1. You don't need repeaters. HF is plenty for worldwide communication, and VHF/UHF can handle local communication very well. So in a disaster situation, local v

1. You don't need repeaters. HF is plenty for worldwide communication, and VHF/UHF can handle local communication very well. So in a disaster situation, local volunteers would use VHF/UHF to communicate with some central command. Ideally, that location would have an off-the-grid HF setup, which could be used to relay information into and out of the affected area. 2. This is simply not true. Emergency traffic is prioritized over everything else (by law), but almost every repeater is publicly usable by anyone with a valid ham license. 3. Yes, that's how two way radio communication works. I'd encourage you to connect with a local ham club, or even better, go check out Field Day (http://www.arrl.org/field-day http://www.arrl.org/field-day) this weekend. Literally the entire hobby (as far as the ARRL is concerned, at least) is focused around how to most effectively communicate, no matter what the situation is. As far as using the repeaters directly to contact your family members, this would be one of the situations where you'd need to coordinate with local volunteers to get a message out of a disaster area (if that's the situation you're talking about). It's very possible that you might get to pass the message over the air yourself, but even if you can't, at least you could let your family know that you're safe.