What to do in the event there is no cell service?

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With a new born, my wife and I have been discussing ideas for communication such as wired telephone if there was no cell service. I am leaning towards HAM/CB radio, my thought is if a tree takes out power, it is going to take out the phone lines as well, thus rendering the landline useless. What are some recommendations?
 
Been thinking about this for years, my money is on cb or marine radios. Keep in mind that using a marine radio in non-marine settings is illegal, but if it comes to any real emergency, the fcc is the least of your problems.

Ham radios are much better but harder to get, but you can get some truly powerful ones with the right licenseing

Sent from my KFSOWI using Tapatalk
 
Been thinking about this for years, my money is on cb or marine radios. Keep in mind that using a marine radio in non-marine settings is illegal, but if it comes to any real emergency, the fcc is the least of your problems.

Ham radios are much better but harder to get, but you can get some truly powerful ones with the right licenseing

Sent from my KFSOWI using Tapatalk

The only LEO in communication would be the harbormaster, do police operate/monitor CB radios?
 
Getting into ham radio and playing with QRP operation would open up a lot of options.

Decent quality portable ham radios, made in China, are very cheap and of reasonably quality these days. It may be worth stocking up on a few in case the bad stuff happens.
 
I'm not 100% on how US telephone systems work but in europe land-lines do not need external power to operate. they carry their own current. assuming you have a telephone that is one of those old school corded varieties attached to your land-line you should be able to laugh in the face of power outage. any US phone gurus can confirm if this is true for US land-lines as well?

Radios however is always a nice backup to have
 
richc can you recommend one of these portable China made
portable HAM radios? These would be transmit/receive correct?
Thanks!

Mitch
 
FRS/GMRS/CB/Ham radio works fine, as long as the person you want to talk to also has a radio.

I'm not 100% on how US telephone systems work but in europe land-lines do not need external power to operate. they carry their own current. assuming you have a telephone that is one of those old school corded varieties attached to your land-line you should be able to laugh in the face of power outage. any US phone gurus can confirm if this is true for US land-lines as well?

Yes, POTS was traditionally powered by the central office (large banks of batteries and big generators), though in an extended outage the CO will eventually shut down as well. Newer phone infrastructure (fiber, etc) may not be powered from a large central office, but instead comes from a local switch. These tend to be more sensitive to power outages, might have backup power for only a couple of days, or less.
 
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I know some people that bought Chinese hand helps with a mega spectrum of frequencies , got some extended antennas and tested them out , while on cell phones to coordinate.

The idea being if the grid goes down people can check in with each other on pre arranged channels , with pre arranged triggers to " call " each other.

Of course , it's sort of like Bugging Out : you need a place to go ; with radios you need friends to call.
 
And go get your HAM lic., it is a bit of studying but not that bad. Just got mine not too long ago and use one of those Beofeng radios. It's only $15 for the test.
 
edin508 what is the test like a basic level? Thanks!

Mitch

I have the basic lic. out of 3, Technician level. It limits the freq. I can use but that is ok, there is a lot to learn and I just wanted the basic stuff for now anyway. Go to the ARRL site and look up some info for your local area and go from there. They list most of the local clubs and some places where you can go to test. You can do a lot of studying and practice tests on the QRZ site. http://www.qrz.com/i/site.html
 
We lost our cell tower to high winds last year. Most of Northern Berkshire was without cell service for about week before they got a temporary one up and running. It was amazing how many people don't have land lines anymore. Emergency services (Police, Ambulance, Fire Dept...ect) were monitoring their facebook pages 24/7 and telling people to contact them that way in an emergency, if they didn't have a land line.
 
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Not downplaying the importance of a HAM Lic but in a SHTF situation is the Lic really that necessary? Or do you need it to purchase radio gear or ant's?
I have a two way old military radio, it was given to me from a friend in working order. I listen to people around the world talk I'm assuming they are on a Ham radio???? Again I'm a total newb at it but it works.

Jason.
 
That is exactly why I got my ham radio license -or even for the times that cell service isn't technically down, just overwhelmed (like on Sept. 11th).
You don't need a license to buy gear or listen in. You technically only need a license to transmit.

Here is a link to the study guide I used for my technician and then general license:
http://www.kb6nu.com/tech-manual/

It doesn't really try to teach you any of the fundamentals of radio/antenna theory, just gives you the information you need to take the test.

I also took a bunch of practice tests here:
www.qrz.com

The actual test (30 something questions) is drawn from a pool of around 350 questions, all of which are publicly available. If you take enough practice tests at qrz.com, you'll eventually see all of the possible questions.

The Baofeng radios already mentioned wok well for the price. If you couple them with a decent antenna, they are a good start into the hobby until you decide what direction you want to go. I bought two slim (j pole) antennas to work with my handhelds (Technician level frequency ranges), one that I have up in my attic and one that is collecting dust in the corner of my office. When I connect the attic antenna to one of my handhelds I can reach out quite a bit further, so I can definitely see an improvement in performance. They are also nice because they were cheap ($25?) and can be rolled up to a fairly compact size for storage in a backpack or whatever. I have one of each from the links below. The Ed Fong antenna is meant to be mounted outside, and I have mine secured in the thin-walled PVC as recommended.
Ed Fong antenna

slim jim antenna

The Ham Radio forum here has a lot of folks much more experienced and knowledgeable than me. It's not super active, but everybody is pretty willing to help.
 
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Not downplaying the importance of a HAM Lic but in a SHTF situation is the Lic really that necessary? Or do you need it to purchase radio gear or ant's?
I have a two way old military radio, it was given to me from a friend in working order. I listen to people around the world talk I'm assuming they are on a Ham radio???? Again I'm a total newb at it but it works.

Jason.

The lic may not be necessary in a SHTF situation, or to buy stuff. But the lic lets you transmit now and learn how to use it and all the frequencies that work best and where.
 
Not downplaying the importance of a HAM Lic but in a SHTF situation is the Lic really that necessary? Or do you need it to purchase radio gear or ant's?
I have a two way old military radio, it was given to me from a friend in working order. I listen to people around the world talk I'm assuming they are on a Ham radio???? Again I'm a total newb at it but it works.

Jason.

In an emergency the license is not at all required. However, you'd need the license if you wanted to practice using the equipment before the emergency actually happened.
 
In an emergency the license is not at all required. However, you'd need the license if you wanted to practice using the equipment before the emergency actually happened.

This right there. The cheap radios are good, but they take some setup and you need to use them to learn their strengths and weaknesses. If you want a tech license (or any of the three licenses), you can download the test question pool and study that. Yeah, it's kind of cheating but whatever. The Baofeng only operates on frequencies you can use with a Tech license, so you don't have to worry about operating outside your band privileges.

I do much more listening than talking, but I like having my little Boafeng. Last winter when the cell tower(s) went down in Berkshire County, the Greylock repeater was super active with people helping each other get messages to people and check in on those who needed to be checked. There is a huge service culture in the ham community from what I've seen. Every time there's an emergency they get nets set up right away. Even if you couldn't get through to your wife, someone could relay messages for you.
 
If you are planning on using a hand held like a Boefeng for SHTF scenario, make sure you have extra batteries and a way to charge the if electricity is also out. A car charger would be a must.
 
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