You've just bought a radio, now what?

[Dan]

I’ve been a ham for many years and even today I’m experimenting with new forms of ham radio. The best advice I can give you is to find a local ham radio club and go to a few meetings. I’ve lived in big cities where there were literally 100+ people in the room and I’ve lived in small cities where there are just a few guys. What you want is to learn the basics. Way too many people think that they can pick up a walkie talkie, and boom! They’re talking to some dude in China.

First and foremost, who do you want to talk with on the other end of the radio? Members of your local group, people in the same relative area (10-20 miles), the same region, the same part of the country, or worldwide? That will dictate the type of gear you need to acquire. And, you know, you may not want to talk with anyone - you might want to just listen for news in your AO/region/country/world.

Let’s make a few assumptions… this is a SHTF scenario and your local infrastructure (primarily power, but let’s also assume water, fuel, and food) has been interrupted for the foreseeable future. You’ve probably already given thought to whether you can survive in your area and get along with the weather. Having lived in many weather extreme places (Alaska, and the Midwest for many years), it’s entirely possible to come to terms with freezing weather, but the inhospitable climate is one reason I relocated to South Carolina. Sure, I’d be pissed if my electricity and power were turned off and I missed the air conditioner, but I’d rather miss the A/C than the heat. So, assume that you’re going to survive the weather wherever you happened to be located. We’ll also assume that you’re not near an Uber large metro area where others are going to want to kill you to take your stuff. Finally, we’ll assume that you won’t be traveling. I can think of no less appealing notion than getting from wherever I was to my safe place in a SHTF scenario if my safe place was three states away. Bottom line, you probably wouldn’t make it. Another reason I moved South. We’ll also assume that “the government” won’t be actively tracking your communication and trying to geolocate you and drop some bombs on your transmision locations.

Ok, let’s talk about radios and radio types and methods of communication. The vast majority of people communicating with radio gear out there are using some type of FM radio. FM typically (but not always) is the “MODE” in which you’ll be communicating. You could also consider AM, CW (Morse code), Upper Side Band, Lower Side Band, Digital, and more.

So, knowing that you’re probably going to be using voice communication with FM, let’s talk about the kinds of radios you could use. You could use a handie-talkie (HT), a mobile rig, a portable rig, or a base station. All of which will offer varying amounts of power.

In the United States, the frequencies used for these systems may be grouped into four general bands or ranges: low-band VHF (49-108 MHz), high-band VHF (169-216 MHz), low-band UHF (450-806 MHz), and high-band UHF (900-952 MHz). VHF represents “Very High Frequency” while UHF represents “Ultra High Frequency.”

The main difference between UHF and VHF is the range of frequencies they use, which affects their ideal use cases:

• VHF
  Very High Frequency, operating between 30–300 MHz. VHF radios are best for long-distance communication in open areas with few obstructions. VHF signals are easily blocked by buildings and mountains because they don't bend much with the earth's curvature.
  
  
• UHF
  Ultra High Frequency, operating between 300–3 GHz. UHF radios are best for short-distance communication within a one-kilometer radius, especially indoors and in urban areas. UHF signals have shorter frequency waves that can penetrate close distance obstacles.

 

[Dan]

It’s common to buy a ham radio that is based upon “2 meters”, which is VHF and covers 144 MHz to 148 MHz. Many radios also come ready to operate on ”440” (70 cm), and is UHF with a frequency range of 420 MHz to 450 MHz.

As noted above, VHF is primarily line of sight, so your physical location matters. UHF is designed for shorter distances and the radio waves can go through obstacles that may defeat VHF. If, for example, you were in a large multi-floor building, I’d consider UHF before VHF.

Ok, those are some of the basics and building blocks in radio communication. Let’s just say that it’s you and two or three neighbor that want to communicate. Sort of a neighborhood watch with guns kind of thing. You may find that a HT works just fine. The smaller the radio, the less output you’ll likely get. Most radio manufacturers will limit the output power on 2 meters to 50 watts and to 35 watts on 70cm. Worse, though, is the output power is directly tied to your input power (battery), meaning that most HTs will - maybe - offer up 5 watts. Some dramatically less. This is a good website that shows the theoretical range based upon the power (ERP - Effective Radiated Power). Plan at best for a 2-3 mile range with the typical HT and a rubber duck antenna.

I’d guess that most hams buy a HT when they get their license… and quickly find out that they’re not able to talk to their ham friend in Seattle from Texas. Damn. Why? A lack of power (ERP) and a crap antenna solution. What they are able to do, though, is to use that HT to access a repeater. What’s a repeater? A repeater is both a radio receiver and a radio transmitting. Using your HT (or other radio), you can transmit a signal to the repeater that it will receive on its input channel and it will simultaneously retransmit that signal on its output channel. Repeaters are typically higher powered (more watts ERP), have better antennas, and the antennas are better situated than you are. Maybe on top of a building or on top of a mountain. They’ll take your little signal that you might have had a range of a mile or two and retransmit it with a range or 30-40-50 miles. Nice.

There are a few downsides to repeaters, though. A repeater is going to require power and, you know, in a SHTF scenario, maybe it won’t have power. The man can also turn them off. And repeaters typically aren’t private - anyone within that 30-40-50 mile range is gonna be privy to your communications. And repeaters are often boring imho. In times of no civil unrest, you’re likely to hear Bob talking about the stupidest shit you can imagine. I don’t spend a lot of time on repeaters, but it is a good way to learn about radio communications.

To use an HT that transmits on amateur bands, you need (at a minimum) a “Technicians” license. It’s fairly easy to get, but you need to study and take a test. Unless you’re a complete moron, you’ll pass the Technician’s license after studying for a weekend. The FCC also offers “General” and “Extra” licenses, which introduce more complex topics such a radio theory and circuit design. I’m a General licensee and keep saying that I’m going to study for an Extra license, although I guess I’m a moron myself as I’ve been saying that for 15 years or so. The FCC used to require that applicants pass a morse code test, but that requirement has been gone for at least a decade.

As an aside, there is another radio service - GMRS - General Mobile Radio Service. You still require a license, but no testing is required. GMRS radios operate in the 462 - 467 MHz range, so they are UHF radios better suited to communicating within a half mile or so range. Another service is the Family Radio Service or FRS Radios. They operated in the same range as GMRS (but different channels and vastly different power). Same same on UHF and range, although the range is less than GMRS.

Ok, what if you want something other than a HT? You could buy a portable unit, a mobile unit, or a base station unit. You’ll likely get something with more power, thus increasing your range (remember the ERP link above?) The challenge, most of these aren’t going to come with a little rubber duck antenna. Meaning that you need to mount an antenna and cabling to the antenna. Many radios, especially the GMRS radios will come in kit form and can offer 50 watts power. I recently added a GMRS radio to my truck and it’s awesome. See the Midlands MTX575 for a very cool radio.

If you’re going to go to the trouble of getting a mobile rig or a base station where you need to put up an antenna, you may as well think about getting into High Frequency (HF) radio communications. Now we’re talking about regional/national/global communications. You’re also talking a LOT more money. You can get a very nice HF base station for $1000 (although I did spend $6000 on mine - it’s Uber nice). There are portable/mobile HF rigs that you can get into for less than a grand, but mounting an HF rig in a car or setting up a portable rig introduces a whole lot more to talk about, so we’ll save those conversations for another time. The secret to HF communications? Antennas. I’d like to have a 100’ tower with all sorts of antennas, but I have a wife who wouldn’t put up with that. The good news is that you could setup a simple vertical antenna, or even a piece of wire. I setup a 53’ “dipole” antenna when I lived in Illinois and one end was attached to the gutter of my house at about 17” feel and the other end was about 14” high and attached to my kids wooden play set. The wire had an east/west orientation and I made HF contacts in 73 countries around the world. Pretty awesome in my mind.

And if you’re really feeling experimental, you could even think about using low earth satellites to communication. I’ve been a ham for thirty years and am just now getting into satellite radio. There are a ton of satellites that have repeaters in them, so you can use FM (or Upper Side Band & Lower Side Band - USB/LSB) to make connections around the world.

If it were me, and I was looking for a way to keep in contact with my group, I’d probably buy some GMRS radios. You could also setup a GMRS repeater in your area for your group.