BUILDING YOUR COMMS CAPABILITIES

A MULTI-PART SERIES ON COMMS DEVELOPEMENT

random comms image

While I’ve had my General FCC Ticket for 10 years now, I’m not a true HAM. I’m a Prepper that learned HAM radio for the purpose of being prepared.

I treated radio no differently than when I bought/built weapons and sought out professional training to increase my skill with them. I could have said to myself “I was USMC Infantry, I know how to shoot” and put the carbines in the safe for when SHTF, but that would have been a bit arrogant and IGNORANT for sure.

Yet countless “Preppers” do exactly that with radios!

Buying hardware is easy, being highly proficient with it… is not!

I was anti-licensing as a young Prepper in 2010, but unlike the guys that build up carbines and never train how to use them, I realized a few years later the need to be proficient with all “tools” I own and got my ticket because…

YOU WILL NOT LEARN RADIO OPERATIONS

if you don’t practice, and you can’t practice without a license. You don’t have to give up your location by getting one, they will mail them to any POB, so stop making excuses and get licensed now if you are serious about learning!

WHAT WE ARE GOING TO COVER HERE

Below is my rough outline of items I would like to talk about, I encourage all to add their suggestions via comment on this post.

The first topic is “Defining your comms goals and prioritizing”, a guest author post that I wrote for The Modern Minuteman to help people plan out where they want to be with their “comms plan” and my suggestions for getting there.

The rest will be updated as I get to them.

ARTICLE JUMP LIST

---

1. A guest author post at The Modern Minuteman

---

---

POTENTIAL FUTURE ARTICLE TOPIC / ITEMS

NOT IN ANY PARTICULAR ORDER, ROUGH & INCOMPLETE DRAFT ONLY

make your suggestions known via comments on this post please.

• TACTICAL COMMS

  • Programming

    • MEM v. VFO

    • PSWDS

    • Keypad / CHIRP

  • LOS / Repeater Operation

• MESSAGE ENCRYPTIONS / ENCODING

  • Ribbit Software

  • AndFlmsg

  • PSK32

  • Encryption / DRYAD / TRIGRAM

  • Privacy Codes (CTSS)

• SIGINT

  • Scanners

  • SDRs

  • Spectrum Analyzers

  • The fallacy of "Fox Hunting"

• ANTENNAS

  • Theory / Calcs

  • Antenna Gain

  • Dipoles

  • Tiger tail and why, roll up j-pole, beam antennas

• REGIONAL COMMS

  • Satellite weather map retrieval

  • Long wire SW Listening

  • NVIS Operation (80M/40M)

  • Watering holes, emergency nets

  • AmRRON, PNW, GHOSTNET

• COMMS SUPPORT SYSTEMS

  • Solar

  • Laptops and Linux

  • Spares & Protection