I sent this out to a bunch of friends and acquaintances a few weeks ago. I’ve tweaked it and am now sharing with everyone, sans some of the more sensitive specifics of what we’re doing. Here you go…
I’d like to share some information about what I see as a viable means of backup communications for my friends to consider. Should something happen either locally, regionally or nationally that takes cellular communications off-line (or degrades their dependability), it would benefit each of us as individuals and family units to have a backup plan and the necessary tools to implement that.
Some of you are already miles ahead of me. If so, please share comments, critiques and improvements!
First off, why go to this “trouble”? We have all talked about having a backup way to communicate with one another for a long time. The utility of having this in our back pockets is clear and obvious. Unfortunately, we’ve never really done much more than talk for twenty or thirty years…
Just looking around, there’s never been a real good fit for us that would allow comms for more than a mile or so and that’s just not feasible when your friends who can help you may be scattered over a whole city, county or region.
I’ve always liked MURS for close-in communications – like over a mile or maybe two miles under ideal conditions. But let’s face it, while that might work for neighborhoods, or a convoy on the road or a “shopping trip” after the Islamic terror attacks kick off, it won’t be of real assistance for us to gather information or to reach out for help amongst ourselves when we live miles apart. Heck, how are you going to communicate with friendlies to organize group defense or support to need “tactical” (close-area) comms to begin with if you can’t reach anyone more than a mile away?
GMRS looks like it’s the best option for voice comms at a price most of us can afford.
The new MESH/MESHtastic radios are really cool and at first blush might provide a great runner up, until you look a price. The MESH radios use LoRa (long range) low-power radios that transmit burst packets of info (basically encrypted text messages) over crazy far distances.
The entry level MESH radios, which you use Bluetooth to connect to your phone to send and receive those text messages, cost around $40-120, give or take. If you want the MESHtastic radios that do voice and serious data (like video) you’re looking at $1000-1200 each. Ouch. They will reach 20-30 miles easy radio to radio. Honestly I’m not sure how they do it. Plus they work with other mesh radios to relay your message even farther – much further. Problem is this is new tech and not a lot of folks have them to maintain the nodes needed for extended comms. Not only that, but you need a smart phone to transmit and receive those text messages. That could become a weak spot.
The good news is we can get an affordable MURS and/or GMRS analog radio setup started for each person for way less than a hundred bucks. For now at least until the tariffs kick in. For another $125ish, you can get a mobile radio (with a magnetic mount car antenna) that will VASTLY expand your ability to reach repeaters public and private to broadcast and receive transmissions over scores if not hundreds square miles or more. (Several repeaters in IL cover thousands of square miles – if you have a mobile unit. Check my math: a 50 mile reach plugged into the area of a circle (pi x r squared)).
In short, these radios will allow for comms over fair size swaths of the state so we (or you and your circle of friends) can work together to gain information, coordinate with one another in the immediate area (say county area or larger areas for locations served by better repeaters) for help of whatever sort if we have a problem.
Here’s what you need…
Apply for your GMRS FCC License. $35. Good for 10 years and your entire family can use the GMRS frequencies with your license. NO TESTING REQUIRED. Takes about 1-3 business days to get your license.
(Mine’s WSHL265)
Takes about 15 minutes to “research” the “how to” apply and actually do it. I’ve done the hard work for you…
Apply here.
https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/general-mobile-radio-service-gmrs
Here’s the (best) tutorial I found in a few minutes of searching. I used it and it worked:
https://rockytalkie.com/blogs/rocky-talkie-blog/how-to-get-a-gmrs-license?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqcO_BhDaARIsACz62vNLvny4K_DiwcFiaU3HpOsqDPvNYeuj9vDKB5r9zqz3FN22mY2rceoaAiV8EALw_wcB
Once you get your GMRS License, wait a few days to a week and then register at MyGMRS.com forum. It’s free. You’ll need your GMRS call sign to apply for an account, and it takes 3-5 days for the FCC database to refresh with your call sign after they’ve issued it.
It has the best reference of GMRS repeaters I’ve found. (Important). It also has a feature for you to ask for permission to use the private repeaters. (They oftentimes grant permission to people who ask… and will send you the “codes” to access the repeater.
https://mygmrs.com/
Illinois Repeaters of interest for you to look up on MyGMRS:
Decatur 600
Grundy700
Livingston 675
RUGGED 575
WARRENSBURG 725
How good are some of these?
Pretty darn good.
Yesterday I posted links to buy portable, hand-held radios. Specifically I strongly recommend the UV-5Rs with the 5RMs running second place.
Go there to find specific package deals to fully kit you out (or close to it).
Mobile units.
Do you want to explore the full range of these repeaters? Get a mobile radio.
I have a Retevis RT95. $125ish.
If you get the package deal with the antenna, you’ll be ahead of the game. That one’s now $139. Still a GREAT value.
I have it running in my car in a trial of sorts. So far I love it. I’ve mounted its bracket with two small screws. I use the mag mount antenna and get power from a cig lighter jack (translation: no hard-wiring), so I can pull the whole thing out in about two minutes and I suppose I could put it in another car in another couple of more minutes.
The magnetic mount antenna will probably not survive the car wash. And I like to wash my car. But it only takes about 20 seconds to walk around, pluck the antenna off the top, toss it in the back seat and then go through.
The RT-95 comes with RETEVIS programming cable. It’s different from the Baofeng cable.
To “clone” the mobile radio, I’ve now learned it’s easier to bring the laptop with the USB cable to the radio rather than pulling out the radio, finding 12 power and all that.
Once you get it, you can “jailbreak” it to open it up to all of VHF and UHF frequencies. Kinda like jail-breaking the UV-5R and the 5RM Baofengs.
What can you expect out of the mobile radio? Well, that map of the Grundy repeater at the top of this email or the Warrensburg repeater for you folks in Central IL?
You’ll be able to use most of that coverage area, whereas your hand-held might be able to effectively use maybe a third to half of that coverage area. Why the difference? You don’t have the wattage in your signal to reach the repeater with the HT. You may sound faint and noisy beyond 10-15 miles, depending on environmental issues like hills and buildings. Yes, you may be able to kerchunk the repeater (by pressing the Press To Talk key momentarily, and having the repeater rebroadcast that dead air for a couple of seconds after you let go of the PTT key), but to actually hear what’s spoken on that machine or talk into it? Not so much.
For instance, I can kerchunk the Livingston675 repeater with a walkie-talkie with a good antenna from my driveway in Bloomington (roughly 50.5 miles away). However, people can’t reliably and clearly hear my voice transmission until I’m close to Chenoa on the mobile (28 miles) or Pontiac with the HT with an external mag-mount car antenna (roughly 13 miles). That’s just an example. Your mileage WILL vary.
PROGRAMMING
How the heck do you program them? You can do it manually from the keypad on the front of the radio for the HTs. You should know how to do this. Yes, it’s a PAIN in the butt, no doubt. Don’t let that stop you from getting the radios because there’s a delightfully easy alternative method. Read on, my friends.
The quicker and easier way is to use a program called CHIRP along with the magical Baofeng (or Retevis) proprietary programming cable.
https://chirpmyradio.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Download#
Get on YouTube and google “using CHIRP to program radios” and learn how to use the program. Like this one:
Or this one for the Retevis radios.
The BIG upside? Get the settings you want, then use the appropriate USB connector (comes with most of the radios in links above) and you can clone all of your radios exactly the same.
If you’re intimidated by all that, get the radios to me or another of your radio geek friends and ask them to clone them and return them.
Tips: For different models or brands, simply download the radio’s contents in case you want to restore it to factory settings. Save as appropriate to your computer. Then either overwrite them or add them through cut and paste. Then you’ll upload it to the radio and it’s done.
Again, if you’re super lazy and want to get jump started or have issues with computer/radio compatibility, buy the radios, give them to me and I’ll clone them to what I’m using (but I won’t include some of the keys to get into the major repeaters. You’ll have to ask permission and receive those from the private owners.)
I wanted to get this out before the prices go up.
Act today to get started. That Islamic Terror attack could happen any day now.
NEW INFO:
I’ve been soaking up lots of information from a host of people who know a lot about all this. And experience at using these in a host of locations.
First off, inside masonry buildings really cripples the range of the HT radios, even using fairly nearby repeaters. Even parking under an awning like at a gas station impinges range. Wood-frame construction is less of an issue. However, to maximize your reach by a significant margin, if you can mount a simple antenna on your house, especially on a second floor (like outside a window?) or on a roof, that would be very range enhancing. We’ve already covered how using an HT from inside a car kinda sucks.
I am learning about repeaters. They’re kind of like owning a boat.
You need a radio antenna mast. DX Engineering has a 46′ fiberglass model. Problem is the final 7.5′ section is 3/8ths of an inch and won’t support any weight at all. Indeed the next to last section isn’t exactly beefy either.
Plus you need special cable for UHF: LMR-400 for low losses (at about $2 per foot). If you put up a repeater and use standard low-loss cable (like RG-8 or similar) then you get 2 miles of range. That’s not the 20-40 miles expected. Then there’s the lightning arrester and the ground rod.
By the way, if you want to buy a 46′ tower for some crazy reason, buy the heavy-duty one from DX Engineering for an extra hundred bucks (289ish).)
MORE ON CHIRP.
Chirp is the software folks use to program their radios in a very easy manner compared to front panel programming. Especially if you have a lot of radios, it makes cloning a breeze.
Better yet, you can tell the radio to display the channel number, the channel name or the freq. I’ll take the channel “Name” any day of the week because I’m never going to remember those frequencies.
Some tips: Within the CHIRP program, name the simplex channels. You can use your favorite high school or college team names. That way if you say, “Go Hawks” you and your friends can go to the (Black)hawks channel that everyone has programmed into their radio. (The radios will typically store 5-7 characters for a name, so keep it short or use abbreviations.) Then a minute or two later, you can switch again and say “Go Blues” (hockey fan, thanks) and go to that freq everyone has programmed.
That makes it a dash more challenging for the casual eavesdropper to instantly know where you’ve gone to, compared to say “Go to MURS 2” or “Go to GMRS 13.”
I like MURS band because no license is required and there’s very little use of those frequencies. You’re going to get a lot of people who won’t prepare when stuff hits the fan. Make it easier to help keep them legal.
Sometimes there’s a little interference but you can put a subaudible one on your simplex frequencies and that takes care of 99% of interference static. However, everyone in your network must agree on the tone in order for the radios to play well together.
Radio and electronics STORAGE.
A couple of comments about “storage” of these radios. If they are sitting idle or in a trunk for one of those “in case of emergency, break glass” moments, I would advise: Don’t leave the battery connected to the radio. The radios, even when off, drain the batteries a tiny bit. How much? After four to six months, your standard cap battery will probably be dead or near dead. Without the radio attached, the LiIon batteries will last a year or more with most of a charge.
Also, remove the antenna to protect against EMP damage. Better yet, put them in an anti-static mylar-type bag or a mylar bag to offer the greatest protection from EMP (natural or man-made).
Suggestions:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08FCMT5KY/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A399GAOGJJF68Y&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0936VM4BR/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A1IKDDJ4193JTI&psc=1
Do this with all of your extra electronics. And that includes the charge cradles, programming cables, and anything else that has delicate electronic chips embedded. This will protect your stuff from EMP damage.
Another point regarding repeaters- if there is a widespread, long term power outage, will the repeaters even be available, or would they be down as well, just like cell service?
I am new to all of this but the repeater owners I know all have extensive backup power set ups. Short of an EMP they are not going to quit.