alternate communication devices

[NOOB]

Any input from you guys and gals appreciated. What would be a good simple way to communicate if no cell or land lines? CB Radio? Other radio technology?

[General of Darkness]

Any input from you guys and gals appreciated. What would be a good simple way to communicate if no cell or land lines? CB Radio? Other radio technology?

CB's require line of sight, Ham don't from my understanding. Plus you got the skip effect. There are some decent hand helds out there these days that come from Japan, they might be radioactive now, but it's worth a look.

[vacuum]

Although I've never used one, the FRS/GMRS radios are easy and supposedly have long range.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Radio_Service
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Mobile_Radio_Service

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=strict&noj=1&biw=1244&bih=697&q=frs%20gmrs%20radio&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=195336l196503l0l197574l5l5l0l0l0l0l250l859l 0.4.1l5l0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbo=u&tbm=shop&source=og&sa=N&tab=wf

[ximmy]

http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/mbc/lowres/mbcn326l.jpg

[midnight rambler]

If you want serious radio communications you will have to go with amateur radio equipment. While dyed in the wool hams frown upon those who operate without a license (under the current scheme of things, in the future it won't matter so long as one behaves one's self and follows the rules), a license is not required in order to purchase ham radio equipment which can be picked up on feebay usually at very reasonable costs for high quality gear. DYODD as to what frequencies you need to concentrate not, as different frequencies and bands (AM, SSB, DSB) have different ranges. Forget FRS and GMRS, on their best days and under the best circumstances those are only good for a handful of miles, like rarely over 5 miles.

And don't forget EMP - you will either need to protect your gear with a Faraday cage or acquire some antique tube type ham radio gear (with spare tubes).

[Glass]

All radio is licenced. Some licences are free and automatically granted to a radio user such as CB/PRM/FRS. Even though you don't pay there still is a licence. Others require a fee and more obvious licence conditions like Amateurs or Commercial operators.

What is important in radio is the frequency. This is what determines the range of the radio.

UHF (63-70cm) FRS/PRM/CB radio has limitted line of sight point to point communication. 5 - 10kms. Cheap to buy, no licence fee. Repeaters extend range out to 50kms+. The higher the antenna the better the range. Hight is might. Small wavelength good for built up areas.
VHF (2m) usually commercial and amateur. Has longer range to maybe double the distance as UHF. More power can be transmitted more efficiently. With height you can transmit 80kms
HF - 27Mhz (AM CB, 11m) or 28Mhz (10m Amateur). Longer point to point range. 100's of kilometers depending on atmospherics such as the skip mentioned earlier.
HF - 20m, 40m, 80m all in Amateur 14Mhz - 3.5mhz. Even longer range, 1000's of kilometers again depending on atmospherics such as skip.
LF - 160m - kind of fringe band. Gets a lot of interest but not sure how many have the expertise to work in this band.

Using a mobile radio as a base, connected to a high antenna and a couple of hand held radios it should be possible for someone to keep in tough using their base radio as a repeater. Repeater recieves your signal and then retransmits you through it's antenna. Because it's up high it reaches further and can hear further. If you do it right you could have coverage over 20 - 50km radius. You should at least be able to double your range using a repeater.

A couple of the mobile amateur radios can do in-band and cross band repeating. In band means listen and retransmit on the same frequency band, although listen and receive might be on different frequencies, they would both still be in the same band e.g.UHF. Cross band means to listen to a frequency in the the UHF band and to trasmit out on the VHF band or vice versa. 2 different bands are being used there. You can also assemble something like this using 2 separate mobile/base radios linked to each other.

Amateur radios with inbuilt repeating: Kenwood D710a, Yeasu ftm350, Any yeasu with the letter R at the end of the model number.

[palani]

It is said that a phantom terrorist operated for years communicating with his various "cells" using nothing but a courier and a handful of thumb drives.