r/preppers • u/TatumBird22 • 6h ago

SHTF Cross-Country Comms Prepping for Doomsday

I live on the west coast while my brother and his family are in New England. What's my best option for comms? Want it to be portable. Money isn't an issue. Please help with recommendations.

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u/lone_jackyl Prepping for Tuesday 6h ago

Ham radio or satellite cells

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u/TatumBird22 6h ago

Think Sat cells will be reliable in a global SHTF scenario?

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u/lone_jackyl Prepping for Tuesday 6h ago

I think ham would be most reliable. Sat cells is a good 2nd

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u/TatumBird22 6h ago

Any brands or links to HAM you'd buy?

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u/lone_jackyl Prepping for Tuesday 6h ago

They have a sub. Start there.

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u/BaldyCarrotTop Maybe prepared for 3 months. 4h ago

HF ham radio in particular. During Helene, A ham here in Oregon was in direct communication with hams in NC over the HF band.

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u/NorthernPrepz 6h ago

Depends on the SHTF and depends on for how long.

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u/kkinnison 4h ago

for a few years, sure. as long as the companies maintaining them keep supporting them

never know. They could just decide to shut them down at the momment they cannot get $

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u/VisualEyez33 6h ago

Study for and pass the first two ham radio exam tiers. Your brother will also need to do this, too. Around $2000 budget for each of you for a basic base station setup. This is the only option that involves no other infrastructure than your own. You will not have 100% reliable comms, but should be able to get through to each other anywhere from a few times a day to a few times a week, depending on radio wave propagation conditions, which are influenced by solar flares and geomagnetic activity.

Or, get garmin inreach satellite communicator devices and the monthly subscriptions that they require. This is much less to set up and figure out compared to the ham radio route.

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u/TatumBird22 6h ago

Testing aside, any specific HAM radio set ups you'd recommend? Remember portability is king.

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u/NorthernPrepz 6h ago

Remember that portable is relative. More weight means potentially more features and potentially more flexibility or options. You are looking at HF for cross country, so conditions and time of day will greatly impact your ability to get through. You also need to power this thing. So portable in a car is different than in a pack. What’s the weight requirement etc?

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u/TatumBird22 6h ago

Scenario would range from comms across the country to packing up and needing it as we travel to meet.

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u/NorthernPrepz 5h ago edited 5h ago

Are you in a car? On a mule? On foot? How much power do you have available to you?

There are no plug and play options here. The right way to do it is to join a club, get set up, practice. You can get guidance on what you need.

If you just want to buy gear. Here you go. Though i can’t recommend this approach as you might not get what you need.

Edit: you’ll also need an antenna plus some items listed at the bottom of the page. Not sure what you can carry antenna wise.

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u/TatumBird22 5h ago

Appreciate you. Thanks.

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u/VisualEyez33 5h ago

No, not testing aside. Just buying gear to put on a shelf for someday won't get you ready to be able to use it when you need it. 

I was 14 months past licensing before I had a useful enough knowledge of my gear to get it to work well enough to start making long range contacts regularly. I built two or three antennas in that time. Ham gear is not plug and play. Connect shit wrong and you just permanently fried your new $1000 radio. You will learn how all this works by studying for and passing the exams.

My home station is an astron rs35 power supply, into a yeasu ftdx10, heil bm-17 headset mic, 100 feet of lmr400 ultraflex coax into a MyAntennas 40-10 end fed half wave antenna mounted on a spiderbeam fiberglass mast. Plus grounding straps and a ground rod.

One of my three portable sets is a yeasu ft891 into a mat30 tuner, heil bm-17 headset mic, powered by a bunch of different bioenno lifepo4 batteries, 15 amp hour or 20 amp hour depending on how long I want to operate. Portable antennas, I have like 10 to pick from depending on if it's a day trip or a weekend camp out. 

Ham radio licensing is a license to learn how to experiment with electronics that can burn down your house, burn you, empty your wallet, or foul up air traffic, or emergency services if you don't know what you're doing. It's like a driver's license. A lifted Tacoma in the driveway doesn't do you any good if you don't know how to drive.

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u/TatumBird22 5h ago

Appreciate the thorough response. I meant, "Testing aside because of course we'll do all the testing." This isn't a buy the gear and sit ask; It's a "What gear should I get as I'm about to invest a shit ton of time, energy, money and resources into being good at this" ask.

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u/VisualEyez33 5h ago

If you want to peruse in-use portable ham radio setups put "parks on the air" into YouTube.

Yeasu ft891 is a proven portable radio for long range use.

Xiegu g90 is another popular beginner radio, but is only 20 watts out rather than the 100 watts out of the ft891.

There is also a whole rabbit hole of attaching a small laptop or tablet to the radio and transmitting 1990's style modem squealy noises, in a variety of digital modes like winlink email, js8 call, ft8, and many others. 

There is a whole rabbit hole of using handheld radios to access satellites that will rebroadcast your signal when they're on the other side of the planet.

It really is like the original nerd fraternity.

Here is a quick video about it with links to the US national organizing body:

https://youtu.be/wDn-6SDxyD4?si=anOjazIv4yck6bwi

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u/TheSensiblePrepper Not THAT Sensible Prepper from YouTube 5h ago

If you pass the tests for Technician and General, which you will need for HF to make it those distances, you will learn what you need for the gear. Get the gear AFTER you pass the tests. Remember that you both need the General License to communicate over HF.

Satellite devices are the easier but more expensive option. As long as the Satellites are up, two active satellite phones call talk to each other without any ground stations involved. But that's two Satellite Phones. So you're buying two $1k phones and paying around $200 a month for service, even if you never use it.

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u/Legnovore 4h ago

Look into a yaesu handheld w/ WIRES-X. Wireless Internet Repeater Enhancement System. VoIP in a Ham Radio.

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u/kkinnison 4h ago

satellite phone big monthly fee, and it isn't a "Hey I need it now" pay as you go

could do it with ham radio but it takes some skill linking up repeaters or bouncing a signal off the moon