notmeofficer
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It pretty easy for us in the USA... We pick up a radio.. we talk... someone else comes or gives us directions
We also have pretty good cell phone systems.. and as we all know sometimes they work WAY better than our radios.. nothing like the free market system to get a better product
But
Disaster communication is a whole other world...
For those of us that worked Hurricane Katrina...or the floods in Indiana.. or the ever present California Wildfires we may have experienced something else. During Katrina both public safety and military comms went offline for differing periods. Some agencies had hardened their comms and had good secondary and even third layers built in. There was MARS (Military Amateur Radio System) and numerous ham radio systems that still worked.. but much of the public safety ems systems were plain wiped out.
In California we have put huge resources into disaster comms.. mobile stand alone command posts. CHP has a number that are full rolling radio and tv stations with computer interface and interoperability over the entire spectrum of radio frequencies (unfortunately they built these into grossly overloaded Tahoe platforms.. which was a real brain surgeon move on the part of some state wigethead).. For fire here we have mobile repeaters we can rapidly set up for fire comms...
As such disaster comms sort of work...even when interfaced with old hand-held vhf Bendix king radios
Resupply with batteries and all the other essentials is never really that far off
But then there is the third world and everything you know pretty much goes out the window.. your system truly needs to stand alone.. and perhaps for some long period of time
So .. now you are left with.. how far do I have to talk.. does it need to be secure.. what power supplies can I lay my hands on.. how easy is it to use.. (trust me some digital whizbang radio is useless if you cant throw it to a local and teach them in ten seconds.. "here talk on this")
What bands do you use... is it legal.. does anyone care.. do you have to be licensed..
All this and more is going through my mind as we head back to Haiti
We have decided to use GMRS radios..
They are cheap and plentiful, They can gps interface with each other.. they use both rechargeable lithium/ion and alkaline battery packs ( in our case the preferred is AA as those batteries fit our flashlights and helmet lights)
Any non comms person can figure a frs/grms radio out. We realistically expect 1-2 mile range in the city and maybe double that in open country/good conditions. The mobiles can run 50 watts .. so they can punch out 7-10 miles fairly reliably.
So.. we intend to torture test these and Ill let everyone know how this worked out. We had the ability to take way more expensive radios and I have a portable repeater ..but it was the logistics of getting all of it moved through the shipping system to the third world. Even two more pelican cases would cost us several hundred dollars to get them there..
Hand-held stuff is going in each of our survival vest. One of the radios we are going to "test" is Garmins latest version 5 watt gps/grms radio. Im interested in how it will perform. We can bring two high power GRMS mobiles that can run off 12/100v... for use as base stations...
We will see.. what say any of you ..?
NOTME
We also have pretty good cell phone systems.. and as we all know sometimes they work WAY better than our radios.. nothing like the free market system to get a better product
But
Disaster communication is a whole other world...
For those of us that worked Hurricane Katrina...or the floods in Indiana.. or the ever present California Wildfires we may have experienced something else. During Katrina both public safety and military comms went offline for differing periods. Some agencies had hardened their comms and had good secondary and even third layers built in. There was MARS (Military Amateur Radio System) and numerous ham radio systems that still worked.. but much of the public safety ems systems were plain wiped out.
In California we have put huge resources into disaster comms.. mobile stand alone command posts. CHP has a number that are full rolling radio and tv stations with computer interface and interoperability over the entire spectrum of radio frequencies (unfortunately they built these into grossly overloaded Tahoe platforms.. which was a real brain surgeon move on the part of some state wigethead).. For fire here we have mobile repeaters we can rapidly set up for fire comms...
As such disaster comms sort of work...even when interfaced with old hand-held vhf Bendix king radios
Resupply with batteries and all the other essentials is never really that far off
But then there is the third world and everything you know pretty much goes out the window.. your system truly needs to stand alone.. and perhaps for some long period of time
So .. now you are left with.. how far do I have to talk.. does it need to be secure.. what power supplies can I lay my hands on.. how easy is it to use.. (trust me some digital whizbang radio is useless if you cant throw it to a local and teach them in ten seconds.. "here talk on this")
What bands do you use... is it legal.. does anyone care.. do you have to be licensed..
All this and more is going through my mind as we head back to Haiti
We have decided to use GMRS radios..
They are cheap and plentiful, They can gps interface with each other.. they use both rechargeable lithium/ion and alkaline battery packs ( in our case the preferred is AA as those batteries fit our flashlights and helmet lights)
Any non comms person can figure a frs/grms radio out. We realistically expect 1-2 mile range in the city and maybe double that in open country/good conditions. The mobiles can run 50 watts .. so they can punch out 7-10 miles fairly reliably.
So.. we intend to torture test these and Ill let everyone know how this worked out. We had the ability to take way more expensive radios and I have a portable repeater ..but it was the logistics of getting all of it moved through the shipping system to the third world. Even two more pelican cases would cost us several hundred dollars to get them there..
Hand-held stuff is going in each of our survival vest. One of the radios we are going to "test" is Garmins latest version 5 watt gps/grms radio. Im interested in how it will perform. We can bring two high power GRMS mobiles that can run off 12/100v... for use as base stations...
We will see.. what say any of you ..?
NOTME
