Meet your preparedness minded neighbor here

[U201491]

Can you buy the equipment sans license? Do you think you would need one if SHTF? License that is? Also consider SIGINT and the massive capabilities OPFOR might have... Just some food for thought.

Brutus out

Nothing will apply at that stage.
But places like HRO will ask for it when you buy. At least for your call sign. Not a big deal and easy to get a tech ticket.

 

[spc_cdog]

Beaverton /

 

[erudne]

East of Beaverton; way east!

 

[Scrammer]

Longview Kelso Area, is there somebody in the area that would be willing to teach an old man how to reload ?
Please PM me.
I can teach you how to cut meats from commercial packs, that will save you as much as half the price in the store.

 

[Eddywangchang]

In Helvetia Hillsboro here! Always good to meet new people!

 

[CoastRange57]

I'm not sure this post is in the right area, and without context it might sound confusing to some. So I'll paraphrase and you can correct me if I'm wrong.

He's saying to pick up some 2 Meter HAM shortwave radios presumably for emergency communications. 1 for your vehicle and 1 to carry in your backpack.

It requires that you take a Technian Class exam with the FCC as only licensed operators may legally transmit on the 2 Meter frequency (but not to listen).

There is no longer a requirement to learn morse code to pass the technician exam so it's not too tough to get your license.

There was a link posted on here a while back about some 2 meter handhelds on Amazon. Chinese Baofeng HTs,. I bought one, added a 14 inch antenna, hand speaker mike, car charger and PL 250 antenna adaptor for $ 96 to my door.

Great radio. With the 14 inch antenna I was able to hit repeaters in Central Oregon and MT Hood from over 100 miles away, and sitting in my hotel room. I am going to buy another one because they are reasonable.

No reason to not get a license. There are a huge number of ham radio operators who are very like minded about prepping and SHTF. You will get to know people and can even meet up with them and it expands you network of friendly and like minded contacts. Transmitting with out a license will only bring you trouble. There is a subset of people in ham radio who live to track down these signals and find you with directional antennas, and they are very good at it.

 

[ZA_Survivalist]

Transmitting with out a license will only bring you trouble. There is a subset of people in ham radio who live to track down these signals and find you with directional antennas, and they are very good at it.

Thats actually pretty cool. I really need to get into this hobby.

 

[simon99]

Just joined the site, from Central Oregon....PM me if you'd like.

 

[Both Eyes Open]

Tahuya here. Feel free to PM anyone interested in chattin.

 

[Dalan]

Just joined today. Have old Sangean shortwave and was looking at a new mid priced unit. But it seems two way communications would be far more useful area. General area of Silverton, Or

 

[1200bruce]

Port Angeles here.

 

[speeddemon94]

Anyone in Medford? Got a few things going with the local Oathkeepers, and we could use some more like minded folks.

 

[CounterOfBeans]

Hey fellas......I just arranged to have available 52 acres of westside forest in SW Washington for our use....

If there is enough interest of course....

We could spend a day or so practicing some bush craft and such..

There is even a garden that folks could learn from..

A river runs through it..

Hey Wheeler, I know this post of yours was put on forever ago, but just thought I'd mention something about your river advantage. Micro-hydro generators are available and if you can pull off affording one (they seem to be freakin' expensive), then you'll have power 24/7/365 regardless of economic/political collapse issues. Anyway, the micro-hydro prepper solution to energy is something I really geek out on and since I don't have a stream/river going through my in-town patch of ground, I indulge it vicariously with others who can do it. Just wanted you to be aware of it if you weren't.

 

[Brutus57]

Skagit county here.

Brutus out

 

[CounterOfBeans]

I am a total ham newbie (no credentials, no experience). That said, just as a contribution to the ham radio sub chat going on this thread and the reference to the Baofeng radios, I'd like to let you all know about a ham review thread I found for the Baofeng UV-5R radios specifically. I thought it was very helpful. The link is:

Baofeng UV-5R Product Reviews

These radios can be found for $30-$40 on Amazon and the greater majority of the review commentaries from this eham page is good. One guy has had his for two years with no issues. One guy put his in a head to head test with a comparable Yeasu radio and concluded the only real difference was the cost difference. Another guy bought 30 at once (directly from China) for his amateur radio club and 5 of them had faults (1 w/ bad RF outlet, 4 w/ bad mic. jacks). This suggests that there is a bit of a quality control roulette with these radios (17%'ish have problems) and there were others who promoted the value of buying from American sellers who would at least back up their stuff.

I only read the first 3 or 4 pages of this 19 page review thread, but according to what I read, it was the "UV-5R" that had some bugs to start, but those bugs have been tended to with newer models like the UV-5RA, UV-5RE plus, etc. There are a couple posts written by folks who wanted to cast their vote as UV-5R haters, but they seemed to be a small minority overall. Based on this thread's overall positive commentaries, the low cost of these radios, and keeping the 17% faultiness record of this one ham's experience in mind, it seems to me that one solution theory for SHTF communications preparedness, could be to buy a bunch of UV-5R's so you have commo redundancy (for the house, car, shop & spares for those who join you in post SHTF, etc.) and replaceability, should one go bad or get damaged in post SHTF.

Programming frequencies into these radios seemed to be a common complaint too, so it's worth reading more about that and/or getting with a local ham to help out. Also, hams correct me if I'm wrong here, but it's my understanding that you don't have to have any credentials to buy or listen to any ham equipment whatsoever. The only time credentials are required is if your itch to join the ham conversation gets the best of you.

That said, I would like to put it to any hams reading this... given that ham radios are intended for emergency communications, how does the ham community view the likelihood of people who lack credentials getting on their radios in the SHTF scenario to send warranted messages? Maybe that's a dumb question, but I just see many scenarios in that kind of state of affairs where people simply aren't going to care about official permission when it comes to getting aid or giving aid through communication. Anyway, just my 20 cents.

 

[Brutus57]

I do. Skagit county up here.

 

[mrblond]

N Salem here or as I like to call, Little Mexico. I have a feeling that there will be no one else in the area who is like minded.

 

[ch139]

N Salem here or as I like to call, Little Mexico. I have a feeling that there will be no one else in the area who is like minded.

I just call it teh gehtoe...

 

[sillyrabbit]

South Salem here. Wanting to meet like minded folk.

 

[U201491]

I'm not sure this post is in the right area, and without context it might sound confusing to some. So I'll paraphrase and you can correct me if I'm wrong.

He's saying to pick up some 2 Meter HAM shortwave radios presumably for emergency communications. 1 for your vehicle and 1 to carry in your backpack.

It requires that you take a Technian Class exam with the FCC as only licensed operators may legally transmit on the 2 Meter frequency (but not to listen).

There is no longer a requirement to learn morse code to pass the technician exam so it's not too tough to get your license.

Yes, simplest way to connect and possibly coordinate when times go black.