Establishing a communications protocol for your family and community
More than the tools and the gear, it’s the knowledge, skills, and practice that can spell the difference between success and failure in communications prepping.
Some of my use cases for amateur radio involve emergency communication and alternative communication. This is one reason I have encouraged my bigger kids to test for their own licenses. Four of us in the family are now licensed radio amateurs.
I am training my family for communications resiliency. While in our use case is currently based on radio repeaters, it’s a good start. It’s redundancy for when our primary and alternative means of getting in touch (messenger, calls, text) are unavailable.
After all, reuniting with your family is one of the important things post-disaster. But we also need redundancies for non-SHTF matters, such as to ensure we are reachable when all else fails. For instance, my children who are in university might need to communicate without cell coverage or battery when they are commuting, travelling, or at a location far from home. We are also trying to establish buddy systems and relay with the rest of my radio club.
We usually use the repeater of the club I belong to, with our portable radios (since these are the most convenient to operate while in the field), as well as my vehicle’s mobile radio. Our repeaters also run off-grid, since both our VHF and UHF operates on battery+solar full time.
I do plan to train them also for more advanced operations, such as HF, or even simpler fixed station VHF and UHF ops.
Besides, even with portable radios, we need to know the limitations of our devices, how to charge them, how to manage traffic, how to set channels and frequencies, dealing with ine-of-sight and propagation, etc.
We practice this now, so that when emergencies happen and we could not reach each other through cell/phone/internet, we have a way.
This is one common gap in RF-based communication, especially in the prepping community. It’s a technical matter so just turning on the radio and squeezing the PTT will not guarantee effective communication without the training and practice.
Adopt these as you wish. I have redacted some info for privacy. Our club’s frequencies are not secret — you may wish to listen in to learn how contacts/conversations in the amateur service go.
