what to do when they cut off communication?

[chowan]

I do know something about what needs to be done to “harden” electronics

and the first rule is not to have an antenna plugged in because any that uses

a long antenna is probably going to be toast.and that includes much of the

ham stuff as well.

there is an awfull lot more CB,s sitting around (antennas unplugged) in peoples garages (maybee grounded metal)than there is ham gear.

so much more CB gear will survive.that by the way is logic.

your are right that right after EMP,CME atmospherics are going to be messed

up and that is going to mess with radios but they will clear (we hope)

what we have to use after that for comunications will depend on what has

survived do you think enough ham gear will survive to put a set in every homestead? its unlikely.

more likely the ham operator will become like the imformation hub of a

community kind of like telegraph operators of old.

there may be enough CBs and other uhf sets to get one in every homestead

and a link back to the ham or at least to another station.

[chowan]

another point i wanted to make in favor of 27 meg CB is even now its higher

usage rate than ham makes it more appropriate than ham.

for example many of our emergencies will be very local why do i care to chat with somebody in florida if what im tying to do is dodge an accident on the

5 freeway in california.

I have used CBs on many occasions to avoid problems accidents,fires,floods

and i promise you in most cases you are better of with a station that is close

and can give you first hand imformation the greater numbers of users

on CBs is that source of imformation.

[chowan]

another thought which goes with this thread is that your local ham operator/comunications center may also run pidgeons no im not kidding

whats wrong with a message traveling at 40 miles an hour in an emergency

if thats all you have.its better than walking and faster than a horse

send a pidgeon or 2 to outlying homesteads that cant reach community center

by other means

[caverdude]

I thought Carrier Pigeons went extinct in WWII?

[chowan]

nope their are plenty of backwards individuals still running them

[elnav]

Carrier pigeons or more correctly homing pigeons, are still being bred as a sport. The idea being to determine which pigeon return home the quikest or covers the longest distance.

There is one downside to using pigeons. They only return home so if you want a pigeon to go someplace specific you must bring it with you from its home then release it to return home with a message.

As far as I know these birds have a ‘shelf life’ so if you keep a pigeon in your dove cote long enough it will think this is now its new home.

Chowan if you think CB radio is so great go for it!

When the ultimate disaster hits who knows what happens. Best stay tuned to your local Hollywood movie studio. They seem to have cornered the market on inventing more and more plausible disasters than anyone else.<smile>

By the way when was the first optical medium digital modulated long distance system developed?

Answer. The Roman army had signal fire towers installed from Rome to Londimium around two thousand years ago. It was line of sight (optical) and digital modulated ( light ON light Off ) and the message content was very limited but it did convey information.

Much later but before electricity the French installed semaphore towers that could transmit more complex messages but at a very slow baud rate.< grin>

[Anonymous]

I thought the Skip on Ham radios were terrible until 2013 ?

[elnav]

Jay you got that right! Atmospherics will play hob with propagation on 27Mhz.

For anyone contemplating emergency communications I highly recommend talking to a local group set up for precisely this purpose. Their members will have the technical expertise and the practical experience to help and advise you. In addition they may prove to be great acquaintances or even become friends.

[Anonymous]

Mine isn’t so much for emergencies… but I’m planning on setting up a 12ft satellite dish with a Wifi antenna in it.

Then I’m hoping to make friends with or strike a deal with someone living near by that has internet access. I’ll use the dish to connect to their wireless router.

As for the much earlier comment about a 12 foot dish making a hell of a solar tracker… Yeah, it does! I built one

Check my youtube channel (can’t post links)

Though I can tell you right up front that all though it is unbelievably cool, and the most awesome thing that I thing that I have ever built. It’s really just not that useful. Turns out that having a 1400+ deg death beam isn’t that helpful (unless you are setting stuff on fire), and it takes TONS of tech and work to make it happen.

It’s so much easier, cheaper, and 1000 times more practical to just use something simple like black plastic tubing to heat things.

The only possible practical use for it that I can think of is to generate steam. But It was a whole lot easier for me to just design everything else to not need electricity!

[Dustoffer]

I’ve got the wind up emergency world radio receiver, and a pair of 5 mile and a pair of 2 mile family walkie talkie type radios. You never know what will happen to DISH TV or the phone lines. EMP would ruin everything. Will TSHTF? No como except face to face or flashing mirrors? That 12ft. tracking dish looks good for quick cooking or smelting. Wattsun runs my solar panel array, and they started over 20 years ago. Mine’s been going well for 14 years. Manual control for hail threat or to keep off heavy snow.

[kd7ura]

Why dont you buy a new receiver like the amico 8240 HD and just get FTA satellite for the dish

and a nice multiband radio and ham licence for com, you can work a bit of internet on the radio with some additional equipment last i looked.

or you can set the dish up to track the space station and give them a holler.

love the ham stuff.

[Dustoffer]

I can’t see the government shutting off communications, it would ruin the economy.  If a coronal mass discharge hit the Earth with a weakened magnetosphere, we would be toast.   If a nuclear EMP happened it would only fry electronic in the large area, and others would come back on line.   A regular geometric EMP attack would be worse, and our hardened defense would retaliate.  Then we would all be radiated toast, eventually.   We’ve got the hand crank world radio, and longer range walkie talkies.

Otherwise we’d all be in a quick stone age, or at least medieval.

[Author]

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