You know, radio is NOT user friendly; at least not serious radio. You know, the kind of radio communication that you can use when the rest of the world cannot communicate further than they can shout! Sailing ’round the web, I find that when it comes to prepping and radios, there is always the question about licenses and it’s always something like this:
“Why should I get a ham license? If the world has ended,
there ain’t gonna be no FCC anyway !“
This argument is brought-up on most prepper ‘communication forums’. The “NO study & NO license plan” is to just buy ‘all the gear’, store it away for ‘someday’ and when the big emergency happens, they’ll pull it out and POOF!: instant radio communications. Let me share MY thoughts on this.
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I’ll buy a mil-spec surgical kit on E-Bay!
I’ll keep it packed -duh- SOMEWHERE for when I NEED it!
Worked GREAT (in 1865)
After-all, I’m a VERY technical man and I am a quick learner who has ‘heard about things’ like how to cut a windpipe so that a person can breathe, or tie-off a spurting vein (or was that an “artery” & what’s the difference anyway?!? Parts is Parts). In a dire life and death emergency I can cut using the same tools as an experienced surgeon and besides, what’s so different between this and cleaning a fish, gutting a deer or serving-up the Thanksgiving turkey?
” There ain’t gonna be no A.M.A. Anyway ! “
Well, ONE ‘big difference’ is that because of my ignorance and inexperience, I’ll likely kill my ‘patient’ deader than a bag of rocks ! WHY? Because I have never done this before. Like I said; I’m a VERY technical guy, I am a ‘fast learner’ and can build & fix almost anything, but do YOU really want my on-the-job-training in surgery to be inside of your chest cavity?
No Way Jose’ ! 
In a similar way, communication – REAL WORLD communication – requires specific knowledge and experience to do it successfully and reliably, especially during an emergency (The end of the world IS an ’emergency’ by-the-way). Getting even the entry level, ham radio “Technician License” is a superb way to begin learning now, when mistakes are nothing more than a tiny ‘Ooops’. With a license, you can legally & wisely use this time BEFORE IT’S A MATTER OF LIFE OR DEATH to build your radio skills and experience so that eventually, you WILL BE a skilled, radio communicator at whatever level of competence you choose. The “I’ll buy a radio, unpack it, and use it when TSHTF” is a poor plan, though not immediately as poor as the ‘I bought the surgical kit, now let’s get cutting…‘ plan, which is why you should be forming a team and be useful to your community, so that when things go SPLAT! you have skilled doctors, dentists, farmers and yes – communicators to share skills and spread the burden. Not everyone needs to be a communications expert, but you DO need some experts and everyone should know at least basic radio communication. Studying for the Technician license is a GREAT way to do that. If you want more, study for the General and even the Extra Class licenses: your choice.
The other aspect is that those whom you are communicating with on the radio NOW, are the persons you’ll likely be communicating with in an actual grid-down situation. Are you now repeatedly and reliably talking on a handi-talkie or hand held radio
The ham radio ticket is your open door to LEGALLY and safely learn and then USE these skills, giving you hands-on learning, then experience. Because ham radio is NOT user friendly, the equipment is not the important part; your skills are! Should you ever need to use them during hurricanes, ice storms or when driving your Mother-In-Law to the Piggly Wiggly, then you will not be illegally trying to learn as you go, during an actual emergency when lives are at stake. By the way, building these ham skills is enjoyable and handy to use every day, long before TEOTWAWKI. There is also another factor; you’ll notice that hurricanes, ice storms, earthquakes, forest fires and more happen fairly often and radio regulations are STILL enforced during these relatively common emergencies. You are able to safely use your equipment WITH a ham license, but it’s useless without knowledge and unwise in the extreme to operate on the ham bands without a license.
Your #1 ‘survival tool’ is not your rifle, not food storage & not even your ever present pocket knife: it is your mind. Learn new skills and then use new these skills regularly until you ‘own them’. That applies for everything from fire making to home canning to communicating and it makes us better people & better team members because it makes us better at taking care of our families and friends. Under ALL circumstances, learning new things & growing as a human being makes a better life for everyone we care about, including ourselves!
TAPRN and AmRRON set-up this website including the Communications S.O.I. to help YOU learn about applied/practical communications in a grid down situation. There is so much more than pushing the button on a handi-talkie and WOW is it handy!
Haaaar! Knowledge is like Spinach fer y’ BRAIN!
Popeye
Ps. There are good reasons WHY the Army Special Forces 18E/communicator’s course is soooo loooong – there is a lot to actually learn about secure communications when it is further than you can whisper code words.
Great article and a good point. Comms is vital.
I have just recently bought my 1st HT radio. I also just passed the ARRL Technician License exam. It is my goal to learn all I can about HAM radio comms for me and then teach my 2 sons. ‘The more the merrier’.
Hi BK,
First, CONGRATULATIONS for getting your ham license! There is a TON of utility in learning that material and now being able to explore so many new things. Ham families are a very good thing! It gives you something else to share and knit yourselves together even more as a family. Frankly, ham and a couple of HTs are VERY useful, whether out hiking/camping or enjoying almost any group activity. Naturally, should cell phones either not be available or be inoperative (I’ve been through both.) , you have a much better than average opportunity to stay in contact. One warning though; with ham radio, it’s “Once Bitten, Always Smitten.”. Ham radio is addictive and soon it might be your SONS asking; “Hey Dad, when can we learn Morse code or digital modes on HF?”.
73 & Haaaar!
Popeye
Ditto. I recently bought a Baofeng HT because the price was right and I intend to get my ticket soon. I figured that until then, I could listen to the local repeaters and get a feel for how nets operate.
Two things jumped out — I’m good with computers and troubleshooting, but without existing comms — the internet — I would have never gotten it working. Now I have it programmed, and unlocking the xsmit if the SHTF in the next couple of weeks is a simple thing. It’s not hard, you can do it — but you can’t do it while hiking 20 miles a day to get out of the killbox, or do it while you are patrolling your retreat sun up to sundown or manning an LP/OP all night.
The other thing is that the skills needed are truly soft skills. Listening to traffic nets tells me that I do NOT know how to ‘listen’. I can follow a conversation. What I can’t do is copy traffic, because I don’t know what to expect in the structure and how to rapidly fill out the radiogram form. These are soft skills that are simply going to take practice, and if we are truly grid down, radiograms are going to be the only form of communication for a while.
As a 27 yr veteran operator all I can say is bravo. Lot of good points. And remember, without communications we’ll all be yelling across the street instead of around the world.
Excellent, excellent post, Pop Eye!
I have been trying to be a Hamvangelist on the subject of commo, and you have condensed, enhanced and clarified my usual arguments!
If I may point out, you did not address one refrain that I hear repeatedly from survivalists and preppers: “No way I am getting my license! Then the government and everybody else will know I’m a ham, and come and get my stuff!”
The counter-argument I make is that A) you are not going to hide from the government. B) although people can look up your call sign and see the address listed, the FCC does not require the address listed to be your home address. You can put down your uncle in Alaska’s address. Or you can do as I have done, and use a commercial mail box in another city. C) so what if people know you are a ham? Is that any different that knowing that you go camping? Honestly, the public perception of hams is that they are bunch of old fogeys sitting around and discussing their ailments in “Morst code.” And although there is some truth in this perception (hi hi), I fail to see why it would make one a target post-disaster.
Anway, thanks to you and AMRRON for spreading the word!
“are bunch of old fogeys sitting around and discussing their ailments in Morse code.”
Aaah-HA! So you’ve heard me on the air before! ha ha ha
Good point all on the comments here. I DO apologize for the delay in posting your comments. Computer problems – – – solved now.
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Phelps: YES – listening, notes/gisting of what was heard for analysis and sifting . These are all ‘soft skills’ which can make a huge difference in understanding what was heard. This is where I would like to have some SERIOUS scanner hobbiests join-up with AmRRON as well as hams.
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WTX Wizard: True! And it’s tough to keep a low profile while yelling, at least outside of a crowd of football fans. Radio is an amazing tool and a lot of fun.
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MDM: First, thank you. Glad that we can help.
“The List”(tm) – To me, those who post on a SURVIVALIST/PREPPER/REDOUBTER/GUN & etcetera website: ‘I refuse to get a ham license, so that my name will not be on The List(tm)’ – you’re right; it’s silly.
1. Visit these sites on the internet? LIST.
2. Credit card transactions for food, guns, ammunition, ordering an autographed picture of JJS with his arm around Ron Paul? LIST, LIST, LIST & LIST!
3. E-mail friends who are also into the prepper mindset? LIST.
4. Phone calls to friends who are into the same things? LIST.
5. Geolocation data (smart phones, e-readers, WiFi, On-Star type car nav systems) putting you in proximity with these people or groups on The List(tm): LIST and a group location list!
8. Reading, TV, movie choices are routinely sifted: LIST.
42. At this time, in this nation, a person a NOT on a List: LOST.
(or Amish, or a real pro in living deep-black who has NEVER previously made the list, oh, and did not learn how to do this from the feral gummit.)
42 1/3. Can’t make a list with sequential numbers: You’re ME! 🙂
We’re all collected, inspected, sifted and psych-profiled by our on-line activities and searches, phone calls, geo-location data. Some fraction of the world data is flagged for further analysis. When they put all these webs of interaction on top of the other, it creates a matrix which THEY(tm) believe is a VERY clear picture of an individual and their extended contacts.
Whether a normal, healthy, God fearing person will be flagged as a “problem” or not during this process is waaaay above my pay-grade. I have a car license and a marriage license and a fishing license and even my dog has ‘license plates’ (tags). My food purchases are tracked through my market “Friend card” & debit card, as is my fuel consumption and if you take a cell phone, e-reader or other ‘connected’ thing to
meeting/retreat/training locations/sites of protests/political meetings/gun shows… , ALL THAT including locations , is also part of the data cloud.
What to do?
Whom we fear most; we obey. Obey God and take the chance of living at least as freely as Gideon did under the Midianites(at first he resisted quietly.) . All data that I have says that we only get one life of this type: best to invest it well.
Haaaar!
>Popeye
‘If they grab for me spinach
I’ll FIGHT to the FINISH!
Sez Popye the sail-or-MAAAAAN!-
I am working hard to get key members of our group on board and understanding this…. I will share this and hope this helps them understand…
Thanks for your efforts. Keep up the great work. The Comms Up! docudramas really help a lot.
I have had a ticket for 20 yrs are very good/////////// Don