Survive Infinite Dangers: The Family Survival Guide of 21st Century Dangers (22 page)

Chapter 20

Communications and Electric Power

COMMUNICATIONS

SHORTWAVE RECEIVER

First of all the word communications implies two-way. Talking and listening as opposed to just doing one or the other. A radio listener does just that – listens. A person talking on the radio or TV but not listening is broadcasting. It’s unlikely you’ll do any one-way broadcasting. Hopefully, you will do a lot of listening especially if you invested in at least one AM/FM and (especially) shortwave radio powered three ways – by regular batteries, by solar power and by a rechargeable battery charged by cranking a “crank arm” that generates a small amount of electricity (attached to a motor connected backwards so that it emits electricity as it turns). Such a crank generator is no different than any hydroelectric dam electric generating system. The moving water turn turbines that spin huge motors (picture the ones you see on videos of Hoover dam – each motor is at least 50 feet tall). Those motors produce megawatts of electricity. The tiny motor inside your “crank radio” produce fractions of a watt but enough cranked for, say, 30 minutes to charge the internal rechargeable battery to operate the radio for several days.

I stressed “short wave” because if the disaster is such that all radio and TV stations go off the air for thousands of miles in all directions you will need to receive stations on other continents to learn “what happened?” That will take short wave reception to receive BBC in London, Radio Japan and so forth.

The author as an electrical engineer and amateur radio operator of many years purchased and tested many hand-held transistorized radios with all of these features. The hands-down winner is the Kaito model KA-500. It has many other useful features as well. They are for sale on eBay, Amazon and the author’s Web site,
www.infinitedangers.com
. If you select a different radio, test it first. I discovered at least one highly advertised radio (free with a magazine subscription) was so ineffective it might pick up a radio station if located within line of sight.

This is important. As mentioned in the chapter on EMP, an EMP strike is intended to burn out all transistors for hundreds if not thousands of miles from the epicenter of the blast. This could be much further if the bomb is optimized using the Compton Effect (Google the term) to increase the level of the “spark” by many times. Our military and most militaries have “radiation hardened” much of their equipment. But hardened enough to withstand a nearby, visible EMP strike is probably impossible. Consumer devices are not radiation hardened at all. This includes “surge arrestors” you plug in between your TV or computer or whatever and a wall socket. A surge arrestor (to get technical for a moment) is an MOV (metal oxide varistor) a fuse or a gas discharge tube (GDT). Only the GDT functions fast enough to provide any protection whatsoever. It is possible to protect a radio or TV tower from multiple direct lightning bolts. Watch the tallest radio tower in your city during an electrical storm (remaining in-doors and safe) and you’ll probably see the tower struck directly by lightning numerous times but the station remains on the air! If a similar bolt of lightning were to hit your house it would blow out every radio, TV and appliance. So what’s the difference? The commercial radio or TV station has spent well over $100,000 for a complex series of ground rods, hundreds of commercial GDT’s and other lightning protection devices. But one lightning bolt is nothing compared to an intentional EMP strike. Such a strike may be the same as thousands of lightning bolts all occurring at the same exact time. No amount of commercial lightning protection equipment can withstand a nearby EMP strike of that much intensity.

Protect as much as you want but at least protect your short wave radio! HOW? You can make it difficult by building what’s called a Faraday Shield which is a box of any size that is either solid sheets of copper or copper mesh with all seams soldered. Grounding the box to at least a ground rod (pure copper and pounded at least six feet into the ground) is helpful. Then put your radio or anything else you wish to protect into the box making sure with the volume all the way up on the strongest station that when inside the shielded box absolutely nothing is heard. That’s a lot of work and pure copper is expensive. Instead, remove the AA batteries and then double wrap the radio with aluminum foil. Test it one time the same way before you permanently apply the double wrap. I found a single wrap was not quite enough. As cheap as foil is – the more layers the better. Just make sure with the volume all the way up tuned to the strongest AM station that you hear nothing when the wrapping is applied. Be sure to wrap the collapsible antenna as well. Do not wrap the batteries you removed as the foil will short them out. You can put some batteries in a box wrapping the outside of the box with foil but batteries are not transistorized and are unlikely to be damaged by an EMP blast. Personally, I have four identical Kaito KA-500 radios all double wrapped with foil. Why four? It’s quite possible an enemy might trigger multiple EMP blasts over a period of time. I’d remove the wrapping from the first radio only to have it “fried” by a second blast. This radio might be the only way your entire town learns “what happened?” Every single radio and TV in town would be dead except for yours. Treat the radio like gold. It would be worth more than gold in such a situation. Usually selling for less than $70, these radios are one of your most important survival items and, for the money, the best money spent. BTW – get the word of what happened to someone then get to your Safe Area (SA) and go stealth. Don’t be a hero making your house the communications center of your town. You’ll lose all your supplies within an hour (by order of the sheriff).

Late addition: after perfecting the use of tin foil as the simple answer to EMP protection I had an idea of something even simpler and – it worked. I went to Home Depot and bought a 32 gallon galvanized steel trashcan (with lid). Being galvanized it won’t rust. I put radios inside the trashcan and – amazing! it provided complete EMP protection. I could barely hear the strongest radio station with the radio placed at the bottom of the can and the station went away totally when the trashcan cover was added. I heard LOUD background static but NO radio stations. How simple! So go to Home Depot and buy one, or more, galvanized steel trash cans and you have ready made EMP protection cans! 32 gallons was enough to hold six radios, my portable ham radio equipment, other electronic equipment and I still had room to spare. At $16 each EMP protection is truly cheap and easy! But be sure to keep the radios in the can with batteries unplugged when not in use. Having a radio on a table when an EMP occurs instead of in the trashcan will provide no EMP protection! I have extra radios with all but one in the protective trashcan.

Forget television. You don’t have power, your TV is fried and the TV stations are all fried and off the air. If the EMP was not severe you might pick up AM stations 1,000 miles away late at night. But it is probably going to be by receiving, say, BBC in London that you learn the bad news.

TWO-WAY VHF WALKIE-TALKIE RADIOS

You’ll need two types of two-way radios. One for short-distance communications (a few miles) and a long distance two-way radio that is capable of reaching the other side of the earth.

The short-distance radios are almost always going to be walkie-talkies. Use them to communicate with your Survival Group (GROUP) members when they venture from your SA and communicate between areas if you have multiple safe areas in your groups or groups all working together for maximum safety and group survival. If you invested in CB (citizen’s band) radios – sorry, they are worthless. 40 channels of chaos although it would be much quieter with most people without power. The FCC long ago gave up policing the “CB band” considering it the “Wild West”. IF you had any use from them at all you’d be interrupted by hundreds of others all screaming incoherently. There are good short distance radios for short distances but CB radio is not one of them. Here are the good ones. Select based on your location, situation and other circumstances.

Amateur radio: Usually the best all-around choice for short-distance and long-distance communications (remember that the word communications means “talking and listening”). Visit
www.arrl.org
which is the Web site for the American Radio Relay League organization. Most members (hundreds of thousands) are licensed radio amateurs but you can join as an associate without having a license. I’d encourage you to join and then join a local “ham” radio club. You’ll find a list of hundreds of local radio clubs on the Web site. There aren’t many areas around the world that don’t have a local ham radio club and that meets on a regular basis. Become an active member if you like but at least take advantage of the license classes almost all of them offer. Obtaining an F.C.C. amateur radio license has become much easier. You don’t even have to learn Morse code to obtain the basic levels of licenses. The questions are multiple choices and four-year olds have passed the basic test and six-year olds have passed the most advanced license! “It’s too difficult” is no longer an excuse unless you have a medical reason. The F.C.C. even makes allowances for medical problems! There is absolutely no reason why anyone who can read and write at the fourth grade level cannot obtain an F.C.C. license.

You mostly need the knowledge. You’ll also meet local “hams” who probably have extra radios for sale at really low prices. But what to do until you have a license to transmit on a ham radio frequency in a time of true emergency? There is a point in F.C.C. rules and regulations that state anyone can transmit on a ham radio frequency in a true emergency situation. Say, your boat is sinking off the coast of Florida and there is a ham radio transceiver (a unit that contains both the transmitter and receiver in one enclosure) on the boat. You yell “help!” on the ham radio transceiver rather than sink and die. The law has you covered.

Having said that, having no ham radio training is the same as being in the pilot’s seat of an aircraft with no pilot training. You’d crash on take-off and you’d be lucky to turn the radio on when sitting in front of a ham radio piece of equipment no matter what type it is and what it is supposed to do. So get the training and take the tests to obtain as high a class of F.C.C. license as you have the patience and the time for. As many people in your group as possible should follow your example.

For short-distances select walkie-talkies. A few evenings at your local ham club will gain you suggestions of the “best” walkie-talkies to buy. If there aren’t a few for sale among the members I’d be surprised. Visit
www.hamradio.com
,
www.aesham.com
and
www.associatedradio.com
for three ham radio stores who sell nationally. Price shop and request their catalogues or literature sheets. All three toll-free numbers always have a knowledgeable licensed ham radio operator on the other end. They are patient and enjoy helping a new ham pick out the radios you’ll need. If you don’t have your license yet, don’t let that stop you.

The walkie-talkie I’d recommend is a well-known brand that transmits at a five to ten watt level but can be lowered to save battery life. If you’re transmitting to your neighbor five milliwatts is probably adequate. The typical walkie-talkie can be powered by non-rechargeable batteries but virtually all come with a rechargeable battery. It’s wise to buy an extra battery and an extra external charger. It’s as useless as a brick with a dead battery and no means to recharge the battery (see the Electric Power portion of this chapter for recharging). I’d recommend a two-meter band walkie-talkie. Basic ones are well under $200 new and much less used. Why two-meters? Two-meters is the most popular short-distance frequency band used by amateur radio operators. It extends from 144 to 148 Megahertz with literally hundreds of clear channels open to you. Interference will not be an issue but be careful not to interfere with anyone else. Ham groups have equipment called repeaters that picks up your low-power signal and retransmit it for distances up to 150 miles. Basically, the “repeater” is placed on a tall tower, mountain or building picking up signals on one frequency and retransmitting them on another. The top brands are Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood and Alinco bringing up a close fourth. Remember you will have to buy at least two plus I recommend buying extra batteries and an extra external charger. Always having an extra charged battery stops “down time” while a battery charges. Walkie-talkies can have all types of extra features such as additional “frequency bands”. Your choices are almost endless as the prices go up. Unless you become interested enough to take up ham radio as a hobby (500,000 people have including the author! Call letters WØTM) stick with a barebones two-meter five to ten watt walkie-talkie with a low power option. Low power is very important as you probably won’t need five watts and it will just run the battery down much faster. Tell the person you speak with what your goal is and go with their suggestion unless they try to sell you more than you need. I have dealt with all three stores for many years and have never had one instance of any “upselling”. They are all honest people. For about $300 (or less) you can buy a pair of good quality walkie-talkies. “Talking” direct you will have a range of one to five miles. Going through a repeater you may find yourself talking to someone 200 miles away if the repeater is atop a Colorado mountain (there are dozens of repeaters sprinkled all over Colorado mountaintops and, for that matter, over a thousand located on tall buildings, radio towers and so forth all over the country and all over the world! Here is another reason for two meters, it is the most common and most likely to have been installed and maintained by a group of hams who have taken the time to radiation harden their equipment and provide backup power (usually solar – some are powered only by the sun). There is a chance one or two repeaters might survive an EMP blast caused by a Compton Effect blast or a byproduct of a nuclear blast. If so, you and hundreds of other hams will have communications for at least a 50 mile radius while police, fire and all other forms of communications are dead. Do I even need to tell you your cell phone will be useless? Cell phone systems are known for locking up during an incoming storm with everyone trying to call home at the same time.