DEFINING YOUR COMMS GOALS AND PRIORITIZATION
GUEST POST AT MODERN MINUTEMAN
PART 1 OF THE "BUILDING YOUR COMMS CAPABILITIES" SERIES
What follows is a generic overview of things to consider when forming your “comms plan” or “road map” to reaching your goals in the communication arena.
The complete series will be a deeper dive showing what is required to achieve some of the more common goals, but the first step should be writing down what you want to accomplish when it comes to radio comms.
Not everyone needs HF equipment to talk across the world or radios with built-in encryption for “unbreakable” tactical comms. Both of these endeavors come with a heavy price tag in equipment as well as steep learning curves.
While “Weak Signal Digital Modes” are absolutely the best method for transmitting and receiving information when it comes to regional comms (Coast to Coast), for the most part the “juice will not be worth the squeeze” for individuals as again, the learning curve is steep.
Unlike transmitting signals though, receiving is much easier to learn and much more cost efficient. If you are completely new to radio, you probably “don’t know what you don’t know” which makes it hard to make a list.
If you are interested in what can be done off-grid and without anyone else’s infrastructure, then check out the list below which is just a small sampling.
SAMPLE LIST OF NEW OPERATORS TO DO ITEMS:
Setup Tactical Comms (Walkie-Talkies), learn how to maintain connections over terrain via enhanced antennas or repeaters if needed.
Identifying surrounding signals, who’s talking around you?
SWL (Short Wave Listening) gathering news from outside of FUSA, remember Voice of America? (Red Dawn anyone?)
Learning how HF signals using the atmosphere bounce signals around the world and how to capture or send them yourself.
Learn how to lower your signal signature so the guy over the next hill doesn’t know you are around or use encryption / code to keep them from learning information about you.
The list can go on and on, just depends on your commitment to the trade.
KEEP IT SIMPLEX STUPID
Most people in the community are looking for a basic way to communicate in what is known as line of sight (LOS) Simplex Mode or sometimes referred to as “Tactical Comms”.
Line of sight is basically as it sounds, “An unobstructed path between sending and receiving antennas” that is required to allow comms with devices that range in the shorter radio wave spectrums like your typical “Handi-Talkie” (HTs) that run in the VHF / UHF or (2M) / (70CM) wave lengths.
There are many hardware choices in this particular subset of radio comms, and I will address in detail my suggestions and reasons for my choices in the next post of this series titled “Tactical Comms” when it is released, but for now, ask yourself if you are satisfied with your skill level in radio?
Have you gone the way of most and bought your way into the field with little to no practice, or have you tested your comms abilities and know what you can accomplish because you have done it under all weather and supported / unsupported field conditions?
Radio is like any other skill; you have to do it to “own it”. Skill is not head knowledge; its experience gained from multiple attempted applications of that knowledge.
So, I encourage you to get out and “Get Some” skills where radio is concerned.
Thanks for taking the time, I hope to hear you on the air!