[tbw2]

Communicating in an Insurrection: Amateur Radio and You – A GUEST POST BY Nathan Brindle, KC9YTJ
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2021/01/13/communicating-in-an-insurrection-amateur-radio-and-you-a-guest-post-by-nathan-brindle-kc9ytj/

[dadfly]

bookmark

[freebird5850]

Our power along with 86,000 customers here in NW Wa went out just after midnight. Fired up the generator, made coffee and had all HF/UHF/VHF and CB on the air within 5 minutes. Fridge and freezer working. Sat TV on. Thawing a steak now to grill later. DE N7LRG.

[Lurker]

For later.

L

[vg0va3]

Anyone have Nellie Ohr’s Ham Radio handle?

[A Navy Vet]

I'd rather take my chances with encrypted programs like ProtonMail that is based in Switzerland. Of course, both sender and recipient have to be registered. Plus, it's free up to 500 megabytes. I've been using it for a couple years for private conversations.

From their site: All user data is protected by the Swiss Federal Data Protection Act (DPA) and the Swiss Federal Data Protection Ordinance (DPO) which offers some of the strongest privacy protection in the world for both individuals and corporations. As ProtonMail is outside of US and EU jurisdiction, only a court order from the Cantonal Court of Geneva or the Swiss Federal Supreme Court can compel us to release the extremely limited user information we have.

Over the air radio comms can be heard by anyone and from anywhere. No thanks.

[chajin]

Is there an FR ham net perhaps?

[apillar]

Hey, that’s the way we did it before you younguns’s and your fancy, schmancy internet came along. Time to drag the old HAM rig out of the shed, clean the rust of the antenna and party like it’s 1985!

[William of Barsoom]

Here is Wisdom:

Goto Amazon and buy Ward Silver’s “Dummies” book on ham radio. (Be sure you get the Ward Silver one — there are a few others, not as good.)

It’s The Best beginner’s briefing there is.

Not over-blown or hyper-tech. Jut good, understandable advice and information on it.

73

[NWFree]

License to operate has you on file with the FCC and online with address for the PUBLIC to view at any time.

[Pollard]

Grabbed a gmrs license a couple of days ago. Not Ham but it's a start. I'm buying a couple of programmable two way handhelds that will do gmrs/frs and also scanner frequencies. I already have a scanner so I'll probably just reprogram that for the local frequencies. It's still programmed for the previous place I lived. Don't want to get accused of anything by having a two way on police/fire frequencies.

We're on 15 acres so the gmrs should work on most of it. There's a little valley running down the middle. When we build our real house, it will be down near the valley so the gmrs should work everywhere. I'm not getting any younger so it will be nice to be able to phone home when I'm in the woods cutting trees down. Help, I fell a tree on me and I can't get up!

I'm watching craigslist for ham and shortwave equipment.

Someone mentioned the Channel 3 Project in a Ham thread. It's still around, https://amrron.com/communications-resources/ch3-project/

While researching gmrs radios, I ran across this; (RT97 Portable Repeater Power Amplifier UHF).

UHF, VHF, GMRS versions. Only 5 reviews but all 5 stars. Here's one review from amazon(which is all I use amazon for now):

I bought this pre-programmed to GMRS Frequencies from Retevis. I have it up on a mountain side about two miles from my house. It is powered by a 9 amp hour battery that is solar recharged. The antenna is a N9TAX roll up SlimJim. It lasts four days in the battery with no sun. 22 Miles from its location is my brother in law's home. We both has small Baofeng UV5 radios. We could clearly talk from his house to mine.

I could get this and a bulk pack of handhelds and set up comms between me and the neighbors if the shtf. There's supposed to be a small community of preppers/survivalists 10-15 miles from me. Might be time to reach out. I've talked to one guy on the phone. He was selling solar panels and accessories and I was in need of a charge controller. He mentioned being a prepper. Also saw him at the local lumber store. Only knew who he was by the sign on his p/u truck door that advertised his solar services and had his name on it. I didn't let on who I was. Seemed like a nice guy. Wasn't wearing camo or dark colors and dark glasses.

Question:

If I wanted to communicate with this prepper community, what Ham band(s) would be best with a Tech license? 2 meter?
Also, am I limited to line of site?

[alabama_heart]

Kilo Oscar 4 Charlie Oscar Delta here.

[Texas Fossil]

I ran a Navy/Marine Corp MARS station out of my home and car for 19 years. ( it no longer exists now) NNN0INH

They were great guys and the best collection of engineers and techs I have ever known.

[Nailbiter]

flr

[230FMJ]

for later

[Eagles6]

Bttt