Communications

Information is a supply too

Cell towers carry battery backup measured in hours, and many fall silent soon after the grid does. When that happens, a family loses two things at once: the ability to reach each other and the ability to know what is going on beyond its own street.

Ready.gov puts a battery or hand-crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert in its basic kit for this reason (build a kit). Listening is the floor. This section covers how a household also talks.

What this section covers

Listening

Weather alert receivers, AM and FM broadcast, shortwave for news from farther away, and scanners for local emergency traffic where that is legal.

Talking inside the household

FRS radios need no license and work for short range. GMRS radios reach farther and need an FCC license that covers your immediate family. Our guide to FRS vs GMRS vs ham radio helps you pick the right service for your household and explains what each license requires. It also gives realistic ranges, which are far shorter than the box claims.

Ham radio

Amateur radio takes an exam and some study, and in return reaches across the county or across the country. We cover how to get licensed and what a home station needs.

The comms plan

Who calls whom, an out-of-area contact, check-in times, channels written down, and what happens if nobody answers.

Protecting electronics

Faraday containers for spare radios and what an EMP is and is not expected to do to small devices, with the evidence labeled.

Where to start

Buy one alert radio and a pair of FRS handhelds, pick a channel, and write it on a card in every bag. Then add the comms page to your written plan.