In case phones are down and stuff during a disaster, what would be the best way to communicate? Ham radio? Satellite phone? I need options guys.
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I have a few 2 way radios, ham radio, emergency satellite communicator for search and rescue.
Lots of people have been getting into such as the lilygo t-deck, I might get a few of them some day.
Avoid the T-Echo model, at least currently. Lots of problems with recurring firmware corruption right now with that specific model.
My main issue with 2 way and ham radio is they don’t go that far. Say I’m like 50 miles away. A whole state away or something. What’s the best form of emergency communication? Emergency satellite communicator I recall you have to pay some subscription fee right? Additionally, if phone lines are down, you can’t expect the other person to receive that message on their phone.
HAM can do 50 miles, under the right conditions.
GMRS can using repeaters or a repeater network (which is essentially what cell phones do).
The satellite one I have is a one time fee, you push a button then search and rescue come to your GPS coordinates. It’s mainly if I get stranded and it’s life and death situation.
Sadly now a days almost everything is internet based, and can be shut off remotely by governments or hackers. Wish there were more options for communication.
As for long distance, I think you would need an expensive ham radio and a huge antenna.
I thought it was a subscription. I think the garmin ones you need to pay a fee to be able to use. Which I find kinda dumb
You can use cell phones with this installed on your phone
Meshenger (Voice- and video phone App for off-the-grid scenarios.) https://f-droid.org/packages/d.d.meshenger/
Define “communicate”.
With who?
Over what distance?
Just with my fam so ideally like 50 miles of range for example, but obviously, the wider the range, the better. I know there are repeaters and stuff but I don’t really know how well they work and if that’s the best option for this type of thing.
For 50 miles you’re going to either need HAM or a repeater on anything else.
Even then, geography will be a huge determinant. Radio is generally line-of-sight, which is why things like GMRS/FRS and CB are limited to 5 miles - the general distance to the horizon.
I don’t remember the math for antenna elevation and line-of-sight, but for some reason I have 30ft in my head for 10 miles, given flat country (no hills in the way). Don’t quote me on that, but it’s an example of how elevation affects range.
Fifty miles is a challenge, unless you can get an antenna really high, or are able to setup a chain of repeaters (I’m not sure how legal this is, GMRS regs are pretty open).
HAM isn’t limited by line-of-sight because it can reflect off the atmosphere, but it takes skill at both ends to know how to manage this. Think of HAM as using the atmosphere as a repeater, but one that’s constantly changing frequencies, and you have to figure that out at any given time based on conditions (and it’s not always available between 2 locations because of those same varying conditions).
I think your best approach for now is to start with GMRS - it’s an inexpensive start, and you’ll learn this stuff with hands-on. Setting up your own GMRS repeater is pretty easy (once you have a little knowledge), has minimal regulation, and you can get several miles pretty quickly. There’s a repeater about 4 or 5 miles from me (on a tower) that provides a connection to vehicles on the interstate more than 10 miles away. Being elevated means the repeater can “see” a lot farther.
Your last sentence is something I didn’t know. That’s cool
Starlink cellular maybe?
Elon did something during the Ukrainian war like turned off communication when asked, or even given location data. I forget which, but it’s not good in preparing. Starlink needs to constantly launch new satellites and when launching stops the service will not last long.
