Jason, Your video was quite well done: good job! I found your reasonable and layered approach to communicating with family and friends during a lapse in infrastructure to be quite reasonable and frankly - I've done this a few times personally. Thankfully, it was not a matter of life or death for us, but it WAS good to let family and friends outside of the stricken/grid-down area know that we were fine, so to not worry. This occurred in more than one earthquake when I lived in California, along with hurricanes/tropical storms here in Virginia and definitely during extended backpacking trips when - at night - I'd tap-out short messages to/from family and friends of the group with me. Thanks for posting, Ray ..._ ._ Ps. Winlink allowed me to provide paper printed storm track charts on-demand for my county EOC >AFTER< they lost internet. "I don't know HOW you got this, but keep it coming!". That was fun...
I have a boat ready for launch. Why? I live on an island with a nuclear power station (albeit now closing). There are two 19th century, hopelessly oversubscribed bridges to cross the mainland. The local government emergency plan was written decades ago, and relies entirely on getting people off the island by said bridges. There are 70,000 people who would need to cross those bridges in an emergency. Ergo, nobody would get anywhere after the first few minutes. So, a boat, my friends! But no radio, for sure!
As for HF... remember the US project Starfish? HF would be, at best, severely disrupted, if not totally wiped out for long periods. Should there be anyone to communicate with. 'Prepping' is just a US thing.
CFN de ASA I do disagree, and here is my reasoning. First: normal event such as storms, forest fires , earthquakes and the occasional traffic 'oooops' HAVE put me grid-down more than a few times in my life. Secondly: this video was about general communications ability during rather normal events - not strategic nuclear war. Third, the disruption of the ionosphere, even from the HUGE weapon used for STARFISH-PRIME and exploded almost directly over the test site at Johnson Island was measured in hours, not weeks or months and only interfered with propagation crossing via the blast area, not the other points of the compass. Remember : that region of the Pacific was a major route for aircraft, ships and also home to many people, including the Hawaiian islands, yet no ships were cast adrift, no aircraft fell from the skies and - thankfully- no zombie kittens were reported. I have heard whispers of Ghoul Gophers on Kiribati , but those seem to be somewhat apocryphal ;-) Isn't RAYNET a communication preparedness network? -...- 70,000 on olde and likely small bridges?!?! Ouch - Your boat is a very GOOD idea! Best to be self-sufficient for a few days if such an occasion should occur and besides, island life is water life. I am on a smallish peninsula jutting into the beautiful Chesapeake Bay and besides the utility of boats, have many, very fond memories from life out on the water. 73 de Ray ..._ ._
Me too...but for a different reason: https://www.fieldandstream.com/resi...aws.com/public/W7ZP74NW2EOSJRXDEM2MASFHOI.png
Thanks for all of the comments. The video wasn’t about end of the world events. I only referenced natural disasters that might occur. In the last decade or so, we have witnessed multiple catastrophic storms (Katrina, Maria, & Dorian come to mind). All 3 have disrupted day to day life for thousands. Cell phones were worthless. Should you find yourself in the disaster zone, it might be nice to communicate with loved ones outside of the area. Let them know your ok or maybe your location. It’s not top of the priority list. It falls somewhere below food, water, & shelter. How far down the list is for each to decide. It could also be as simple as placing HT’s in separate vehicles during an evacuation. I did a little experiment on Sept 7 using the radio in such a way that freed me up to take care of more pressing needs while still sending/receiving messages to friends in other states. That video will release Friday Sept 27. In the meantime, this is my personal radio story and what got me interested in individual emergency communications. 73, de KM4ACK
OK, while it IS a good idea to prepare for foreseeable disasters, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and big snowstorms ... here is MY take: MY XYL supports ham radio completely. Shoot, she even helped dig a trench to bury my feed line. She makes JUST ONE demand in case of emergency: Stay home and help HER through it. Therefore, you will NOT find me braving the storm with 16 spare HT batteries saving the world one call after another. I will be home looking after her and my own spread, trying to ward off and thwart the neighbors and other looters looking to take my food, water and other stuff. I will load my gun and protect the homestead long before I turn my radio on. Considering my age and capabilities, this will be as much as I can do in any so-called disaster. Everyone else will, therefore, will be on his own, and I doubt any ham radio operators one will be stopping by my spread with an HT to save ME ! ;-) Just MY take. Your mileage may vary. K8JHR
It is. Sadly, many areas have no presence, and those that do tend to do little more than provide cover for sporting events. Central government, for its part, has been quietly but actively dissuading local government officers from engaging with amateur radio oeprators, thinks there are 'fewer of us' now, and have 'nothing to contribute against a backdrop of ubiquitous mobile phone coverage'. Well, I think that whilst we may have been somewhat at variance about preparedness initially, we may well agree this government line is ridiculuous and a waste of free talent and resources, regardless of how useful or otherwise it may actually be for any given situation. J.
Depending on the emergency i would suspect that nobody can be totally prepared but we do our best on the basics depending where we live. Water,Food,Shelter and Hygiene being the fundamental resources. G3SEA/KH6
As a result of recent lawsuits concerning ...ahem ...BSA has anounced a new policy as part of be be prepared. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...ld-jamboree/&usg=AOvVaw3cBAqc82bak2KDmgx9r39o
And this is for a reason. Amateur radio does not fit into the management doctrines of today, as they have evolved from "message passing by signal-men" into real-time interactive multi-media communications done by the officials themselves. The communications abilities offered by current amateur radio are not well-suited to these scenarios, and even less when taking our diminishing numbers and increasing ages into account. Over the years, many efforts have been made to "sell" amateur radio to the authorities for disaster communications, but to no avail. They have "viewed the hand" and found a bunch of greying, over-weight people in reflective vests, that have little or no working knowledge of the inner workings of modern emergency communications procedures. In their eyes, radio amateurs are mainly seen as "attention-getters" or "wanna-bees" that interfere with the proper functioning of "official business". Some fifteen years ago, there was an incident here, where self-appointed "wanna-bees" in reflective vests demanded access to a County Government HQ during a preparedness exercise to "take over in order to restore communications". When the officials had finished laughing, they were shown the door without further ado. 73/ Karl-Arne SM0AOM
