The next article in our series ‘Identify what you need to put aside‘ is Communications.
We all like to talk, we all like to interact with others, selected others anyway, and to do this we use some form of communication. Sometimes we need to pass on urgent messages and warnings and sometimes we just want to find out how people are and catch up on what is going on. The ability to just pick up the phone and connect to almost anyone you want to or leave a message will be sorely missed. No more emergency calls for help or calling anywhere really without prior arrangement and timing arrangements.
I’ve looked at this subject on a separate post and still think that the solutions discussed there are the best so I’m not just going to repeat that article here.
Suggested equipment
Here is the suggested equipment list for your communication requirements;
- Ham Radio
- Transmitter
- Antenna
- Ham Radio receivers
- CB Radio
- Base station with SRB
- Amplifier
- Antenna
- Portable car units
- Hand held units
- Walkie Talkie
- Base station
- Hand held units
Ham radio
Long range communications. To communicate over some distance and to keep contact with others outside your group. Keep updated with world and country wide situation reports etc as well as family and friends. When arranging times to listen out consider time differences.
CB radio
Medium range communications. To communicate in the local area with neighbours and other in your group. Keep in contact for help, monitor intruders and coordinate events.
Walkie talkie
Short range communications. To communicate in the local area with your group. Keep in contact with each other. Enable workers to keep in touch with base to report and request help for any tasks.
Things to consider
Communications requires power. If you do not have this sorted on a grid you must power the units individually by some method such as battery or solar panels.
Communications are one area that would suffer by an EMP. To mitigate this risk you must store all of your equipment somewhere shielded to protect them.
Next up is part 15 in the series, Vehicles.
Wireless radio communications are probably the ‘best’ for ‘most’ scenarios however there are some alternatives that while impractical in many cases may just work for some and be worth consideration.
Line-of-sight communications:
Obviously these only work if the two locations are within sight of each other but also someone at the ‘receiving’ end needs to be actively looking.
These can include things as simple as a signal fire, but also Semaphore (flags) typically used by day and Morse-Code (with a torch) typically at night. A humble £10 laser pointer can transmit over a respectable distance and with a little electronics added could transmit message data.
Hardwired:
A simplified version of the telegraph or the field telephone offer significant OPSEC advantages over wireless communication and also provides greater distance-for-electric-power. Of-course you need to run the wire and both ends need to be fixed. Two retreats a few miles apart could reasonably wire communications between each other.
Skvez,
Goods points. I have on my to do list an article about line of sight communications. I didn’t have a laser pointer in my options though. I’ll have to thin about that.
My only concern about the wired option is that I don’t know how much wire to put away I suspect that I want the nearest person to be at least 5 miles away. However, in theory I could scavange this from telegraph poles so that may not be an issue. So I need to look for some of the old field wind up phones or some ex army kit and then it depends on who is left.