I bought my first CB radio in 1984, a Lafayette LM300. I wish I still had it. Ten years later I got a President Jackson. After CB went ?down the drain,? I stopped all radio activity, until today.
I clearly remember twenty years ago, even five. I did not then have any of the concerns I have today. The future was bright with no clouds on the horizon. I don?t think the world is going to end this December twenty first, or next year for that matter. The Mayan who wrote his calendar must have been tired that night, and his wife was complaining about how much time he spent on it, so he probably just thought it went far enough and left it at that.. I am no doomsday preacher.
There is a certain unease among us however. The media is broadcasting multiple disaster and prepping shows. The economy isn?t going better. Five years ago, I had five ounces of gold, bought for less than $1500. Today, those coins would be worth close to $10,000. Only five years later! I am still hitting myself on the head for selling them before the increase. We may wonder why the value of the Dollar and the Euo have not gone down by a factor of six or seven. One only has to watch the news to start worrying.
I have always been the poster child for safety. Yet, I have enjoyed dangerous activities like ultralight flying, cave diving, motorcycle riding, parachute jumping and others, but always prepared and trained properly. The fact that I am here today has nothing to do with chance.
Being prepared for me means being prepared in all areas. I have seen people stocking up food while smoking two packs a day, shooters with dozens of guns who can't run to their 100yrd target, or people with a bunch of medical supplies but no water or any means to purify it. I have seen very few preppers with the means to communicate!
So, I am studying for my HAM licenses (yes, all of them), while enjoying my Galaxy DX 979 CB.
I have thought about HAM bands quite extensively and done a lot of research with an emphasis on emergency use.
For local communications, 2m seems the best option. I would also include a few FRS handhelds to keep track of family members and local friends in your neighborhood. I can't think of anything the 70cm band offers that 2m can't do.
A CB is a must as well, but it should include SSB, to take advantage of the 11m band's ability to skip on the ionosphere, thus allowing very long distances.
I am also intrigued by the 6m band, which at times behaves either like VHF or HF, depending on conditions. It also has the advantage of small antennas, with a half-wave being, well, 3m long! I found an old 6m Gonset Communicator III AM radio on Ebay for cheap, with a crystal for 50.4mhz. That set would probably survive an EMP sitting right in the open! If only someone else around had one...! 6m AM would make a great local frequency, if small and cheap handhelds were available. You would also get skip when the conditions are exceptionally good.
On HF, I am planning on sticking to 20m (14mhz). Lower than that and you run into antenna length problems. You can find cheap QRP kits for that band. I have ordered a small CW only transceiver kit for $30! How can you beat that? 20M is probably the most popular HAM band and would be great to listen to in a national emergency. Moreover, propagation is decent to great most of the time during the day and early evening hours.
In my opinion, better have a few radios for different bands rather than one that covers them all. I do want a Yaesu FT-817ND, but I will have a metal can with a 2m handheld, CB, 6m SSB, 20m QRP transceiver, a handful of FRS handhelds and a few accessories stored inside a cardboard box inside the can, for EMP and water protection. For a few hundred dollars, you can be well prepared as far as radios go. Much less than the cost of a good rifle ;-)