Some things you should know about Ham licenses, if you intend to get one:
The FCC license database is public. It includes government names and addresses and is relatively easy to search. If you're keen on remaining hard to trace, we highly suggest that you use a P.O Box or an address that is not yours, but that you can still check. The FCC doesn’t really care where you live, just that they can contact you by mail.
There are three tiers of Ham licenses: Technician, General, and Extra. The Tech license is 35 multiple-choice questions chosen out of a pool of 428 questions, and you pass with a score of 74% or higher. The questions and answers are all public. https://hamstudy.org includes a Study Mode to answer questions one right after the other, to help you memorize them. The site keeps track of your average score, before giving you practice tests. If you take the test multiple times and can consistently get an 80%, you're ready to take the real test.
Traditionally, you would have to be tested in person by volunteer examiners (VEs) and coordinators (VECs) with at least General class licenses. However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, most testing has moved online, through things like Zoom or Google Meets. As of April 19, 2022, the FCC charges a $35 application fee. Nevertheless, VECs usually waive the $15 exam fee they used to charge before this rule took effect.
LICENSE FREE RADIO
CB RADIO
Before cell phones, CB (Citizen's Band) radios were popular in rural areas. Houses and tractors would both have CB radios so that relatives could keep in touch with each other during the work day. School buses would also have CBs to let families know when buses were arriving.
Radios and antennas work by transmitting, receiving and interpreting electromagnetic waves. The specifics on how information goes from sound to waves is wonderfully intricate, but we won't be exploring that in this guide. Its basic principles can be broken into three stages:
1. Transmission: A radio transmitter (ham radio, walkie talkie, etc) converts electrical signals (such as your voice) into waves.
2. Propagation: The waves travel through the air or space at the speed of light, reflecting and refracting depending on obstacles and atmospheric conditions.
3. Reception: A radio receiver with an antenna captures these waves, and converts them back into electrical signals.
Through these stages, we can isolate the components necessary for radio communication as only two: a transmitting device and a receiving device, both which need an antenna to transmit and receive.
CHOOSING A RADIO
If you want to create a radio setup for the purposes of receiving instructions and information in the event of an infrastructure collapse, we would recommend finding one or both of 2 items:
1. RTL-SDR, or other SDR. SDR stands for "Software Defined Radio". It's a USB device that you plug into your computer and tune using a program like SDR# ("SDR sharp") or GQRX, among others, to listen to various frequencies.You can find RTL-SDRs online for fairly cheap, often sold as "TV tuners" because people use them to watch over-the-air television on their computers.Some SDRs can transmit, such as the HackRF One, but they are considerably more expensive. The HackRF One is currently $350 USD.
2. Baofeng UV-5R, Quansheng UV-K5, or other VHF/UHF transceivers. These can transmit, but keep in mind that it is illegal to transmit on amateur bands without a license, unless there's an emergency.
PUBLIC ALERTS: NOAA NWR All Hazards and SAME
You're going to want to look for logos on radios tagged with "Public Alert" or "NOAA NWR All Hazards".
These two standards compete with each other but they mean essentially the same thing— that the radio meets specific technical standards that make it capable of receiving area specific alerts, along with extra capabilities to be used by the hearing-impaired or visually-impaired.
These radios are compatible with a technology called SAME (Specific Alert Message Encoding). SAME transmissions deliver specific information to devices from a specified county or area, and some radios that feature SAME (specifically weather/all-hazards receivers) allow users to program specific SAME codes for their device. For example, a person living in Irving, Texas, could program a code for Dallas County and get easy access to the weather and alerts in that county. However, if there is a need to know of severe weather from the west and northwest ahead of time, the user would program additional codes for Denton and Tarrant Counties
POWER SOURCES AND EXTRA FEATURES
Battery operated radios are the most convenient, as long as you stock additional batteries. Emergency radios are built to sip power and use the minimum amount to run, but radios with extra features will drain more power. Some of these extra features come in very handy, such as flashlights, solar panels or speakers, but they'll make the system less efficient if you're going the minimal power usage route.
Even if you already have a radio, it's not a bad idea to keep a "listening-only" emergency radio built for the toughest of times. A hand-cranked radio is not necessarily more efficient than simply carrying more batteries on a low power radio.
AM AND FM
Most people will want an AM/FM radio that will deliver NOAA alerts and other warnings to them. NOAA, along with many other emergency alerts, are broadcasted through AM (300 kHz - 3 MHz) rather than FM (30 - 300 MHz).
The difference between AM and FM is very simple. AM (Amplitude Modulation) and FM (Frequency Modulation) are simply two different ways to tune and interpret radio transmissions. AM is more stable over long distances and uses lower frequency bands, so it's often used for emergency alerts and services. FM stores information differently, transmitting with better sound quality but with shorter range and in higher frequency bands.
FREQUENCY
We’re going to encounter this word quite often when talking about radio. You likely already know what the function of a frequency is, but to recap— radio waves have an attribute called frequency, measured in Hertz(Hz) and its magnitudes, most often Kilohertz (kHz) and Megahertz (MHz). A tuner inside the radio isolates what frequencies your radio actually converts back into sound for you to hear, creating a system of channels However, what that tuner can exactly tune into is decided by the manufacturer. This is the reason why you can’t just tune into military or police communications, but it’s also a good reason to get a good radio with a wide array of frequencies that at least include HF and VHF— a tuner locked into a tiny range of frequencies cannot be simply modified to cover more frequencies.
Frequencies lower than VLF are often used for seismology and AC power, so they’re not necessarily relevant. Frequencies higher than SHF are mostly used for radar technology, 5G, short range wireless networks, so you won’t really be using them either.
The gap between 3.5MHz and 450 MHz is what will be the most useful to keep an ear on, although it’s handy to remember what’s just beyond the usual frequencies.
RULE OF THREES: 3-3-3 SURVIVALIST RADIO PLAN
The rule of threes in survival is also commonly used within survivalist/prepper radio circles. 3-3-3 is the “When, Where and How” to make radio contact with each other. Versions of 3-3-3 are used by survivalist, prepper and emergency communications groups worldwide.
The 3-3-3 radio plan is simple: Turn on your radio every 3 hours. Tune to channel 3. Listen for 3 minutes.
WHEN: EVERY 3 HOURS
Always use your Local Time for local area communications with the 3-3-3 radio plan, at the “top of the hour”, each 3 hours:
Noon, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm. Midnight, 3am, 6am, 9am.
HOW LONG: FOR 3 MINUTES
At the top of every 3rd hour, turn on your radio. Even if you don’t need to make a call yourself, always turn on the radio and listen for calls for at least 3 minutes. This is because you never know if someone may be trying to reach out for help. If you need to check in, make a short transmission, saying you’re just checking in. If you have sufficient battery power, or if you have not connected in for a while, then you should listen for 15 minutes.
WHERE: CHANNEL 3
Channel 3 applies to CB, FRS, or MURS the most common types of civilian radios.
ACCURATE TIME KEEPING
Synchronize your watch with others whenever possible if there’s no internet or cell phone connection. If you doubt your watch accuracy, compensate by keeping your radio on for a longer duration, before and after every 3rd hour. If you don’t have a watch, try listening to an AM broadcast radio station— they always identify their call letters at the top of each hour.
FREQUENCY SCANNING
Some radios will have an option called Scan, Signal Stalker or CTCSS Scan. This option will make the radio automatically cycle through a range of frequencies, stopping when it detects an active signal coming through. If you need help but don’t know which frequency to use, scanning helps you automatically find the most active ones given a smaller frequency.
OFFICIAL EMERGENCY FREQUENCIES
- CB (26.965 - 27.405 MHz) has an official emergency use channel, which is channel 9 at 27.065 MHz.
- MURS (462.5625 - 462.725 MHz) has an official emergency use channel, which is channel 3 at 151.9400 MHz.
- 146.520 MHz and 145.500 MHz. These are the national simplex calling frequencies in the US, sometimes used for emergencies.
- 146.000 MHz - 148.000 MHz. Common frequencies for local police, fire, and emergency medical services (EMS).
- 162.400 - 162.550 MHz. NOAA weather radio, provides continuous broadcasts of weather information, and is sometimes used to broadcast emergency messages to the public.
If all of these are quiet for too long, it may be time to try your luck with the amateur frequencies.
