I think there is a lot to say about transparency.. In an real emergency situation, I don't think going all "tactical," as many might be tempted to do, is a good idea. If you're just trying to find out what's going on, who cares.. As Ray says, listen, transmit little. You want to draw little attention, take care of your family and friends and survive. Keep the camo face paint for later. There probably are satellites up there that can triangulate a signal in seconds. I would be much more worried about the gangs of thugs a few blocks from my house than anything else.
Radio might be very important to gather potentially life-saving information, but it would have another most important role: To make us feel less isolated and give us hope.

Gil.

Hi Ray, you should post pictures of your KX1 on the technical board ;)

Gil

Listening to establish the best plan...

Gil.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-09/06/mount-fuji

Gil.

Hello Frosty,

I used to be into CB in the 80s, not anymore. I do have a CB radio, but it is barely used.
The HF bands are much more interesting, and "civilized." I am leaning towards 40m as my favorite.
I am also learning morse code, which I consider to be a must-have skill for anyone using radios.
Listen to 40m, you might like it better than 10/12 or anything else for that matter.

Gil.

Looks like it works... You might have to re-upload your avatar... Sorry.

Gil.

Hello,

I moved Radio Preppers to a virtual server in Iceland. There is still a glitch with avatars, which disappeared all together! You also won't be able to re-upload yours until the problem is fixed. If you notice any other weird software behavior, please send me a private message. An army of Vikings is working on the avatar problem right now. Best part is, they answer email in less than five minutes! Talk about competition in the service industry...

If you have or need a site, you should give them a try:



Gil.

Hello,

They wouldn't need a special antenna, but antennas need to be polarized the same way at both ends. A dipole for example, is usually strung up horizontally, and that is horizontal polarization. You could have a vertical dipole of course, likely an end-fed dipole.. Vertical antennas are of course vertically polarized. If you tried to contact someone who has a vertical antenna with your horizontal dipole, you'd have trouble (in line-of-sight, via skip doesn't matter). A beam antenna like a quad or Yagi can be polarized either way, depending on how you orient them. Same for a Moxon, which in my opinion is easier to build. Beam antenna are BIG. I would suggest that you equip everyone with simple vertical antennas at a good height. Later you can experiment with different one if you have difficulty contacting distant stations. When choosing your antennas (all the same model would simplify things), look at their angle of radiation. Get one that radiates as close as possible to horizontal (nothing to do with polarization here). Most manufacturers have graphs of their antenna's radiation pattern. Though for CB antennas, not always. The Solarcon IMax 2000 works great, but I think it radiates at a high angle, not sure...

Gil.

http://www.cirkits.com/scc3/

Gil.

Illegal in the United States. I would suggest anyone wanting to buy a CB radio to get a legal one...

Gil.

Thank Ray.

It turn out that my sensitivity problem on 20m was my own doing. I didn't have a well tuned antenna But the K1 had the auto tuner on! Since my K2 doesn't have the ATU yet, it was of course at a disadvantage. Today I finally tried a 20m tuned off-center dipole and looked around until I heard an extremely faint CW signal.. I could hear it as well on the K2 as on the K1! Mystery solved. The K2 however has a "thinner" sound than the K1, because it uses a different AF amplification scheme.

Now I need to build the ATU and SSB card.

Gil.

Really, Morse Code only... And don't spell out "hi hi!"  ::)

Gil.

Hello RG,

If the maximum distance is 26 miles, then CB will work, assuming it has SSB. Look at the Galaxy DX 979: http://radiopreppers.com/index.php/topic,5.0.html. I like my Solarcon I-Max2000 antenna, it works really well.
Since most everyone is North of you, you could use a directional antenna... Depending on how much space you have.. Yagi or quad, even a dipole.
Me, I would probably make a Moxon and set it up vertically...
Everyone would have to be polarized in the same manner however, vertical or horizontal (referring to antenna polarization).

Gil.

Absolutely.

I should add that all frequencies can be used simplex, which means that both Hams transmit and receive on the same frequency. When using a repeater, the transmit frequency is usually off by 600kHz, either above or below the receive frequency. Many repeaters also require a tone to trigger them, which you must program into your radio. Simplex used to be the standard before the advent of repeaters on VHF and UHF. It is still the standard on HF.

http://www.hamuniverse.com/repeater.html

Gil.