12 ms·

Best radios to use in an emergency (2021)

72 points by dennalp 4y ago

t6jvcereio 4y ago
> It is a common conception or misconception that the more moving parts that something has the more it may unreliable that something could be. This is true (...) Is not a great start when the second line contradicts the first one...
curiousfab 4y ago
The list is appears to be a random mix of AM/FM radios (receiver only), walkie talkies for different frequency bands, etc. Without any context, this list is not helpful at all - or outright confusing. It's also noteworthy that different countries have different allowed frequency bands and usage restrictions. I suppose those who have an interest in emergency communication may want to have a look at what their national amateur radio society has to offer.
defrost 4y ago
In an extreme emergancy (eg: captured in a POW camp) you might just have to build your own: Queensland Prisoners secret radio revealed >> Two Queensland brothers, Ernest and Charles Hildebrandt, built a secret wireless radio receiver which they operated in the camp near Bandoeng in Java which was overran by Japanese soldiers in 1942. >> Constructed of parts scrounged from the internment camp where they were held prisoner in Java during the war, the transmitter was built into a Dutch gas-mask container and hidden under a square of concrete measuring 12 by 7 inches. [*] https://blog.qm.qld.gov.au/2019/11/12/on-this-day-queensland-prisoners-secret-radio-revealed/ https://blog.qm.qld.gov.au/2019/11/12/on-this-day-queensland...
- HillBates 4y ago
  Coverage of earth by earth sensing satellites in visible spectrum is so high, that you can literally write different message into sand / earth every hour. No radio construction necessary XD
  - junon 4y ago
    Someone needs to be looking, though.
    - mrslave 4y ago
      And someone less desirable could also be looking.
- grendelt 4y ago
  Scanning that article I was blown away to see it said "the transmitter..." - then I realized the author is play fast and loose with the terms transmitter and receiver (surprise! They aren't interchangeable!). It looks like a tube-based regen receiver. In Europe, Allied POWs would build "foxhole radios" which had no selectivity and you'd hear the strongest signals best - and during WW2, that was the BBC.
  - user3939382 4y ago
    > which had no selectivity All of the foxhole radio designs I've seen actually do have an (albeit very crude) way to select a frequency. Maybe all the designs I've seen aren't faithful to the ww2 versions?
    - grendelt 4y ago
      I mean, if you could get your hands on a variable capacitor, you're in business. That was unlikely to be an item you could scrounge up though. The guys in the article managed to find a tube and other parts, so that's quite impressive, but you can still get more minimalist. The most basic is a length of wire wound around a coil form (toilet paper tube, plastic bottle, etc), the "detector" was a blued steel surface (DE safety razor blade), a safety pin to act as a "cats whisker" (bonus if you can use graphite pencil lead attached to it), some high impedance headphones (WW2 tanker/air crew headsets usually fit the bill), a good ground and as much wire for an aerial/antenna as you could get away with. Using the length of the coil, and where you connected the antenna, you could kinda-sorta tune for better efficiency at different parts of the band (be it SW or AM). (Longer coil = lower freq) I made a few of them years ago, and posted the results on my now-defunct blog. The DB is still intact with my files and findings, but my code base is hosed (need to remake it).
aosmith 4y ago
And not a single mention of the BaoFeng UV5R, what a shame.
- iasay 4y ago
  Probably because it’s illegal to use one without a license.
  - logopop 4y ago
    ... and it's also crap.
    - samatman 4y ago
      Can you elaborate? I'm interested in having an emergency radio which can listen to (and send on) frequencies I'm not allowed on, I have no intention of transmitting on the prohibited channels, and I have a Baofeng. Is there some obviously better radio I should have instead, and why?
      - iasay 4y ago
        Honestly the Baofeng is mostly fine. Just use it. 90% of it is elitism. The harmonic suppression of the transmitter is crap which is the issue but the radiated power is constrained by the antenna so not usually a problem unless you’re testing it in a lab. Most of the problem is just sinophobia. If you want something actually with decent capability then the Yaesu FT818 is a good bet. It does all amateur bands, UHF, VHF, airband, FM broadcast all modes. But it costs money. I’m not an active ham anymore but I keep an 818 around. As for why I’m not a ham anymore, spend some time with some hams and you will get the idea.
        linsomniac 4y ago
        I'm also an ex-ham, I sometimes wish I had renewed my license because it would be nice to have access to a good radio sometimes, but not so nice that I'm willing to go through the exam process again. So I have 4 GMRS radios that I just have to have one license for the whole family to use.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
nonrandomstring 4y ago
Whether or not this is a good list, I find the topic very interesting. For more exercise I've started to increase the range of my usual hikes, from just mooching around a 10 mile radius of home to some much more ambitious yomps out into wilderness. Being alone out there obviously raises thoughts about safety. Everyone knows I hate "smartphones" with a passion. For possible emergencies I carry a powered-down (battery flipped) Nokia wax-sealed in a dry-sack. Regardless, the cell coverage can't be relied upon and I don't fully trust it. Lately I started looking at alternatives, and considering the fascinating array of features some devices have. Stand alone GPS devices with loadable OSM maps seem really useful. Emergency beacons seem to fill a need for the bad case where you really need rescue. But there's also powerful handheld radios and sat phones. The landscape of affordable civilian RF gear seems to be changing fast. What kit do people pack for hiking? Or what gadgets do you wish existed?
- valiant-comma 4y ago
  Garmin’s InReach products are great for this. Emergency button, two-way texts, all satellite based, so basically full global coverage. They can also allow you to share your semi real-time location with friends and family, if that’s useful to you.
  - nonrandomstring 4y ago
    Yes the Garmin stuff looks great. For some of those features you seem to need a renewable monthly subscription. I'm looking for products that build the connection cost into the one-off price, not out of cheapness but for more reliability/security than a subscription. Would be awful to finally need an emergency device and find the data plan had expired (as is now the case with phone networks that destroy your number when it goes unused regardless of how much credit you've charged it with). That's specifically one of the cost models I want to move away from. The only thing I should need to pack is some spare batteries.
    - dataflow 4y ago
      Kinda wish there was a pricing model along the lines of "top-up with $X of credit that is guaranteed not to remain valid for 5+ years, and charge it $100 for the first message, and $0.10/message thereafter for the next month, with the ability to send a predetermined test to the company server at a cost of $1/test", or something like that. Surely this kind of a model must be viable at some price point?
HillBates 4y ago
The biggest flaw of all prepper radio lists is that they do not contain knowledge about how easy it is to locate a radio transmitter. Every radio user should do at least one "radio fox hunt" to understand how to locate other people and / or how easy it is to be located. You can do that even with radios on this list, no special equipment needed.
- buescher 4y ago
  The problem with prepper anything is that preppers tend to be out to justify buying cool stuff they don't need based on exciting fantasies. I am not personally that different, just self-aware. The short preparedness lists prepared by the Red Cross, FEMA, local government, etc will have you ready for actually likely disaster scenarios.
mabbo 4y ago
I woke up yesterday to: no home internet; no mobile connection. I own no broadcast tv service. (Why yes, I am a Canadian Rogers customer). I literally started searching through my junk to see if I owned a radio of any kind, just to try to hear news of what the hell was going on. Eventually I gave up and walked to the library instead, discovering 500 other people in the same situation sharing the wifi. Time to invest in a nice radio for emergencies.
- walterbell 4y ago
  > Eventually I gave up and walked to the library instead, discovering 500 other people in the same situation sharing the wifi. Hopefully librarians can use this incident to lobby for funding, as "community internet access of last resort".
- dorfsmay 4y ago
  No car with a radio?
  - Foivos 4y ago
    Since he walked to the library, I am going to guess "no car at all".
    - mabbo 4y ago
      Nah, I just live in a very walkable area of Toronto and use my car maybe once a week at most, and then just to get groceries. Otherwise, I use transit and walk everywhere. Driving to the library would be more of a hassle than just walking. It's maybe 7 minutes away.
  - mabbo 4y ago
    .... Dammit. The car is in the basement garage of the condo and basically "out of sight, out of mind". It literally never occurred to me.
bobowzki 4y ago
If you really want to be prepared to use a radio in an emergency you need to know how to use it well. Being able to construct an improvised antenna and knowing the basics of RF and propagation will make all the difference. The US MCRP 8-10b.11 Antenna Handbook is a great starting point.
- Forge36 4y ago
  Thanks, found a copy and read a good chunk of it today.
jason-phillips 4y ago
I have an assortment of Icom handhelds that I collected dirt-cheap on Craigslist a decade ago. They seem to have appreciated quite a bit since then. They're extremely well made kit.
O__________O 4y ago
Emergency types & context vary and the appropriate radio will depend on the situation. Sometimes it’s not just about the hardware, but knowing where & when to get a signal — and the best way to use the signal while you have access to it. Beyond that, having apps, systems and data that are available offline and have appropriate plans for powering them without grid power is also critical.
nimbius 4y ago
the answer IMO as an amateur radio enthusiast is a portable shortwave. you get FM for local stations to rebroadcast EAS, am for longer distance in the event the emergency affects multiple counties or provinces, and shortwave if your dumpster fire communications monopoly just wrecked the country. you also have antennae options that can be spooled from most cheap household wire to boost the signal
rsync 4y ago
There are one or two competing and/or converging standards for texting over ham radios and I find them very interesting… But as I have said again and again - the handsets are missing. I’m not going to take a laptop with a serial link to a yaesu into the woods, nor am I going to 9key in my texts on one of the two models that support it. Where is a teenage engineering for radio handhelds ? Where is a qwerty ham handheld ?
- EL_Loco 4y ago
  Spot on. I don't know why we can't have an HT with a Blackberry-like hardware keyboard to send text. Or maybe something Psion-like (90's micro laptop thing made by Sony). I'd be very satisfied with Blackberry dimensions, as Psion would add bulk.
  - gh02t 4y ago
    I'd take a rugged HT with a sleek and intuitive UI. The companies that make ham gear seem obsessed with complex and cryptic UIs. My Yaesu FT-3D is a good radio and isn't that hard to use, but its UI is still pretty clunky and the imprecise resistive touch screen feels like it's stuck in Y2K.
    - EL_Loco 4y ago
      I used my friend's FT-3D a few times. Very good radio feature-wise, but I also shared your views on the UI and the touch screen. My HT is still the FT-60r and I just love the physical buttons.
- joshz404 4y ago
  PicoAPRS, Moblinkd, likely some others I believe will Bluetooth pair to your phone. As will the icom 705 with wifi I think. I’ve sent messages just fine with the built in pad on a th-d72 and d710g.
EL_Loco 4y ago
If you hike, camp, backpack, this is from a very experienced Search and Rescue leader who I took course from: -First, have a Personal Locator Beacon. If funds allow, have one with two-way messaging (there's a monthly subscription fee). Needless to say, be mindful of battery condition. -Second, have a GPS with maps from your area, or the equivalent smartphone app. Learn basic map reading, a good Youtube video about it will do. -Third, take 3 hours to study for a ham license. Pass the easy exam and get a reliable, easy to use HT (Amateur radio's name for walkie talkie). Learn to use the repeaters in your area. You're good to go. P.S. this is concerning a getting lost scenario. He also recommended taking a First-Aid course. edit: My recommendation for an HT is still, after 10 years, the Yaesu FT-60r. Pros: Very solid build, easy to learn and operate (compared to others), reliable. Cons: Bigger and heavier than newer models, battery not as good but can be upgraded. Also, analog only, but to me this is a plus as I want simple, reliable comms and don't want to invest time in zillion other features.
- runjake 4y ago
  I think you meant this for point #2 but its important to clarify: you should be carrying PAPER maps —- preferably laminated if your environment calls or at least stuffed in a gallon zip lock bag. So many things can and do go wrong with gadgets. This comment posted while on a remote backpacking trip with somehow just enough coverage to load HN.
  - EL_Loco 4y ago
    The person I mentioned actually meant just digital maps installed on the gps/smartphone. He completely agreed with you on how important it was to have paper maps, but he said most people either didn't see the point, or thought he was recommending them (paper maps and compasses) because he was old.
    - LBJsPNS 4y ago
      A map with a bullet hole in it is a map. A GPS with a bullet hole in it is a doorstop.
    - 4y ago
EL_Loco 4y ago
If anyone is thinking about buying a two-way radio and you see something like "35-mile range!" on the package, know that this is pure marketing. Yes, if you have a clear, as in unobstructed, as in "I can see you from my binoculars" view of the other person you want to talk to, then yes, you can do it. If there are trees, hills or anything else, forget about it. Invest the time to learn basic ham radio operation, learn to use repeaters, and with a handheld you can reach longer distances than that.
ianpenney 4y ago
If you’re going to use a radio in an emergency, the radio is less important than the skill of the operator. So, if you’re serious, go do the test and get the license so that you can practice. Radios don’t work like in the movies. There’s a lot to know. You’re not likely to get help in a timely manner by slapping 146.52 into that shitty Baofeng spurious emissions potato.
- thcipriani 4y ago
  > You’re not likely to get help in a timely manner by slapping 146.52 into that shitty Baofeng spurious emissions potato. Why not? What should you do instead?
  - mbrameld 4y ago
    Not a ham operator and this definitely isn't the correct answer, but if you find yourself in an emergency with a radio you don't know how to use, 121.5 mhz is monitored by almost every airliner and a lot of general aviation aircraft.
  - Forge36 4y ago
    Having no experience and some quick googling. 1. It depends where you are and who's monitoring. 2. If you're near a city or busy highway this may be "good enough" but the range can the big limit (One number thrown out was ~10 miles) I'm guessing from the parent that they wanted immediate help and this frequency would not get you directly to emergency services
  - ianpenney 4y ago
    Get an amateur radio license (or, in Canada - it's a "Certificate of Proficiency"), and then spend a couple of years participating in exercises with a local club. That way you'll learn about propagation, what makes a good radio cost 10x as much as a Baofeng, antenna systems, signalling modes, communication protocols, handheld channel programming, what local repeater systems are around and what their capabilities are.... You'll also learn who are the other hams around you, and where and what time they tend to be listening. Or, assuming a 911 call from your cellphone isn't an option, you could pay for a Garmin InReach device.
AlbertCory 4y ago
I have a windup radio (receive-only). Being not all that serious about prepping, I just got interested in GMRS. Yeah, go ahead, make fun of me. I live in a developed area, so I think it'll be pretty easy to find help, and I do know a lot of the neighbors. Since the GMRS radios are reasonably cheap, I was thinking of getting one and just trying it out, to see who's normally on. Also so I don't have a panicky read-the-manual moment in a real emergency. Thoughts?
- hotpotamus 4y ago
  You can always just get a Baofeng to scan around UHF and VHF. I recently got some basically just for fun. They’re $25ish so basically a toy but pretty capable and programmable. They’re technically fairy illegal to actually broadcast with but as an emergency system I think they’d be fine.
buescher 4y ago
Good discussion point but the list is a little weak. You can probably google up better. My power was out for a week earlier this summer, so here's my hot take: Once cell coverage was restored I was charging my phone and calling in to meetings in my air-conditioned car. Not too long after that I was able to borrow a generator and keep my freezer from defrosting. I would rank the generator and a good cooler over fancy radios even though I am the sort of person who occasionally buys radios he doesn't need. You probably don't need anything more than a decent portable AM/FM radio: one with a speaker and conventional analog dial controls and that runs on batteries. You'll want a good supply of batteries, which are another topic. You will possibly benefit from a way of telling time that doesn't plug into the wall so you can turn the radio on for scheduled broadcasts to save batteries. A wall supply for normal use of the radio is also nice. You will want to listen to the station that broadcasts baseball games in the summer and high school football games in the fall and agricultural commodity prices at 5:00AM. If you need a weather radio, you probably know it already and already have one. Otherwise they are merely nice to have, and inexpensive enough. If you want one you should get one. A dedicated weather radio with alerts that plugs in the wall and has a battery backup is ideal. I don't own one, though I would have to stop to count the radios I own that can receive weather band. I tuned in to the weather band maybe once while the power was out. We got weather alerts on our phones during the actual storm. FRS/GMRS radios beat shouting by at least a quarter mile. You probably don't need a set. Some people get irritated, upset, tired, offended, or embarassed by shouting though, and they do let you avoid that. I like mine, which live in my toolbox and allow me to say "is it on now?" in a normal tone of voice. They're also nice for comms on multiple-car road trips and have a number of other use cases. I did not use mine while the power was out. Scanners: mine are outdated and not much use. Useful ones that will cover digital modes and trunked systems are kind of expensive. I have found scanners nice on occasion for situational awareness beyond CB on road trips. I would have liked to have had a handheld one ready but I didn't suffer for not having one. Ham radio: I am licensed but don't operate. I did not find my HT useful. It's a nice hobby and if you are interested at all in it you should get licensed and get a cheap radio and have fun. CB: I have a portable CB and mag mount antenna for road trips. Great for finding out from truckers why the interstate is backed up and the best local road detour to take. It was not useful while the power was out. Shortwave: hahah. Just not what it was since the big international broadcasters have mostly shut down. I like mine, but I don't listen to SW on it much. I cannot imagine the catastrophe that would bring back SW broadcasting in the USA. It's my favorite FM radio though so it did technically see use.

72 points by dennalp 4y ago

> It is a common conception or misconception that the more moving parts that something has the more it may unreliable that something could be. This is true (...) Is not a great start when the second line contradicts the first one...

curiousfab 4y ago

The list is appears to be a random mix of AM/FM radios (receiver only), walkie talkies for different frequency bands, etc. Without any context, this list is not helpful at all - or outright confusing. It's also noteworthy that different countries have different allowed frequency bands and usage restrictions. I suppose those who have an interest in emergency communication may want to have a look at what their national amateur radio society has to offer.

defrost 4y ago

In an extreme emergancy (eg: captured in a POW camp) you might just have to build your own: Queensland Prisoners secret radio revealed >> Two Queensland brothers, Ernest and Charles Hildebrandt, built a secret wireless radio receiver which they operated in the camp near Bandoeng in Java which was overran by Japanese soldiers in 1942. >> Constructed of parts scrounged from the internment camp where they were held prisoner in Java during the war, the transmitter was built into a Dutch gas-mask container and hidden under a square of concrete measuring 12 by 7 inches. [*] https://blog.qm.qld.gov.au/2019/11/12/on-this-day-queensland-prisoners-secret-radio-revealed/ https://blog.qm.qld.gov.au/2019/11/12/on-this-day-queensland...

HillBates 4y ago
Coverage of earth by earth sensing satellites in visible spectrum is so high, that you can literally write different message into sand / earth every hour. No radio construction necessary XD
- junon 4y ago
  Someone needs to be looking, though.
  - mrslave 4y ago
    And someone less desirable could also be looking.
grendelt 4y ago
Scanning that article I was blown away to see it said "the transmitter..." - then I realized the author is play fast and loose with the terms transmitter and receiver (surprise! They aren't interchangeable!). It looks like a tube-based regen receiver. In Europe, Allied POWs would build "foxhole radios" which had no selectivity and you'd hear the strongest signals best - and during WW2, that was the BBC.
- user3939382 4y ago
  > which had no selectivity All of the foxhole radio designs I've seen actually do have an (albeit very crude) way to select a frequency. Maybe all the designs I've seen aren't faithful to the ww2 versions?
  - grendelt 4y ago
    I mean, if you could get your hands on a variable capacitor, you're in business. That was unlikely to be an item you could scrounge up though. The guys in the article managed to find a tube and other parts, so that's quite impressive, but you can still get more minimalist. The most basic is a length of wire wound around a coil form (toilet paper tube, plastic bottle, etc), the "detector" was a blued steel surface (DE safety razor blade), a safety pin to act as a "cats whisker" (bonus if you can use graphite pencil lead attached to it), some high impedance headphones (WW2 tanker/air crew headsets usually fit the bill), a good ground and as much wire for an aerial/antenna as you could get away with. Using the length of the coil, and where you connected the antenna, you could kinda-sorta tune for better efficiency at different parts of the band (be it SW or AM). (Longer coil = lower freq) I made a few of them years ago, and posted the results on my now-defunct blog. The DB is still intact with my files and findings, but my code base is hosed (need to remake it).

aosmith 4y ago

And not a single mention of the BaoFeng UV5R, what a shame.

iasay 4y ago
Probably because it’s illegal to use one without a license.
- logopop 4y ago
  ... and it's also crap.
  - samatman 4y ago
    Can you elaborate? I'm interested in having an emergency radio which can listen to (and send on) frequencies I'm not allowed on, I have no intention of transmitting on the prohibited channels, and I have a Baofeng. Is there some obviously better radio I should have instead, and why?
    - iasay 4y ago
      Honestly the Baofeng is mostly fine. Just use it. 90% of it is elitism. The harmonic suppression of the transmitter is crap which is the issue but the radiated power is constrained by the antenna so not usually a problem unless you’re testing it in a lab. Most of the problem is just sinophobia. If you want something actually with decent capability then the Yaesu FT818 is a good bet. It does all amateur bands, UHF, VHF, airband, FM broadcast all modes. But it costs money. I’m not an active ham anymore but I keep an 818 around. As for why I’m not a ham anymore, spend some time with some hams and you will get the idea.
      - linsomniac 4y ago
        I'm also an ex-ham, I sometimes wish I had renewed my license because it would be nice to have access to a good radio sometimes, but not so nice that I'm willing to go through the exam process again. So I have 4 GMRS radios that I just have to have one license for the whole family to use.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

nonrandomstring 4y ago

Whether or not this is a good list, I find the topic very interesting. For more exercise I've started to increase the range of my usual hikes, from just mooching around a 10 mile radius of home to some much more ambitious yomps out into wilderness. Being alone out there obviously raises thoughts about safety. Everyone knows I hate "smartphones" with a passion. For possible emergencies I carry a powered-down (battery flipped) Nokia wax-sealed in a dry-sack. Regardless, the cell coverage can't be relied upon and I don't fully trust it. Lately I started looking at alternatives, and considering the fascinating array of features some devices have. Stand alone GPS devices with loadable OSM maps seem really useful. Emergency beacons seem to fill a need for the bad case where you really need rescue. But there's also powerful handheld radios and sat phones. The landscape of affordable civilian RF gear seems to be changing fast. What kit do people pack for hiking? Or what gadgets do you wish existed?

valiant-comma 4y ago
Garmin’s InReach products are great for this. Emergency button, two-way texts, all satellite based, so basically full global coverage. They can also allow you to share your semi real-time location with friends and family, if that’s useful to you.
- nonrandomstring 4y ago
  Yes the Garmin stuff looks great. For some of those features you seem to need a renewable monthly subscription. I'm looking for products that build the connection cost into the one-off price, not out of cheapness but for more reliability/security than a subscription. Would be awful to finally need an emergency device and find the data plan had expired (as is now the case with phone networks that destroy your number when it goes unused regardless of how much credit you've charged it with). That's specifically one of the cost models I want to move away from. The only thing I should need to pack is some spare batteries.
  - dataflow 4y ago
    Kinda wish there was a pricing model along the lines of "top-up with $X of credit that is guaranteed not to remain valid for 5+ years, and charge it $100 for the first message, and $0.10/message thereafter for the next month, with the ability to send a predetermined test to the company server at a cost of $1/test", or something like that. Surely this kind of a model must be viable at some price point?

HillBates 4y ago

The biggest flaw of all prepper radio lists is that they do not contain knowledge about how easy it is to locate a radio transmitter. Every radio user should do at least one "radio fox hunt" to understand how to locate other people and / or how easy it is to be located. You can do that even with radios on this list, no special equipment needed.

buescher 4y ago
The problem with prepper anything is that preppers tend to be out to justify buying cool stuff they don't need based on exciting fantasies. I am not personally that different, just self-aware. The short preparedness lists prepared by the Red Cross, FEMA, local government, etc will have you ready for actually likely disaster scenarios.

mabbo 4y ago

I woke up yesterday to: no home internet; no mobile connection. I own no broadcast tv service. (Why yes, I am a Canadian Rogers customer). I literally started searching through my junk to see if I owned a radio of any kind, just to try to hear news of what the hell was going on. Eventually I gave up and walked to the library instead, discovering 500 other people in the same situation sharing the wifi. Time to invest in a nice radio for emergencies.

walterbell 4y ago
> Eventually I gave up and walked to the library instead, discovering 500 other people in the same situation sharing the wifi. Hopefully librarians can use this incident to lobby for funding, as "community internet access of last resort".
dorfsmay 4y ago
No car with a radio?
- Foivos 4y ago
  Since he walked to the library, I am going to guess "no car at all".
  - mabbo 4y ago
    Nah, I just live in a very walkable area of Toronto and use my car maybe once a week at most, and then just to get groceries. Otherwise, I use transit and walk everywhere. Driving to the library would be more of a hassle than just walking. It's maybe 7 minutes away.
- mabbo 4y ago
  .... Dammit. The car is in the basement garage of the condo and basically "out of sight, out of mind". It literally never occurred to me.

bobowzki 4y ago

If you really want to be prepared to use a radio in an emergency you need to know how to use it well. Being able to construct an improvised antenna and knowing the basics of RF and propagation will make all the difference. The US MCRP 8-10b.11 Antenna Handbook is a great starting point.

Forge36 4y ago
Thanks, found a copy and read a good chunk of it today.

jason-phillips 4y ago

I have an assortment of Icom handhelds that I collected dirt-cheap on Craigslist a decade ago. They seem to have appreciated quite a bit since then. They're extremely well made kit.

O__________O 4y ago

Emergency types & context vary and the appropriate radio will depend on the situation. Sometimes it’s not just about the hardware, but knowing where & when to get a signal — and the best way to use the signal while you have access to it. Beyond that, having apps, systems and data that are available offline and have appropriate plans for powering them without grid power is also critical.

nimbius 4y ago

the answer IMO as an amateur radio enthusiast is a portable shortwave. you get FM for local stations to rebroadcast EAS, am for longer distance in the event the emergency affects multiple counties or provinces, and shortwave if your dumpster fire communications monopoly just wrecked the country. you also have antennae options that can be spooled from most cheap household wire to boost the signal

rsync 4y ago

There are one or two competing and/or converging standards for texting over ham radios and I find them very interesting… But as I have said again and again - the handsets are missing. I’m not going to take a laptop with a serial link to a yaesu into the woods, nor am I going to 9key in my texts on one of the two models that support it. Where is a teenage engineering for radio handhelds ? Where is a qwerty ham handheld ?

EL_Loco 4y ago
Spot on. I don't know why we can't have an HT with a Blackberry-like hardware keyboard to send text. Or maybe something Psion-like (90's micro laptop thing made by Sony). I'd be very satisfied with Blackberry dimensions, as Psion would add bulk.
- gh02t 4y ago
  I'd take a rugged HT with a sleek and intuitive UI. The companies that make ham gear seem obsessed with complex and cryptic UIs. My Yaesu FT-3D is a good radio and isn't that hard to use, but its UI is still pretty clunky and the imprecise resistive touch screen feels like it's stuck in Y2K.
  - EL_Loco 4y ago
    I used my friend's FT-3D a few times. Very good radio feature-wise, but I also shared your views on the UI and the touch screen. My HT is still the FT-60r and I just love the physical buttons.
joshz404 4y ago
PicoAPRS, Moblinkd, likely some others I believe will Bluetooth pair to your phone. As will the icom 705 with wifi I think. I’ve sent messages just fine with the built in pad on a th-d72 and d710g.

EL_Loco 4y ago

If you hike, camp, backpack, this is from a very experienced Search and Rescue leader who I took course from: -First, have a Personal Locator Beacon. If funds allow, have one with two-way messaging (there's a monthly subscription fee). Needless to say, be mindful of battery condition. -Second, have a GPS with maps from your area, or the equivalent smartphone app. Learn basic map reading, a good Youtube video about it will do. -Third, take 3 hours to study for a ham license. Pass the easy exam and get a reliable, easy to use HT (Amateur radio's name for walkie talkie). Learn to use the repeaters in your area. You're good to go. P.S. this is concerning a getting lost scenario. He also recommended taking a First-Aid course. edit: My recommendation for an HT is still, after 10 years, the Yaesu FT-60r. Pros: Very solid build, easy to learn and operate (compared to others), reliable. Cons: Bigger and heavier than newer models, battery not as good but can be upgraded. Also, analog only, but to me this is a plus as I want simple, reliable comms and don't want to invest time in zillion other features.

runjake 4y ago
I think you meant this for point #2 but its important to clarify: you should be carrying PAPER maps —- preferably laminated if your environment calls or at least stuffed in a gallon zip lock bag. So many things can and do go wrong with gadgets. This comment posted while on a remote backpacking trip with somehow just enough coverage to load HN.
- EL_Loco 4y ago
  The person I mentioned actually meant just digital maps installed on the gps/smartphone. He completely agreed with you on how important it was to have paper maps, but he said most people either didn't see the point, or thought he was recommending them (paper maps and compasses) because he was old.
  - LBJsPNS 4y ago
    A map with a bullet hole in it is a map. A GPS with a bullet hole in it is a doorstop.
  - 4y ago

EL_Loco 4y ago

If anyone is thinking about buying a two-way radio and you see something like "35-mile range!" on the package, know that this is pure marketing. Yes, if you have a clear, as in unobstructed, as in "I can see you from my binoculars" view of the other person you want to talk to, then yes, you can do it. If there are trees, hills or anything else, forget about it. Invest the time to learn basic ham radio operation, learn to use repeaters, and with a handheld you can reach longer distances than that.

ianpenney 4y ago

If you’re going to use a radio in an emergency, the radio is less important than the skill of the operator. So, if you’re serious, go do the test and get the license so that you can practice. Radios don’t work like in the movies. There’s a lot to know. You’re not likely to get help in a timely manner by slapping 146.52 into that shitty Baofeng spurious emissions potato.

thcipriani 4y ago
> You’re not likely to get help in a timely manner by slapping 146.52 into that shitty Baofeng spurious emissions potato. Why not? What should you do instead?
- mbrameld 4y ago
  Not a ham operator and this definitely isn't the correct answer, but if you find yourself in an emergency with a radio you don't know how to use, 121.5 mhz is monitored by almost every airliner and a lot of general aviation aircraft.
- Forge36 4y ago
  Having no experience and some quick googling. 1. It depends where you are and who's monitoring. 2. If you're near a city or busy highway this may be "good enough" but the range can the big limit (One number thrown out was ~10 miles) I'm guessing from the parent that they wanted immediate help and this frequency would not get you directly to emergency services
- ianpenney 4y ago
  Get an amateur radio license (or, in Canada - it's a "Certificate of Proficiency"), and then spend a couple of years participating in exercises with a local club. That way you'll learn about propagation, what makes a good radio cost 10x as much as a Baofeng, antenna systems, signalling modes, communication protocols, handheld channel programming, what local repeater systems are around and what their capabilities are.... You'll also learn who are the other hams around you, and where and what time they tend to be listening. Or, assuming a 911 call from your cellphone isn't an option, you could pay for a Garmin InReach device.

AlbertCory 4y ago

I have a windup radio (receive-only). Being not all that serious about prepping, I just got interested in GMRS. Yeah, go ahead, make fun of me. I live in a developed area, so I think it'll be pretty easy to find help, and I do know a lot of the neighbors. Since the GMRS radios are reasonably cheap, I was thinking of getting one and just trying it out, to see who's normally on. Also so I don't have a panicky read-the-manual moment in a real emergency. Thoughts?

hotpotamus 4y ago
You can always just get a Baofeng to scan around UHF and VHF. I recently got some basically just for fun. They’re $25ish so basically a toy but pretty capable and programmable. They’re technically fairy illegal to actually broadcast with but as an emergency system I think they’d be fine.

buescher 4y ago

Good discussion point but the list is a little weak. You can probably google up better. My power was out for a week earlier this summer, so here's my hot take: Once cell coverage was restored I was charging my phone and calling in to meetings in my air-conditioned car. Not too long after that I was able to borrow a generator and keep my freezer from defrosting. I would rank the generator and a good cooler over fancy radios even though I am the sort of person who occasionally buys radios he doesn't need. You probably don't need anything more than a decent portable AM/FM radio: one with a speaker and conventional analog dial controls and that runs on batteries. You'll want a good supply of batteries, which are another topic. You will possibly benefit from a way of telling time that doesn't plug into the wall so you can turn the radio on for scheduled broadcasts to save batteries. A wall supply for normal use of the radio is also nice. You will want to listen to the station that broadcasts baseball games in the summer and high school football games in the fall and agricultural commodity prices at 5:00AM. If you need a weather radio, you probably know it already and already have one. Otherwise they are merely nice to have, and inexpensive enough. If you want one you should get one. A dedicated weather radio with alerts that plugs in the wall and has a battery backup is ideal. I don't own one, though I would have to stop to count the radios I own that can receive weather band. I tuned in to the weather band maybe once while the power was out. We got weather alerts on our phones during the actual storm. FRS/GMRS radios beat shouting by at least a quarter mile. You probably don't need a set. Some people get irritated, upset, tired, offended, or embarassed by shouting though, and they do let you avoid that. I like mine, which live in my toolbox and allow me to say "is it on now?" in a normal tone of voice. They're also nice for comms on multiple-car road trips and have a number of other use cases. I did not use mine while the power was out. Scanners: mine are outdated and not much use. Useful ones that will cover digital modes and trunked systems are kind of expensive. I have found scanners nice on occasion for situational awareness beyond CB on road trips. I would have liked to have had a handheld one ready but I didn't suffer for not having one. Ham radio: I am licensed but don't operate. I did not find my HT useful. It's a nice hobby and if you are interested at all in it you should get licensed and get a cheap radio and have fun. CB: I have a portable CB and mag mount antenna for road trips. Great for finding out from truckers why the interstate is backed up and the best local road detour to take. It was not useful while the power was out. Shortwave: hahah. Just not what it was since the big international broadcasters have mostly shut down. I like mine, but I don't listen to SW on it much. I cannot imagine the catastrophe that would bring back SW broadcasting in the USA. It's my favorite FM radio though so it did technically see use.