All the Mutual Aid going on by private citizens, in the wake of Helena.
💚💚💚
We have talked about preparedness here before, everyone should have a go bag. But we haven't talked about communications in a disaster. In many disasters, your cell phone ain't gonna work.
Ya gonna need a PLB (personal locator beacon) or a satellite messenger/satellite phone.
You should also carry a portable VHF UHF, radio. You don't need a ham radio license to listen. You do need one to transmit.
Alternates are increasingly important as weather crisis worsens. Sat phones are incredibly expensive. Looked into them while living hurricane alley in Caribbean.
Until folks understand these events are not gonna go away, they will not prepare.
Way over my pay grade. But others?
TY for this info. It may sound silly but after watching Leave the World Behind I've been talking to my family about how we would communicate. I'll look into these.
@corlin I got my Ham license mostly for off-roading, but then living in rural areas of California, I upgraded. With my extra, I can talk to people in other states, which will let me get messages to family/friends if we have a big one, as well as help out local emergency services.
But it's hard to explain to most people that their phone won't always "just work".
@mikeflstfi You can get great range with GMRS. I use that for backup communication with my wife, who hates taking tests, so no ham license for her.
It's a great choice for local use, and easier to get folks to sign up for, since there's no testing, just an inexpensive license. @corlin
@corlin when i lost services during an emergency, i only had my NOAA radio giving me information via weather updates, which was helpful and better than nothing.
@corlin
This also reminds me that I need to get a new battery for my handheld ham radio.
@LnzyHou
Portable software defined radio.
https://www.amazon.com/Software-1MHz-6GHz-Frequency-Bandwidth-Adapters/dp/B0BKH7Z2NJ
https://www.amazon.com/RTL-SDR-Blog-RTL2832U-Software-Defined/dp/B0CD7558GT
https://www.onesdr.com/best-sdr-for-raspberry-pi/
A lot more online on how to build and use.