Communication Post-SHTF

Good day Survivor's,

My aim here is to start a conversation about Communication during and after the SHTF.

From my experience working in telecommunications, I can tell you almost all site's and all carrier's have a back up system for power.

At the least the tower's in your area should stay going for around 8 hour's this is due to a battery back up cabinet with some pretty serious battery strings.

Some carrier's AT&T mostly, use generator's manufactured by Generac. This would keep their service online for a longer period of time, than the Battery strings.

However when this happen's the best you'll get is phone call's and text message.

So in the short term we can see that we will be able to make a few call's if the power fails. With in a reasonable time frame.

At home I have a couple of 200 dollar kenwood radio's, the battery life isn't great, and I plan to use signaling mirror's and certain sound call's for bugging in and potential supply run's certain mark's left to signify certain change's or scenarios. The idea is to find better method's of communication for a survival scenario.

I am interested in any and all form's of potential communication!


~Source My profession!

a reply to: iclimbtowers

The car battery is the most likely source of fresh power during any kind of outage. I have an old Cobra CB radio in the garage. I'd be up and listening in to others within an hour of splatter fan.

I have tried to store batteries and they are always bleeding to ground, exceeding shelf life, etc. The car battery is charged daily and rechargeable as long as the gas holds out.

I used to have one of these. Sorry I sold it after the last "Survivalist rush to gear up" was over in the 80's. Its a forever thing, can be used to run radios and charge batteries.

link

a reply to: iclimbtowers

My suggestion would be to forget technology, and go back to the basics.

a reply to: intrptr

Very good thought, maybe i'll have to borrow myself a diesel truck with two batteries under the hood, and grab a CB.

Thank you!

a reply to: iclimbtowers

What kind of crap are you assuming hits the fan? if some country uses and EMP so will the others I assume they have kept the ability on the moon or in space :-)

a reply to: Rainbowresidue

Good ol' smoke signal's the only thing that would worry me about that, would be starving survivor's oh a fire they must have food, yum yum yum. Bring out the cannibal's at a certain point I would imagine.

The best post SHTF communication tool will be ham/short wave radio. It has the power to communicate over large areas, and can be heard by anyone with a receiver. That is why the military still uses it as a backup form of communication just in case.

a reply to: SpaDe_

My grandfather used to be a Ham radio operator, perhaps I should learn a few things from him.

Elder's always have some good information.

a reply to: Rainbowresidue
more modern than smoke signal but on par with slow internet is the exchange of carrier homing pigeons between parties. birds have been used alot in the past, in a way it was the original drone delivery. storks and falcons, birds that return to the same nest can all be a carrier bird. several news organizations currently use pigeons to deliver info on usb thumb drives that are currently making it out of dangerous global conflicts

simplifydigital.biz...

Satellite phone if you can afford it...😒😒😒

link

off the top of my head mirror signals would be far easier and faster to employ than smoke signalling, i don't think we need to go all the ways back, while some material devices may cease to work, ingenuity doesn't , in fact it increases with need.

AAAAh. How nice it would be if Google buisness listings and companies trying to lend me 500 grand for my business wouldn't be able to call me anymore.

Oh yeah, I forgot that I am supposed to look at the negative effects of no phone.

a reply to: ATF1886

That's a great idea, I wonder if a sat phone would continue to work as the particular model is subscription based.

I think it could be a great idea but I have no idea who else would have sat phones.

And the battery life of a phone and charger type.

Remember when regular networks will go down sat phones will still be used i figure when crap hits the fan there really wont be a company to regulate the calls IMHO a reply to: iclimbtowers

a reply to: ATF1886

At that point I would imagine it would be then depend on how the companies software work's, weather the phone would just continue working even after it was "out of minutes" and out of contract time.

However perhaps with some very technical skill's someone could make it so even if it wasn't intended to work that way.

a reply to: Char-Lee

An EMP would cause a lot of issue's however as someone said earlier I may be interested in finding a hawk or some other carrier bird. I wonder how those animal's are trained.

It depends. First and foremost, who do you want to communicate with and why?

While good for gathering information more or less internet style when the internet is down, A ham or cb radio probably won't help you find out where your family was when the SHTF or coordinate to get them to where you're going to be (because depending on the situation maybe you're evacuated from your home while your family is at work or school or out of town).
Adding longevity and connectivity to your cellphone is a good idea there. The alternative is to establish a network with people in relevant locations who also have radio- in particular you'll want radio contacts in your town close to the places where things that matter to you are.

If you want to communicate within your block, You could probably get a wireless router of sufficient range and leave it open with no internet connection and a name like "unsecured emergency local area network". This would allow you to quickly coordinate with your immediate neighbors for first aid, fire fighting or mutual defense, or pooling of information. You would of course need a battery backup for this and it would have a limited running time without a generator. Coupled with a satellite connection you might even be able to keep some internet and VOIP connectivity, but as the system gets more advanced it gets more expensive, so while it would be viable for a college campus or planned community or other close knit group with shared resources it's unlikely to be practical in the suburbs.

There's also the question of who you DON'T want to communicate with. Most forms of communication will reveal your approximate location and your message to anyone. Maybe you want to tell your friends you've got a generator and food and they can come over but you don't want any crashers. Maybe you want to tell a targeted group you can offer a hiding place but don't want to tell the aggressors. The best way to do this is either to relay written or verbal communication though a network of in person exchanges or by coded inconspicuous visual signals, which again requires setting up a network and agreed signals in advance (which need to be simple- you wont get all of your friends to learn morse code, but you can tell chosen individuals something simple like "if theres ever trouble of any kind - pandemic, police state, famine, whatever- I'll put out my green hat lawn gnome if I can help, and some symbol of what I can offer - water can, pie tin, a piece of electrical wire, bullet casing etc- and here's the people I want to know about that. If I put out the red one it's dangerous at my place and you need to stay away, and if neither is there come be sure I'm either ok or have left")

Gossipy friends as transmitters and bitter exes as receivers. I can send a signal hundreds of miles within a couple of days with no electricity.

I'm gonna drop in here,
in a situation IMO community is key to survival, isolation will eventually get to even the strongest

a reply to: Rainbowresidue
Yeah. You get two tin cans and a long length of string. You get the idea? In the event that it really happens you want to communicate with NO ONE. Listen, yes. Communicate ,no. If people know you are alive they WILL come for your resources. Keep quiet and survive.