COMMS, COMMS, COMMS: Create your own radio network

The best preparedness strategies leverage dual-purpose items for use in both good times and in emergencies. For instance, rain barrels virtue signal your “green” bona fides to nosy neighbors, while at the same time discretely storing 50 gallons of water suitable for filtration and drinking if the public water supply fails.

Modern hand-held radios share this dual-purpose role too. Family outings and events, vacation trips, hunting trips and group endeavors can all benefit from a common, easy-to-use radio network unifying the participants with instant communications. Sure, most adults and teens have a cell phone, but you can’t instantly notify everyone with a cell phone, even if everyone had a decent cellular signal.

Today’s hand-held radios are affordable, powerful, lightweight, compact and easy to use. Moreover, some frequencies don’t even require any FCC licensing!

No, you’re not going to communicate 30+ miles between hand-held radios without some fancy hardware between them. In the real world, those Walmart or Bass Pro FRS bubble-pack radios will get you a half-mile – 880 yards – on a good day.

Instead, buy $25ish Baofeng UV-5R radios with a better quality whip antennas. Unlock them then program them for the Multi-Use Radio Service (MURS – no license required). With these you can communicate reliably for a mile plus, and under better conditions.  Add a better quality whip antenna and twice that isn’t unheard of.

If that’s a family hike, tourist stop or a trip to the amusement park, or kids playing in the neighborhood, that’s probably enough of coverage to keep everyone in the loop.

For more mobile applications, like a group road trip or a shopping trip when utilities are down and looters might be out, instant communication between vehicles will prove a big aid to safely and efficiently conducting your business.
To further expand your hand-held’s reach when in a car, buy $20-30 external, magnetic mount antenna for each vehicle. Screw that into your walkie-talkie antenna jack, plant the magnetic mount on the roof, and you’re golden for two miles easy, and four on many flat Interstates in IL.

Closer to home.
In your neighborhood, nearby residents with radios can help coordinate damage assessment and storm recovery – and security – especially if cell phones are down or swamped with people trying to call friends and family.

Moreover, depending on your local public safety radio frequencies and radio types, you may still be able to monitor your local police, fire, EMS and weather spotters with the UV-5R, thanks to its scanner function.

With a $35 10-year General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) radio license, you can legally use the GMRS frequencies. Even better, your entire household can use that license call sign. The application process is fairly easy and you’ll have the license within a couple of business days.

With that license, you can access the GMRS band’s public radio repeaters to greatly expand the range of your hand-helds.

Repeaters (aka “machines” in the radio world) are radios connected to tall antennas. They receive communication on one frequency and rebroadcast it on another frequency, blanketing an area 10-, 20- or even 60-plus miles around it, depending in large part on the antenna height. Yes, Virginia, your UV-5R can use repeaters!

Many of these machines are completely open to anyone with a license. The better ones are “private” (they aren’t cheap to set up for the owners) but the owners will often grant permission if you request it. Visit MyGMRS.com for a list of repeaters, public and private and to request permissions.

There are some rules about transmitting (no profanity, you must use your radio call sign and you can’t use “codes”) but to reach your other friends if cell phones go down, these repeaters can make all the difference to share information, ask for assistance or to meet up with like-minded friends. Again, all for less than a hundred bucks and a minor learning curve.

Help your friends, family and neighbors with the learning curve. Help them to purchase and program appropriate radios. Establish a common frequency for recreational and/or emergency use, and just like that you will be helping to build a network of friends for good times and bad.

A six-pack of UV-5R radios with better antennas, extra batteries, shoulder mics/speakers, the computer programming cable (very important!), etc. is about $170 at Amazon currently.  Get this so you and your spouse can have one in your car, and each of the kids can have one for their use, along with one in the house.

As the Red Cross or Ready.gov might suggest, during an emergency you can monitor the radio for others’ well-being and check on them via the radio instead of knocking on their door. You can also summon assistance, especially if you’re less-abled with age, infirmity, or injuries.

Contact your local emergency management people for advice and guidance from them. They might be willing to share some knowledge and resources. These include channels where weather spotters communicate for the latest during severe weather.

Feel overwhelmed? Not technologically skilled? You can teach old dogs new tricks. YouTube has great resources for learning how to use radios, including the basics and beyond. Learn at your own speed.

Scores of videos like this one on YouTube will coach you in using your radio.

Building your family’s preparedness skill sets with knowledge and some affordable equipment not only can pay off in good times, but it can come in handy and then some for genuine emergencies. Ditto for including like-minded neighbors. The bigger your network of friends, the easier disaster recovery will become for all of you.

Secure your radios NOW. Get on this now before tariffs double or triple the price of these radios! After all, they virtually all come from China and as of this writing, the tariffs stand at 125% – and even higher for de minimus orders.