Tips for Communicating in an Emergency

The FCC ^ | 27 August 2011 | by: Jamie Barnett, Chief, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau

[Freddd]

Do these ‘tips’ count for white, veteran, American citizen ‘terrorists’,(as deemed by the DHS), too?

[PROCON]

[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.

[bd476]

From your cellphone you can find a shelter:

Text SHELTER + your ZIP code to 43362.

Pass this msg via text to friends/family impacted.

DHSJournal Homeland Security

[unixfox]

Typical Homeland Security BULLSH!T.

How bout summing it all up with say...BE PREPARED.

I don't need a friggin list. But then again, I'm not a helpless socialist/democrat.

[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]

That just might work in a fashion sense sort of way especially for those who prefer to ignore all emergencies.

[dragnet2]

Amazing...All that babble and not a word about amateur radio.

[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.

[bd476]

coloradan wrote: "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.)"

Coloradan, that's excellent advice!

[coloradan]

FRS and GMRS radios have a range of a few to tens of miles, on open land, much less than that urban or hilly areas. Shortwave ham radios, on the other hand, can reach hundreds or thousands of miles with ease, since they use frequencies that reflect off the ionosphere and back down to Earth far away. Not mentioning ham radio is, as I’ve already pointed out above, a serious omission.

[FourPeas]

I have 2 theories about why FEMA doesn’t mention amateur radio:

1) the license thing
2) it’s harder for the feds to exercise control on the ham bands, unlike the other methods mentioned

[yarddog]

The last hurricane we had knocked out power for 9 days.

I noticed the phones never did go out tho for about a day all you could get was busy signals.

[yarddog]

The last hurricane we had knocked out power for 9 days.

I noticed the phones never did go out tho for about a day all you could get was busy signals.

[bd476]

dragnet2 wrote: "Amazing...All that babble and not a word about amateur radio."

Dragnet2, good point. Not sure what the omission means, if anything. Weren't ham radio operators under some kind of governmental pressure in the past year or two?

Also see Coloradan's comments here and here.

[JoeProBono]

[bd476]

coloradan wrote: "FRS and GMRS radios have a range of a few to tens of miles, on open land, much less than that urban or hilly areas.

Shortwave ham radios, on the other hand, can reach hundreds or thousands of miles with ease, since they use frequencies that reflect off the ionosphere and back down to Earth far away. Not mentioning ham radio is, as I’ve already pointed out above, a serious omission."

Thanks Coloradan.

I have been wanting to get a ham radio for years but other expenses have always gotten in the way.

Ham radio operators have been of critical importance during emergency situations, like earthquakes for example.

Ping to ErnestattheBeach and DJF: Ernest and DJF, have you ever thought about getting a ham radio?

[Sacajaweau]

Joe..lotsa creative thinking with this one!!...Kudos

[Sacajaweau]

Boy...Thank goodness for these notices....I’m soooo dumb...just like the government says. I probably have adult ADD, too.