[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

One that they won’t mention is that you can get fairly inexpensive ($30-$70) walkie-talkies with ranges from 15 to 35 miles on ebay or Amazon. Theoretically, such devices are supposed to be registered with the FCC, but few people do unless they use them frequently.

Importantly, during emergencies you want to minimize chatter to just bare essentials, as such frequencies are likely to be monitored for emergency traffic. But if the phone is down, they are the fastest way to get help and keep in touch with loved ones at a distance.

[coloradan]

One of the two shocking shortcomings of the otherwise excellent FEMA manual about dealing with all sorts of different emergencies, is, they never mention that you can buy radios, especially ham radios (for which one needs a license to operate legally). Sometimes, in times of disasters, phone lines come down and cell towers are destroyed. Under those conditions, if you don't have a radio, you aren't going to be talking to anyone. With ham radio, you can talk hundreds or thousands of miles, off a car battery and maybe ten or twenty yards of wire for an antenna (which you should have prepared beforehand anyway.)

(The other shocking, glaring shortfall of the manual is that they never so much as mention the possibility that one could even consider buying a gun and training how to use it should the need arise. No mention whatsoever.)

[bd476]

yefragetuwrabrumuy wrote: "One that they won’t mention is that you can get fairly inexpensive ($30-$70) walkie-talkies with ranges from 15 to 35 miles on ebay or Amazon. Theoretically, such devices are supposed to be registered with the FCC, but few people do unless they use them frequently.

Importantly, during emergencies you want to minimize chatter to just bare essentials, as such frequencies are likely to be monitored for emergency traffic. But if the phone is down, they are the fastest way to get help and keep in touch with loved ones at a distance."

That's a good idea.

" walkie-talkies with ranges from 15 to 35 miles " I had no idea that walkie-talkies had that large a range. They used to sell them at Costco but the ranges were measured in feet or yards, not miles.