It is no secret that communications will be critical after any SHTF event.
As preppers look to sort out their post-SHTF communications strategy, it is common that they will encounter a lot of communications myths that may direct them in the wrong direction.
Busting these myths is important so preppers can find the information they need without being distracted by false information.
CB Radio Will Be Useless
Citizens band (CB) radio is a channelized section of the radio frequency spectrum from 26.965 to 27.405 MHz, occupying the 11-meter band.
CB radios were very popular amongst hobbyists and truckers because they needed no license, and the equipment was affordable and widely available.
In recent years, the popularity of CB radio has waned due to the widespread use of cell phones, cheap offshore HAM radios, and a variety of other license-free radio options.
There are a lot of better options than CB radio, but that does not mean that it is useless in a SHTF scenario.
In the book No Grid Survival Projects of which I was the primary author, I wrote a chapter on how to increase the power of a CB radio by simply building a better antenna.
This turns a simple and cheap CB radio into a transmitter that can reach out much further than one that is fixed to a vehicle. You can use this chapter to establish a base station CB radio and have other CB radios mounted in vehicles or use CB handhelds to maintain short-range comms.
Along with this project in the book, you can also learn to set up a solar power system to run the radio as well, giving you effective two-way communications.
You Don’t Need an Amateur Radio License After SHTF
No one is going to check for your license or throw you in jail for transmitting on amateur radio bands after SHTF without a license. That being said, you’re not going to be very effective in your radio communications if you do not practice now and understand how the equipment works.
Ham radio operators are constantly exercising their equipment and tweaking their setups so that they will have effective and efficient communications after any disaster. If you do not have a license, you cannot practice or participate in amateur radio exercises or nets to sharpen your skills.
Related: How To Get A Ham Radio License For When SHTF
Getting licensed is a critical first step in a post-SHTF communications plan and cannot be ignored.
All You Need Is a Box of Baofengs
The Baofeng handheld radio has seen a massive surge in popularity amongst preppers because it is cheap, effective and easy to get.
Many preppers bought several of these radios with the misguided thought that they could easily use them after a disaster to stay in touch.
The truth is buying these radios is only one step in the process.
Baofengs are notoriously hard to program. You can use a program called CHIRP to program them, but that means you need to know what frequencies to put into the radio.
This is where unlicensed preppers fail in their comms preparedness. You cannot program and test a Baofeng without being a licensed amateur radio operator, and if you do not program and test your box of Baofeng radios, they are going to be useless after SHTF.
A SHTF Comms Setup Is Expensive
Radio gear can be really expensive, but it does not have to be. Even though radios produced in China have a lower build quality, you can use them to create a budget-friendly emergency communications station.
Related: Rechargeable Emergency Items To Always Have In The House
Antennas for many radios can be built using little more than a few easily obtained connectors and the proper lengths of wire.
A wide array of information available online will give you the knowledge and resources to get the proper comms gear to achieve your post-SHTF communications needs at a price point that you can afford.
Even though you can go the budget route for post-SHTF comms, you should try to get the best equipment you can afford. In a post-SHTF environment, you’ll want gear you can count on.
HAM Radio Is the Only SHTF Communication Option
If you are hell-bent on not getting an amateur radio license, there are other methods you can use for emergency communications.
Family Radio Service (FRS) and General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) are options that do not require an amateur radio license.
GMRS radio requires a license, but no course or test is associated with getting one.
CB radio is another possibility, and the equipment to set up CB radio stations is widely available.
Multi-Use Radio Service is another channelized radio service that is available for you without an amateur radio license.
Another possibility worth mentioning is LORA devices that can be used with the Meshtastic app. These devices are more difficult to set up but allow you to set up a mesh network where you can send text messages between connected smartphones.
The advantage of this system is that all communications are encrypted and shared only between the devices on the mesh network.
You Can’t Have Effective Comms Off-Grid
There are many people who assume that you cannot have effective communications without the grid.
This is simply not the case. In fact, all amateur radio communications will be easier in the absence of the RF noise that the power grid emits.
With a low-power ham radio, you’ll be able to communicate worldwide using Morse code or digital modes.
You can also communicate with voice over long distances as well. Locally, you can use repeaters, which should have backup power, to have effective local communications.
If you are serious about preparing for emergencies or SHTF, you need a good emergency comms plan.
You also need to exercise your equipment, practice, and constantly tweak your comms setup. Anything less will result in ineffective communications after a SHTF event, rendering that part of your preps ineffective.
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It won’t matter what comms we have ham or CB, they can’t come and arrest us all.
Get this ebook -“The Red Dragon Report” This will reinforce the impending doom for 2024 election.
Will the Manchurian Candidate or Blackmailed Biden, Joe’s Family be the Trojan Horse to our American demise?
China buying American farmland next to military bases. Could these farms be bases for reeducation camps of Americans? And the Chinese nationals crossing the open Southern Border of military age males more than farm workers. The Demoncrat Deep State knows for sure.
“Communist China gives America back our farms – or our current administration somehow saves the day – you still have to LOVE Final Famine.”
What do these American corrupted politicians have in mind as they have been bought and sold by our Asian adversary?
All electric military vehicles is a joke the Chinese will have the last laugh on the American Sheeple.
All the electronics products including the LED light bulbs are spy devices, but you don’t care.
Analog technology and incandescent light bulbs are still environmentally sound and secure. Who’s watching you and your lover with your bedroom security camera in supposed intimate privacy?
How many Biden’s illegals IED’s will it take exploding on American soil again, before the Sheeple demand to Build the Southern Border Wall? Who Biden is selling off the wall parts for pennies on the dollar to who?
Our freedoms are at stake in the hands of Marxist, you decide in the 2024 presidential election. Maybe the presidential election of America with illegals able to vote in State and Federal elections? It’s still our country for now.
Lucky me I bought a whole case of incandescent light bulbs right before the ban.
I will use LED’s for the time being and some real bulbs in certain places. Leaving something for them to see while I do things they cannot see.
What we need is a device that plugs into any outlet that attenuates/filters all RF signals in the power lines in your home.
And NOT cost us our first born to get. (meaning under $25 is a decent price).
When I worked for the local power company we transmitted radio signals over the power lines to communicate between substations. If you pulled the rf signals off the power line coming into your house you might listen to some interesting conversations or very boring tech chatter about fixing a problem at a substation.
On the illegals crossing the southern border, they have been busting illegals crossing the border in trucks and they are dressed as US Marines.
Actually operative s are already at work , research , thru alt sites , not media , fake book sites
any site you use in mainstream is washed, censored, bought with launderings money thru books, and other legal avenues , used to control and lie to the american people and other white nations
most of what is said here is great and of great value
The invasion is to waterdown, take down, meltdown our system for takeover and have UN soldiers already in place
but use common sense : your already on the watch list and they the evil already know
since the 50s
Rule you play as told or you get suicided or taken out by the Kazarians , Jews who own you thru debt
If you owe a debt ,credit , you can be controlled
simple math , common to evil people , get all in massive debt , so they cannot stand against the very , very , very wealthy
the border is a means to control delude, take what is left
wait and see
I will use Native American smoke signals, to hell with the environmentalist.
The Social Security and Medicare are basically bankrupted by politicians who spouted years ago they would put our taxed money in a “Lock Box” to keep that money safe.
Well they lied and used that money for more pressing giveaway deals to people who are illegals than Americans.
We got Billions if not Trillions invested in Ukraine and Billions in modern weapon technology to the Afghan terrorist, that is being reverse engineered by the Chinese, Russians and Iran.
We have several high profile politicians, activist and bureaucrats that are being bribed by foreign governments. Greed will get the job done for our invading adversaries bringing in their military age males for a take down of America. Why not it has happened before in history. The famous story in the Trojan Horse, it will work with today’s Marxist educated lug nuts in America.
It was said over 40 years ago there are elements in government that want open borders. It has happened due to distractions of smartphone addiction and social media. The public or the Sheeple have no commonsense to figure out why their America is going down in flames.
We see Obama’s civilian army made up of Antifa and BLM doing his dirty work. You believe Joe and Harris are running their elected offices, I’ve got some swamp land you might be interested in, Ha, Ha.
The FCC has become weaponized to the average citizen who wants to use the HAM frequencies with hefty fines for non-licenses.
The Green agenda is nonsense is about command and control of American subjects under the authority of the United Nations. By influencing the current Biden administration through bribery, blackmail or Manchurian brainwashing techniques.
We can have both electric and gas powered vehicles and gas powered appliances. We are stronger because we rely on one form of technology we all go down in flames. Texas one Winter their Chinese made wind turbines froze and their electric grid was down for days in very cold temperatures. The electric appliances were useless. Lessons to green agenda folks not learned well.
The electric Tesla and other EV’s are useless an tend to short out if flooded batteries in storms happen, as in Florida recently.
The striking union of every stripe are protesting for the wrong reasons of higher wages which in turn raise the prices of every product made, consumed and transported in America. A vicious cycle. The Auto workers union will be out of jobs when the EV plants use less workers than gas powered manufacturing plants do. Those jobs will stay in China and increase their economy, not ours.
Union striking just pisses the public to no end. Higher costs passed on by corporations. Entities that never pay taxes the consumer pays all the freight of the bills financially. Until liberals, Marxist realize that there is no hope. I trust a politician who has worked in Blue Collar labor and started a business than some radical political science major. Who no real connected world experience working a burger flipper job or something similar.
In regards to unions, I have been on both sides of that fence and the democrats saw a goldmine of votes by hitching their wagon to the union side. The good side of the unions is it tries to get fair compensation for its members. The bad side a lot of the gains go into the union’s pocket and not the workers. The company, they want to keep as much of the profits in their and the shareholder’s pockets. They generally don’t care about the workers at all. Any gains the workers glean from the negotiations comes out of the consumer’s pockets not the company’s. It is a win win for the company no matter how the dice fall. What makes the company sit up and take notice is the loss of customers.
Educators are idealists with no real world experience. They see the rhetoric of communism as an ideal society and if it wasn’t corrupt on its face it could be very close to an ideal society. But then you have to look at the chicken in every pot and everybody treated equally mentality. People are dreamers and they want better than what they have and that is why communism and democracy do not work in real life. Everybody isn’t the same. We may have similar wants and desires but that is as far as it goes. I don’t want society dictating to me what I can have and how I must live. It is my life and my choice. Democracy is for controlling government not the people and in this country we have it backwards and too many are too dimwitted to see it. It is just like the concept of separation of church and state. Most believe it is to keep the church out of government but it is the opposite, it is to keep the government out of the church. I’m not sure there are enough of us to keep this train from hurtling off the tracks and off the cliff.
I hated my smartphone having to depend on every transaction for internet communication. I want to go back to pen and paper days were more secure.
Another off topic related to communications is food labeling truth.
What makes the government agencies experts, their food label guidelines are full of holes. Manufactures still hide certain ingredients from the labels.
The truth in edible food labeling: Are we seeing the real deal?
As in microplastics in foods, the air, the ground an inside us too.
And then High and mighty vegetarians and animal rights groups that curse meat eaters are hypocrites of nature. Mankind has many diverse diets throughout the world and centuries, no one has an exclusive mandate of what to eat when and where. The exceptions are the tyrannical dictators of every radical group that arises in history. It is all about control of another human being like climate change false religion.
Geoengineering is not a religious cult it is destruction of the human race for what?
Besides climate engineering, chem trail stuff exposed, I was skeptical until notice chem trails seem to come from military planes. So now the next level are airborne microplastics. Bioengineered food products maybe beyond what we know as GMO adulterated foods.
Microplastics are in the air, water, food and inside humans and animals. We thought the Covid crisis was bad. These plastics they are found in the Antarctic Ice.
Even the best grown supposedly organic grown foods are not 100% organic any different that store bought grocery foods. Reference: Geoengineering Watch
Ever notice the same brand food labels, say soup the brand vegetable soup has a GMO or Bioengineered notification. Right next to it the meat contained soup has no GMO or Bioengineered rating on the label. Is this not to scare the consumer from purchasing the canned soup.
Some health stores do carry NON-GMO soups and their labels state it so. The new revelation of microplastics being everywhere do we need new label standards?
Are those prepper 25 yr survival using microplastics, even though they are suppose to be Non-GMO and not Bioengineered for ultimate safe eating in the end days?
What can we do?
What have other preppers done to avoid this health issue?
WARNING; October 4 2023…
TURN off ALL devices and pull the battery out and remove the sims card if can..
FEMA and the big Gov are sending out a national warning signal. To warn you of any disaster or a threat to our safety. lol…
This is NOT a TEST,,,, It is a way together all the pings and any information on where you are and what you have at home or work or any place you have or store or anything that can give any information about you and your where abouts, places that you visit.
Anything that they say is a smart T.V. or really every device needs to be unplugged do not just turn it off, unplug and remove any way for it to receive power. Including your WI-FI box. Everything…
If you do not want to be part of this evilness that is upon ALL of US, then do not go along with Thier AGENDA… work you BUTT off to find every way possible to not let them get your picture on any cameras or any way they are using to track you. I wear sunglasses even when its dark out when we go to certain places like walmart they are the worst there are cameras everywhere you look and it not for people stealing, they are there to get as much information on you as they can. That’s why most cameras are used for. Hell go into the City, Cameras everywhere. O’ they are for your safety. Horse Shit I say…
CONTROL, for you, BUT not for them, only YOU and your loved ones.
The days are getting very heavy, with the Burdon of what’s to come.
stay sharp
PS: Better take this crap serious,
Check out GhostNet by S2 Underground on YT – seems like a good system to stay in touch with others around the country and world.
He is a good dude and avoid Sad Hams
We can tell who the liberals are by the thumbs down on commonsense voices or ideas posted.
There is a war on the American people, liberals do not care.
What hard assets are you buying more of, hardware like tools or gold & sliver?
What will we do when the digital dollar makes the paper dollar worthless?
Why not deregulate the HAM Club license? Have a Ham band freq for citizens when the electrical grid goes down. Smartphones won’t work, so we need an alternative. CB’s are short range where Ham’s are longer distance.
Preppers have this idea all preppers are conservative in every subject on prepping. We have some liberals that are transitioning to the right side, conservatism.
The tyrant in Canada is passing a bad communication law to regulate what is being said on podcasts, radio, in their equivalent Canadian FCC agency.
Trudeau is trying to silence the opposition there.
That works there in Canada, the liberals would try it here too. Silencing the First and Second Amendments in America.
The reason HAM radios are regulated and needs to be licenced is much the same reason car driving needs to be regulated and drivers need to be licenced. With everyone knowing the rules and the dos and don’ts things run smoothly and things get done. We’ve all experienced the idiot that gets on the mike creating havoc and effectively stopping the airwaves from functioning – imagine dozens of them. Not unlike having dozens of untrained and unlicenced drivers on the road in a small town all at once.
I can’t let the post by red ant go by without commenting. The 10/4/2023 test is NOT some insidious program to find out where everyone is. If you have a cell phone your general location can be found at any time. I have been involved with these tests at the national level since their inception and can assure you they are really nothing more than testing a system mandated (unfunded) by the government and carried out by the private sector. The cell companies only put up with them due to coercion and do the minimum necessary to comply with their agreements with the government.
And to address something seen in other venues, the test will not turn everyone that got the “jab” into zombies.The test is not a signal for nefarious actors to perform acts of sabotage. And the test is not, like a previous test was explained by the left, a way for the POTUS to take over your cell phone.
I just spent the last two months inspecting radio and TV stations. One of the main points of the inspection is making sure their EAS equipment is working and programmed properly.
Once SHTF occurs the only source of national information will be disseminated by approximately 70 specially outfitted radio stations manned by local broadcasters. Granted, there will be government programming on these, but there will also be homegrown local programming as well. You can separate the wheat from the chaff on that.
ROD this is red ant. Thank you for commenting on my post.
But if I have to trust anyone on this earth, it won’t be anyone that has any part in the way that our country is and has been run by LIARS and GREED and all the evil people.
I am awake and see more then you could imagine. Satan is here hard core, and the antichrist is coming to your door soon. Are you even ready.
SO, there is no trust in what you say. ME, I do not believe anything or anybody anymore…
Absolutely, NO trust for any part of the GOV… even if it a signal or not…
Good luck if you believe that crap.
Trust is everything when you can’t trust anyone.
FEMA: F.elled E.veryone M.iserably A.gain.
O” and we are not worried about zombies, we are worried about the evil demon possessed people, that are trying to destroy our way of life.
You see it just like I do, don’t you…
P.S: NO Trust…
After 90% die in the 1st week of a Major SHTF scenario. Please explain to me who is going to enforce any laws? HAM radio better just listen and not transmit is your secure bet. Cell phones and vehicles can be turned into Hotspots to create line of sight links when the Power goes down. The only morality that you will be able to enforce is what you can control in your immediate area. Only a miracle will keep most of the men alive. The world will be a very bad place for women and children. With those politicians and Bureaucrats who believe that they will ride everything out in a COG facility are in for a surprise. To many people know the locations and what to look for on the surface for ventilation. Our world government thinks that they are going to hide then come back to take over with an NWO/OWG. They have forgotten the people that they will hurt the most is their evil selves.
To all preppers or just the curious. I am 71 yrs. old. I didn”t get my first computer until 2010. I did a lot of browsing until a friend told me about Zetatalk.com. It took me months to go through all the info. on this site. It`s been up since 1995. I believe the info. on this site is true. The elites of this world don`t want the rest of the world to know the truth about the cataclysmic destruction that will occur on the in the next couple of yrs. This info. is talked about in the Catholic Bible, the Egyptian Kolbrin and even in the Jewish Talmud. If you really want to know the truth about what is coming, go to this site and read, read, read. As for the nation wide test of the EBS, I believe this is going to be used to tell the U.S. masses that Donald Trump is acting President.
What will happen when they have destroyed all of us with their contaminated foods and pharmaceuticals. Who then will be their slaves?
Bonnie
Good question and I fill they will go after their own kind and all the lost weak souls that had gathered us up will be next on the list. There family’s will be the next in line to be destroyed.
Problem is that these people will be so deceived, that they will think that they are doing the right thing, but they will be bringing in their own destruction on them self’s and their Loved ones, all so.
There will be MORE in hell then in Heaven.
stay sharp
Ever see Red Dawn?
No Communications, gas drilling or safe edible foods, all preplanned to destroy America, by at least China. Fentanyl in major cities, no bullets needed.
We have cheap China electronics, Ham handheld radios that may not last in a SHTF.
We got the pesticide used on farm crops by the commercial industry, not using traditional methods. Next the Monsanto frankinseeds destroying the heirloom seeds of many generations strong til now. Monsanto sues farmers for using their hybrid seeds that cross pollinate with other traditional seed crops. Which they claim are their seeds. I believe the Bayer company headquarters in Germany that owns Monsanto. The evil GMO seed company.
Next the chemical influx of GMO food products that potentially have genetic mutation to our DNA.
The newest level is bioengineered food ingredients of unknown chemicals or techniques that would make Dr. Fauci proud.
Microplastics migrating into our environment.
Then we ask why aren’t these environmental groups and save the animal groups along with health food experts like vegetarians not protesting?
Do not forget to take Dr Fauci Covid vaccine and stay home for just 14 days of lockdowns with a mask. Baloney and Beef Stake, (BS), sure we will.
Above everything else GOD is still in charge. He is coming.
If we have a clear channel now to the Almighty King, it will still be available.
be ready for the test wed 10-4-23 11am pst , 2pm est
just like hawaii , more of the same lies to test the locations, an who is , and who will be counted
Dont Trust anyone in Gov.
Dont speak of personal info
Dont use phones , tv, radios , to talk about or youll be watched
Always fight for your family , friends, relatives , way of life , freedom to be
take a good look at the past to see how evil rises when you give up
unless we stand up , speak up , speak out , do something , even in little amounts we are doing the best and every little bit is a positive step to preserve freedom
Nothing worth having is worth anything is we dont stand up and be counted
even in pen, ink , word, letters , INTERNET
Start the vision for saving America from the massive invasion of un invasion , yes this is UN , CFR , WHO invasion
do the research
We Must never surrender to the evil empire on the rise of destruction
The reason you prep is to give yourself time. Time is the most precious commodity. With time you can plan, make decisions, and meet with your buds without being in a panic.
Remember the old saying “Haste makes waste”.
interesting comments. as usual opinions are about 50/50. forget about the rules, laws, regulations, etc.. it just comes down to you! you can’t protect anything like your family, pets, or anything you cherish unless you can protect yourself first. when TSHF we all get transported back millions of years! besides ourselves we need to create small groups who we can trust and start rebuilding a community who we can depend on each other! communication goes back to sounds we can make or hand signals. a new world starts immediately! all the other stuff about prepping and etc. is an incidental dream. we need to build old fashioned survival skills now! the collapse of America i believe will be by Thanksgiving at the earliest and Xmas at the latest. not much time to prepare. this is not Armageddon which is probably hundreds of years away. we just need to survive to prepare our bloodline future ancestors a way to preserve the lord’s creations and to be ready for the new future! good luck!
Getting back to the article: Two is one and one is none. There is no single solution to the communications issue. Multiple, redundant, overlapping modes of communication should be the goal. Better to have than to not have. So attack the problem from all directions at once. Those who pick only one path will likely have problems. Same with every other prep. Be flexible. Build your preps to have flexibility and options.
Hah … I can picture half the commentors, standing under a bypass, yelling at traffic. Completely off topic, and squealing out their favorite lunacy. (Perhaps they need a blog of their own to rant on)
As for communication, during a natural disaster, the info is good. Under a nuclear or EMP event, the towers, chips, and backup power would be fried. Which means that rally points, scheduled meets, and face-to-face would be the best commo.
Anyone know of a system that I can use after SHTF for communicating LONG distance, like 1000 miles or so? I have 2 kids, one in another (joined ) state, one in opposite side of state…
Grandkids on opposite side of country…
Needs to be pretty affordable for all of us…..
Thanks for info!
Love posts and comments (that are about the POST!)
i use bofangs to send encrpted digital messages its a lot of fun to do . The best part is they can’t be decrypted either.
Is it a “burst” transmission?
I have lived in the HAM world since I can remember being able to remember. My dad is THE HAM. When I asked him about the license issue as far as testing goes, he said a license is legally required. Then he said in 47 years he had never seen, met or heard of an FCC investigator. I am 52 and have never seen one. I think I heard there are 2 in the Eastern US.