...
 
Twigg said:
Another option is FRS / GMRS handhelds, the better ones have a "privacy feature" which prevents eavesdropping.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say that. The consumer grade FRS / GMRS / MURS radios don't support encryption (and if I'm not mistaken, transmitting encrypted on those freqs is not strictly lawful anyway.) The "privacy" feature is usually just a squelch tone. Some do have a "scramble" feature in addition but it's just signal inversion.

Bottom line, people can hear you if they want to.
 
Last edited:
I don't know what I can offer for links. You can google search the AN/PRC127EFJ and it will pop up. The military AN/PRC127EFJ radios have AES-256 encryption capability and I have a Motorola KVL-3000+ keyloader that can program AES and DES keys.



GomerPile said:
links?
Click to expand...
 
Dont forget marine radio's. they have decent range and offer mulitble channels, and if you are going to be far away from the coast line chances are no one else would be listening in to those channels. ham radios are deffinatly the best bet, but not everyone has access to them.
 
MisterHappy said:
It's a no-no to use a marine radio while on land. Of course if the S has hit, meh.....
Click to expand...

are you sure about that? I was under the impression that it was fine as long as you arnt makeing false mayday calls? If it is a law, is there any exemtion for haveing a land based one to talk to boaters such as found in marina's or tow boat offices? as long as there is a lake, or boating river nearby you may get away with the legal asspect of it...
 
spcantwell said:
are you sure about that? I was under the impression that it was fine as long as you arnt makeing false mayday calls? If it is a law, is there any exemtion for haveing a land based one to talk to boaters such as found in marina's or tow boat offices? as long as there is a lake, or boating river nearby you may get away with the legal asspect of it...
Click to expand...

This is what I found on the subject. MARINE RADIO ON LAND
 

Similar threads

A quick trip to the Adirondacks...
Replies
12
Views
483
peterk123
P
Just picked up a Power station
2
Replies
37
Views
2K
fshalor
fshalor
Calcium Hypocholite - local and cheap water sanitizer!
Replies
3
Views
82
Uzi2
U
grafting apples onto root stock
Replies
6
Views
98
mousegunguy
mousegunguy
Amish WARNING about Growing Food at home
Replies
9
Views
383
Penniepup1
Penniepup1
Back
Top Bottom