Communicating in a Crisis
Part Two of our Family Communication Series
It has been a week, and the power is still down. Water is scarce, and the food in your fridge has spoiled. You’re trying to eat everything in the freezer before it goes bad. The nights are growing colder. The local radio station is only on the air for a few minutes each day. You’re worried about friends and relatives and have growing fears about your own survival. How will you find food or medicine? How do contact those you love or call for help?
In part one of this series, we looked at Citizens Band Radio (CB) and the Family Radio Service (FRS) and how well they might work during a grid-down situation. In this second and closing post, I’ll examine two more services that provide greater range and flexibility. However, it’s good to remember that all forms of communication take power. CB and FRS can work on AA batteries. More robust communications require more power. Home generators are beyond the scope of this post, but self-reliant individuals should consider them. I will discuss them in the future.
General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS)
The General Mobile Radio Service evolved from Class A Citizens Band radio and was formally inaugurated in 1987 as a short-range (UHF) radio service. The original intent was for it to be a business service, but hobbyists like me quickly joined the ranks. A license is required, but there is no test. Just fill out the form, pay $35, and the FCC will send you an email with a link to your license and call sign. My call sign is WRXU703. A license is good for ten years.
UHF frequencies are line of sight, but the FCC allows three ways to extend GMRS range. First, on many channels, you are permitted to transmit at up to 50 watts. That amount of power will provide significant range within the physical limitation of a UHF signal. Also, like Citizens Band, you are allowed to mount an external antenna on your vehicle or up to 20 feet above your home if it is on a tower attached to your house. (FCC 95.103) Handheld (HT) GMRS radios using one or two watts might give you a couple of miles range. Using household, vehicle, or generator power, and transmitting at 50 watts your signal may exceed 20 miles. Click on the video for additional information.
The third way licensed GMRS users can extend their range is through the use of repeaters. A repeater receives your signal and retransmits it. These are often located on tall buildings, hills, or mountaintops and allow two-way communication over much longer distances. However, it’s good to remember that in a grid-down situation, repeaters will probably not be available due to the loss of power.
Amateur (Ham) Radio
Kyle with a handheld GMRS and the smaller amateur radio
A saying goes that all good things require effort. There are more than 700,000 ham operators in the United States, and if you become one, the communication benefits are considerable. You can use more than a dozen orbital satellites, including orbital repeaters, bounce transmissions off the moon, and talk with the international space station. However, of the four services I’m examining, joining the ranks of Amateur Radio is the hardest and most expensive. As with GMRS, you fill out the form and pay $35 but you must also pass an exam proctored by local ham operators. These are held every other month in my rural area so, they are probably held near where you live. Contact your local amateur radio club for more information.
After you pass the test and receive a call sign from the FCC, you can transmit. Merely passing the technician, entry-level, test allows transmissions on multiple frequency bands with up to 200 watts. If you find amateur radio interesting there are two higher-level licenses, General and Amateur Extra class. If you pass those tests you’ll be allowed to transmit on more bands and use up to 1,500 watts. That will allow you to skip transmissions off the ionosphere and, with relative ease, talk to people around the world.
After years of delay, I’m finally studying to take the technician test next month. I’ve also begun attending meetings with a local ham radio group. There I found an Elmer, a “tutor” in ham slang, and he recommended the study guide, shown to the left. I’ll update readers on my license status after the test.
While the thought of passing a test on standing wave ratio, wave propagation, and atmospheric ionization might seem daunting, it’s actually easier than it sounds. A total of 412 multiple-choice questions exist in the pool, but the test consists of only thirty-five. You must answer twenty-seven correctly to pass. All the questions and correct answers are known and available to read and study.
Many things affect the range of radio signals. With that in mind, I’ll try to provide conservative-range estimates for the entry-level technician class. A handheld amateur radio can easily transmit a mile or two and, given good conditions (flat unobstructed terrain), up to ten miles or more. Thousands of Ham repeaters exist across the country and in orbit, and these can greatly extend your range, but in a crisis, these may not be available.
Using a decent amateur base station transceiver with a well-placed antenna and transmitting at 200 watts in the two-meter VHF band you should be able to communicate at least 100 miles. During normal times, transmitting longer range will probably require a better transceiver and a general or extra license. However, when dealing with an emergency involving “immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are not available,” licensed amateur operators can use “any means of radio communication available to provide essential communications.”(FCC 97.401-407)
In these two posts, I’ve examined four radio services and their usefulness in a grid-down situation. If your family lives close enough, within about 25 miles, I recommend the GMRS license, with a base station and mobile transceiver. If greater range is needed, start with the Amateur Radio technician class license and consider taking the higher-level tests.
How would you maintain communication with your family in an emergency? Is it something you have considered? Do you have a plan? Let us know in the comment section below.
