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Communicating after a disaster

C

cmario

Member
Apr 27, 2011
23
0
11
Hello everyone, Glad to be here! I live near San Francisco and got interested in Ham Radio for the main purpose of communicating during a natural disaster, which means Earthquakes around here. Like most folks my number one priority is my family and their safety. My thought process is simple the big one hits and the first thing I want to do is make sure everyone is okay. Telephones are out, CB I’m pretty sure is going to be chaos, Personal locator will show where you are but what use is it if there’s no phone or Internet. There is the SPOT messenger personal locator but again it relies on the phone, Internet. So I thought perhaps ham is the way to go. The only draw back I can see is okay I got my license but what about the rest of the family what’s the point of me having a license if they don’t. I decided to get my license anyway, my feeling is at the least it’s better then nothing and perhaps I'll be able to come up with something. I’d really like some thoughts on this matter and if someone has some other ideas or options. I hope the day never comes but I’m preparing for the worst.

Cheers
Mario
 

it depends on

what you want and what lic.I was a techplus for 17 yrs.Ran 2mtrs and was very active in skywarn,floods tornado.Got genral lic and very active in traffic nets,we have a 3 day drill for earthquakes coming up.we had the new madrid fault here.We run on 75mtrs here,all i run is a old ts520s i got 2yrs ago for $125...and made a wire dipole for $100...so you dont have to go broke.In 2002 we where out of pwr for 6 day from a tornado,i was police chef of my city so i need the police radios and ham radios.I used a big dry cell battery.Went 10 miles north and fueled up pd car and broght it back and charged the battery every day for a hour,it ran ht and hf radio all day.73s de n0zna/John em48sd grid square.
 
Sorry John, I failed to mention that I passed my Technicians license about a week ago. I still wonder how my family will benefit if they don’t have a license? Guess the only way is they’re going to need license too. :unsure:

Cheers
 
I think in the time of a true disaster, noone is going to care if your family is licensed or not. I presume you're thinking of short range communications - a few miles between family members?
 
Yes, mainly bay area, 50 miles in either direction. When it comes down to moment I think you may be right, I think I would be at that point when I’d say the hell with everything I need to know if my family is all right. But I'd rather plan something before hand that would be more rational because I know if everyone took that route ham radio would be like CB, jammed and chaotic. Thank you for your reply.
 
In a wide spread disaster situation, no one is going to care about rules and in fact will admire you for having the foresight to make provision for caring for your family.

CB will not carry 50 miles. You are taking about all mobile to mobile communications because the grid has gone down. Can't count on having any power at your home unless you are also going to outfit the house with generator power.

If you believe this is really important to you, and, if you wear the pants in your family, then impress them with the need and get everyone trained and licensed.

You'll need 80 meters, possibly can accomplish with 40 meters - capability in every vehicle. 80M has the most reliable up-close skybounce communications 24/7. The radio waves essentially go straight up and back down so you can talk 1 miles away and 300 miles away. Shorter during the day and longer at night. You can only count on CB to do 5-20 miles and that's IF it's quiet.

So everyone will need to be a General. The General test is about as easy as the Tech.

100 watt mobile HF rig in every vehicle.

The ham bands will be no where near as crazy crowded as CB and the great majority will hardly have the foresight or inclination to be ham radio operators....just like it is now. Plus your HF rigs will do double duty as CBs. They all are covertable and you can use screwdriver or other multi-band antennas or separate antennas.

You can decide whether or not the other family members should be licensed. As said earlier, in a real disaster all bets will be off and no one will care about any rules for personal emergency communications. All you'd need is to install the gear in every vehicle and teach the family members how to use them.

Or make everyone get licensed now and the family can be enjoying the benefits and fun of ham radio personal communications. Even if all you ever do is talk to each other.

Good luck
 
A siphon pump/"Arkansas Credit Card" for obtaining fuel from damaged vehicles - in order to keep power available for your mobile operations. Under these extreme circumstances, it may well be needed . . .

South San Francisco Bay Area/San Jose CA
 
Wire Weasel said:
In a wide spread disaster situation, no one is going to care about rules and in fact will admire you for having the foresight to make provision for caring for your family.

CB will not carry 50 miles. You are taking about all mobile to mobile communications because the grid has gone down. Can't count on having any power at your home unless you are also going to outfit the house with generator power.

If you believe this is really important to you, and, if you wear the pants in your family, then impress them with the need and get everyone trained and licensed.

You'll need 80 meters, possibly can accomplish with 40 meters - capability in every vehicle. 80M has the most reliable up-close skybounce communications 24/7. The radio waves essentially go straight up and back down so you can talk 1 miles away and 300 miles away. Shorter during the day and longer at night. You can only count on CB to do 5-20 miles and that's IF it's quiet.

So everyone will need to be a General. The General test is about as easy as the Tech.

100 watt mobile HF rig in every vehicle.

The ham bands will be no where near as crazy crowded as CB and the great majority will hardly have the foresight or inclination to be ham radio operators....just like it is now. Plus your HF rigs will do double duty as CBs. They all are covertable and you can use screwdriver or other multi-band antennas or separate antennas.

You can decide whether or not the other family members should be licensed. As said earlier, in a real disaster all bets will be off and no one will care about any rules for personal emergency communications. All you'd need is to install the gear in every vehicle and teach the family members how to use them.

Or make everyone get licensed now and the family can be enjoying the benefits and fun of ham radio personal communications. Even if all you ever do is talk to each other.

Good luck
Click to expand...
well said.
 
Had a family meeting tonight and they all decided on getting licensed. Now all we need to do is figure out the equipment. I’m thinking a HT for the wife since she works down town and plans to walk home if transit is down. From her location we have access to a high-level two-meter FM analog repeater located on Twin Peaks (Mountain top in the geographical center of San Francisco) that’s approximately 5 miles away, and another D-Star 2 meter and 70 cm digital voice system that’s 6.5 miles away. My house is max 10 miles from both repeaters. The San Francisco Amateur Radio Club owns the repeaters and hopefully I’ll be joining the club soon. I’ve only been doing this for few weeks and know I’ve got a lot to learn but thanks to people like you I’m hoping the learning curve won’t be so steep.
 
Food for thought.

You should never make using a repeater part of your emergency communications plan. Who is to say that the repeater will still be on the air when everything else around it is off-line. Also, if it is on-line, think about the amount of traffic it will be handling and it will be emergency traffic which takes priority over health and welfare traffic. Requests for medical aid will take priority over your request for the wife and kids to meet you at a specified location or even if they/you are OK.
 
More food for thought...

Emergency/disaster radio traffic is structured in 'layers'. those 'layers' are only for use of those directly participating in whatever agency is using a particular 'layer'. Monitoring is fine, but you do not transmit there unless directed by authority to do so. There are very, very few exceptions to that, and then only for very important reasons.

Generally, traffic is also organized in priorities. Health and welfare traffic -into- the affected area has the lowest priority. -Any- traffic -out- of the affected area has priority over H&W traffic -into- the area, or any intra-area communications.
It's a safe bet that the people in the area know that people out of that area are concerned. They will say they are okay if/when they can, but there are more important things going on.
Very basically, if someone is okay, they have no business tying up usable radio frequencies. Sounds 'cold-hearted' but it isn't. It has to do with situational importance, not individual importance.
This is a fairly 'standard' and efficient way of handling communications in and out of the affected areas, an 'S.O.P.' thing. There's always a 'lag' while the system gets underway. Before that happens there's no telling what may be happening. It's also a safe bet that any/all available frequencies will be congested in a very short time, and nothing much will be accomplished.
There's lot's more to it, but that's the general idea.
- 'Doc
 

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