PLEASE READ! Welcome to Radio Preppers.

[bkt]

Hi, folks. I'm a long-time prepper and have had my license for a couple years now. Having seen a few youtube videos by Gil, I thought it would be smart to join up here and learn a lot. :)

[gil]

Welcome aboard!

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[KK0G]

Welcome to the forum bkt, glad to have you aboard.

[Jon_Garfio]

Hi Gil and all the members of this forum.
I am 41 years old and I have my ham licence from 1993 (I was 17 yo). I come from Spain.

Sorry for my poor English, I 'll try to explain as better has possible.

I discovered this forum throught radioprepper channel, I am glad to know anothers friends with the same interest about the priority to comms in a possible dissaster or SHFP.

I don't trust in the help of goverments, neither in his false information.

This comunity/forum allows me share my ideas of radio lightweight/portable etc to get at this hobby became a important tool for SHFP.

I hope we can learn more all together and make a net to share info and knowlegde.


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[gil]

We should be able to establish contact between France/Spain Jon...
Gil.

[Jon_Garfio]

We should be able to establish contact between France/Spain Jon...
Gil.

I wish it!!

[gil]

We should be able to establish contact between France/Spain Jon...
Gil.

I wish it!!

I should be on 20m this afternoon, 14060 around 15:30 French time, 13:30Z See F4WBY on the reverse beacon network...

Gil

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[Moray]

Hello everyone, my name is Moray located south of Glasgow in bonnie Scotland. Have been inspired with Gil and his YouTube videos very interesting. I have an RT-320 and I am active most weekends like experimenting with various antennas. They are great radios and a bit of nostalgia for me being ex army look forward to spending time in here reading posts and contributing.

[gil]

Welcome aboard Moray. I am a big fan of the 320, but you already know that ;)

Gil.

[Moray]

Yes I know it's a great radio hope to speak to you on the bands I to hate contests :)

[gil]

We'll try!
Gil

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[kb9lxh]

Thank you for providing this forum. I agree with you and others that preparedness in all forms, especially in communications, is the utmost importance for all types of disasters whether the source is naturally occurring or man-caused. As a ham radio operator for over 35 years and a military retiree, preparedness is second-nature to me and my family. We look forward to great dialogue with others.

73,

Joe - KB9LXH

[Jon_Garfio]

Nice words, Joe.



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[Commsguy]

Hello everyone,

I'm a prepper located in Western Europe and I stumbled upon this forum in the links section of the webpage of OH8STN - awesome to find an entire forum dedicated to ham radio & preparedness, without too much focus on only either of those topics, but the best intersection where both topics meet.

As a prepper I got in to ham radio & comms-gear a few years ago when I picked up a scanner and later a few chinese HT's and I extensively started testing ranges to get a good understanding of communication capabilities. A huge pet-peeve within the prepper communities are people buy a few Baofengs and basically make grotesque assumptions on their capabilities or usefulness, nor not even practice using & operating their radios. Not to mention how little time people spend on finding & evaluating the right or up-to-date frequencies to get news or information from.

I've come to the conclusion that 2m & 70cm is pretty much only useful for short-range, tactical communications for those people in your prepper group that are very near or with whom you are directly working together. For instance the neighborhood watch, on patrol or in vehicle convoys or vehicle to dismounted. Unless Party A and Party B both have Diamond VHF/UHF antennas on their roof, I've kept VHF & UHF prepper communications within 5 Miles tactical range (that is with external DIY antenna's but not in any optimum situation. Better to be conservative with range rather than overestimate). For obvious reasons I do not wish to rely on amateur repeaters.

That brings me to my next and latest research, where I've spent the last year looking into: NVIS. I've already ready a few threads on this forum and I've spend so much time reading all available articles and research into, ranging from the USMC antenna books to the latest research on NVIS from 2015 (http://www.vederfonds.veron.nl/PhD%20Thesis%20B.A.Witvliet%202015.pdf)

A few problems I can't get around are so many articles praising NVIS on 40 meters. Most of the amateur radio articles on NVIS are from the United States, and I have some problems with that:

• The Unites States is huge compared to Europe, if one makes an international contact 320 kilometers out (200 miles) that would be in the States only the next state over
• After keeping an eye on ionograms (http://digisonde.oma.be/latestFrames.htm) daily for a year, I've never seen the foF2 frequency above 60 meters, and I hardly ever hear amateurs from my country on 40 meters, and the times I did I suspect it was the groundwave playing a factor.
  I know the solar cycle is currently at a minimum, and foF2 could easily go to 40 meters in a maximum
• professional or commercial articles on NVIS only give very broad and shallow information in regard to frequency choice which are no help at all

A close friend recently started prepping as well and I want to establish a (for HF very) short-range method of communication. The ranges to think of are 15 to 75 miles. I'm having the hardest time with finding the right frequency band that would provide the highest reliability for daily communication, all-year and preferably solar cycle round.

PS: Saw the CB sub-board, maybe that should/could be expanded to general license-free comms (to include PMR446 for instance) and add an NVIS subboard.

[gil]

Hello and welcome aboard :-)

The most reliable band for NVIS is 80m.  Don't ditch the 2m band... Using USB on 2m can greatly increase its range. 2m USB can cover the near-regional range and 80m the far-regional range. Both can work DX under some conditions, especially 80m. Any band works for local, so we might as well use VHF or UHF with shorter antennas.

Gil

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