DISCUSSION OF STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS OF VARIOUS FORMS OF COMMUNICATION IN AN EMERGENCY. (Article republished to replace one lost in crash of 08 May 08. Original comments also lost)
This subject comes up from time to time in the forums, so I’m going to try to put together a summary of information here. I am basically going to address this from the point of view of dealing with natural disasters (earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, winter storms, etc), as these are the most common and the one you are most likely to deal with. The principles apply, for the most part, to Man made disasters such as industrial accidents, civil unrest, terrorism, etc. as well, but you might have to adjust due to tactical constraints.
During a SHTF type situation, it is important to maintain situational awareness. One way is through communications, with others of your family and/or group, and with the authorities (often through announcements in the broadcast media). You need to be aware of such things as :”WTF just happened?!” “Is it still happening?” “Is it going to happen again?”, “where is everyone?”, “Does anyone need help?”, “Where is the nearest help?” “Should I stay or should I go?”.
(Please note that this is written from the perspective of the environment of the United States. Other countries have different rules and regulations about the possession and use of communications gear of various types.)
The first part of this is to build a communications plan with your family/and or group. (like minded friends, neighbors, lodge brothers, militia brigade, etc.) BEFORE a situation develops.
This is as simple as having a list of phone numbers for each member, including mobile, work/school, and home numbers. Not only should these be programmed into your cell phone (if you have one), but you should have a hard copy list with you as well in case your phone isn’t working, or the cell sites are down, but the POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) hardwired landline is till up. You might also want to carry a roll of quarters and/or a pre-paid calling card for such a situation.
It is also important for each member of your group to know what to do if a situation arises and the phones go out of service entirely. Such as setting up a rally point (probably home), designating who picks who up from school, who’s going to stay in place until contacted/picked up, any alternate means of communication (such as radio), etc.
Your communications plan should cover all means available to you. Such as:
Receive only: (Note, always evaluate any source of information for credibility and reliability based on personal experience and what you observe. Even with the best of intentions, people often misreport, misinterpret, or just don’t understand what they are reading or seeing. In addition, what’s going on in another part of your state/city/county may or may not have anything to do with what’s going on your particular location)
Commercial Broadcast: AM/FM/TV. This is a primary way for announcements from government Emergency Management (EM) officials have of getting information to as many people in their area as possible. Local news media will also be a source of information separate from the official announcements (this can be a good or a bad thing).
You should have a receiver capable of picking up at least commercial AM and FM broadcasts that does not require commercial power. There are many models out there that use batteries, 12v dc (i.e. from car power jacks) and a hand crank and/or solar cells to recharge the internal battery pack. Kim has one linked in his in his excellent article on emergency gear.
Several of these come with TV band audio reception, but be aware that Commercial TV broadcasts are scheduled to switch to all digital in 2009, and these radios will not be able to receive TV audio after that time.
Many come with Short Wave capability, which is probably of limited use in a natural disaster situation, but it can be fun to surf the bands if there’s nothing else to do. In addition, if the SW bands cover the Amateur Radio HF bands, persons in Hurricane susceptible areas might be interested in monitoring the Hurricane Watch Net.
I put this on the “must have list”
NOAA Weather Radios
The NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) through the National Weather Service (NWS) maintains a network of stations throughout the United States. These stations continuously broadcast weather reports and forecasts for their listening area. During weather and other emergencies, they broadcast watches (be ready, something very well might happen), and warnings (something is happening NOW).
NOAA Weather radios are receivers that have the 10 NOAA frequencies pre-programmed. You can use them to check the NWS forecasts and conditions, and mute the audio when not listening. In the event of a watch or warning, the NOAA station will broadcast a tone that will cause the radio to automatically un-mute (and usually sound an alert tone) and you will be able to hear the audio of the bulletin.
If you buying a new one, make sure it supports Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME). This allows you to tailor the bulletins you receive to your local area. Each geographic area (usually a county) has it’s own SAME code. NOAA encodes SAME data in it’s bulletins, placing the SAME codes of affected areas into each separate bulletin. This means that your radio will only sound an alert for bulletins affecting your area, and not for areas that have no impact on you.
There are a variety of NOAA radios available from a variety of sources. For my home I have a Midland 74-200, and an Oregon Scientific WR-102 in my vehicle.
Utility of NOAA radios will vary depending on where you live, but I put this on the “mandatory” list for anyone living in tornado country. It is a very good idea for anyone else, as some local EMAs (Emergency Management Agencies) have started putting out bulletins about HAZMAT incidents, wildfires, etc. via NOAA radio.
Scanners
Scanners are specialized radios that can receive signals from a variety of sources, including commercial broadcast, law enforcement, fire, aviation, etc. They will tune across a range of frequencies (hence the name Scanner), stopping at any that have activity. They can then restart scanning once that activity stops. This allows you to monitor activity on a variety of frequencies using only one radio. They range from “DC to Daylight” capable of receiving High Frequency (HF) to Ultra High Frequency (UHF) and above, to those with a more limited ability for special purpose use (Aviation for instance). They can be big console base stations, or small portable “walkie talkie” sized units.
Scanners can be useful for monitoring local activity such as Public Safety (Police, Fire) calls, amateur radio weather spotter and relief support activity, NOAA radio (but usually don’t have SAME or alert capability) local EMA activity, etc. to help maintain your situational awareness by getting information that hasn’t been released by the media yet, or is not being reported by the media. (FYI: by US law, cell phone frequencies are blocked in any scanner sold since the late 90’s)
However, as communications technology advances the old type scanners may be of limited or no use in a give n area. Many government agencies down to the local level are encrypting their communications, and even those that don’t, are moving to digital “trunking” systems that require specialized scanners. Also, be aware that some jurisdictions severely limit or ban use of scanners capable of monitoring Public Safety frequencies in private vehicles.
This is in the “nice to have” category IMHO. I don’t have any (my amateur radio gear provides as much scanning capability as I need), but many people find this a fascinating hobby in and of itself.
2 Way Communications
Phone systems. You have two basic parts. POTS and Cell (wireless).
Plain Old Telephone System is the hardwired landline system those of us alive before cell phones grew up with. It is fairly robust, with large bandwidth for voice traffic. The landlines will often be operational when the cell system is jammed with traffic. If you are unable to get out on a cell phone, it may only be an issue with a local cell site. Try getting to a landline and try again, even if calling another cell user. They might not be affected in their location.
I keep a POTS phone that has a hardwired handset in my home. That gives me one phone that is operational during power outages (cordless phone base stations often do not have battery backups) and has some chance of being useable even if the cell systems are down. However, if there’s an issue with the central switching office, or the phone line itself (i.e. ice storm) , it’s not useable.
Cell Phones
Cell phones use RF (i.e. radio) waves to communicate with local sites (consisting of receivers, transmitters, and control equipment, usually on a tower or other high spot) that relay the signal to the central phone switching system.
They can be very handy due to their portability, and are not affected by things like ice bringing down phone lines. However, you are limited by needing to be in the coverage area of a cell site (getting better in the US, almost 100% in most urban areas) and in not having your signal blocked by buildings or being underground.
Cell sites usually have backup power, but this capability can be limited and so the sites may go down during an extended power outage, and of course they are susceptible to tornados, earthquakes, etc.
Along the Ohio river several years ago, several sites were down for days and weeks as the lower portions of the towers were flooded, killing their electrical power. The World Trade centers had a multitude of cell sites on them, all lost when the towers went down. Katrina scrubbed many towers down to the concrete pad, and many others were destroyed or required weeks to repair.
If the main phone switch goes down, the cell sites may be up, but not have anything to relay to, effectively killing the system.
It is also possible for sites to go down, and therefore kill service for a given area due to traffic volume. The system is developed under the assumption that only a certain percentage of users (20% IIRC) will normally be using the system at any given moment. There is some margin built in, but during a situation where everyone is calling everyone else at once, the system will go down.
During the recovery operations for TWA 800 off the East coast, it took 3 days before enough temporary cell sites were brought in to handle the combined traffic of recovery crews, the media, onlookers, and normal operations.
The same thing happened in Oklahoma City after the bombing, although for a shorter period of time.
Tip: If you have text messaging available on your phone, you can sometimes get a short message through the system when a voice call will be rejected due to traffic volume. Something to keep in your tool bag of tricks.
A subset of the wireless type phones are Satellite phones,.
Pro: They are flexible, not reliant on local infrastructure, have the ability to reach outside widespread disasters, relatively immune to any attack short of a nuclear exchange or anti-satellite warfare.
Con: Cost. Phones can run about $1K. Calls cost $5-$10/min. You must have a clear view of the part of the sky the satellites orbit which might be an issue in some situations. The satellites themselves can often have reception problems during some types of solar storms.
Bottom line, I regard cell phones somewhat like the Police: Can’t beat them when they’re there for you, but I’m not going to rely on them being available in a emergency and will make plans to take care of myself.
E-Mail. E-mail has many of the vulnerabilities of phone systems, with the addition of virus, DOS attacks, etc. However, depending on your method of connecting to the internet, it might be available during times when the phone systems are down since it often travels different paths.
And of course, both parties need to be at a terminal (PC, or e-mail capable wireless device).
Useful if up, and would not ignore it if available, but I would not plan for it as my primary means of communication in an emergency.
Radio (Note, I am only covering common options legally available to private citizens in the US. You might have gear that transmits on military, commercial or Public Safety bands, but it isn’t legal for private use, I don’t want to know about it, and I don’t know you).
Radios generally have two advantages over phones of any type:
2. Able to send “one to many” type messages quickly. With phones, you normally have to call each member of a group individually to pass or receive information. With radio, everyone in your group can hear the information at once, which saves time and increases situational awareness of the group. (I know some types of phones, such as NEXTEL has a feature that accomplishes the same tasks, but we’re back to that infrastructure thing again.)
One thing to be aware of (which might be a disadvantage depending on the situation) is that you have no expectation of privacy with any of these radio services. Encryption of radio signals in these services is illegal. Anyone with a scanner or proper receiver will be able to hear everything you discuss.
FRS (Family Radio Service) Is a non licensed radio service in the UHF band intended for private citizens to use in short range, non-commercial communications.
Pro’s: No license required, cheap, easily available at discount, electronics, and outdoor stores. Simple to operate.
Cons: No license required, cheap, easily available. Simple to operate. Which means that many people have them, and few of them have any clue as to effective radio operation or protocol. If you get into a situation with a large number of people (such as an amusement park on a busy day), FRS can become unusable as multiple people try to use a few channels at the same time.
Has severe limitations on allowable power and antennas, which gives them a restricted range. (Actually that can be a good thing as well, cutting down on the number of people sharing a small set of frequencies in any given area.). These restriction mean that all FRS radios are basically small handhelds.
FYI: “Privacy Modes” advertised on some FRS radios, aren’t. They are referring to subaudio tones you can set so that you do not receive any transmission that does not have the right tone. However, that only keeps you from hearing other people, it does nothing to keep other people from hearing you. There is no privacy in private, civilian radio communications.
The General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) is a licensed radio service in the UHF band originally intended for use by businesses (construction, security, etc) but is now available for use by families.
Pros: Higher power and external antennas (which means more range), base stations, mobiles allowed. No license exam. Not as crowded.
Cons: Equipment more expensive and not as available.
Requires a license (no test, just filing the paperwork and a $85.00 fee for 5 years).
Limited number of channels, so it is possible for interference from other users if enough users are crowded in one place.
Since there is no testing, hence no study or training required, GMRS users can also cause problems through ignorance of radio techniques and protocols that help ensure smooth operations.
Please note that many manufacturers are selling “dual use” radios that have both GMRS and FRS in one unit (the frequencies of the two services are interwoven with each other). A license is required to legally operate the GMRS frequencies, but none on the FRS, UNLESS, the “dual use” radio transmits with more than a ½ watt and has a removable antenna. At that point you are required to get a GMRS license to use those frequencies.
Citizens Band (CB) Is a non licensed radio service in the HF band used for private and business use. Designed as a 1-5 mile range service, but since it is the HF part of the spectrum, atmospheric conditions can give ranges in the hundreds or thousands of miles under the right conditions (this can be a good or a bad thing).
Pros: No license required Equipment is cheap and readily available. Simple to use.
More frequencies available than FRS (40 channels).
If you’re near a major trucking route, you can usually raise someone to get help (Truckers on Channel 19, many State Patrols and users monitor Channel 9 for emergency calls) anywhere in the country.
Can use handhelds, mobile units, base stations, and external antennas.
Cons: Limited power output (5 watts). (Many folks play with amplifiers to boost that. Again, it’s illegal, I don’t want to hear about it, I don’t know you.)
Same issues as with FRS and GMRS with non-radio savvy folks not understanding how radio works, therefore causing interference and confusion.
Very little to no enforcement by the FCC. This leads to a small subset of people on CB with an outlaw mentality that enjoy breaking the rules, pushing illegal power, intentionally interfering with others, and in general being jerks. They may be technically savvy, but are lacking in the maturity department. A group of these folks can make effective CB communications impossible in an area.
Multi Use Radio Service (MURS) A non licensed radio service in the VHF band. Was once used by commercial (construction, security, etc) but is now open for any personal or business communications.
Pros: No license. Almost nobody knows about it so not a lot of crowding. Can use external antennas and transmit data in addition to voice.
Cons: Equipment not readily available in most places. Limited to 2 watts.
Amateur Radio (HAM) (Full disclosure. I am a licensed Amateur Radio operator, which means I should know what I’m talking about, but could be a wee bit biased 
)
A licensed radio service that has frequency allocations in several bands in the HF, VHF, UHF and above regions of the radio spectrum. Amateur communications must be totally non-commercial in nature.
Pros: Extremely flexible. Ham operators can use any of a number of bands and modes (voice, digital, satellite, etc.) to get communications through. You can optimize your frequency and mode for the task at hand and the distance you need to cover (from around the neighborhood to around the world).
Least number of restrictions on power limits and antennas.
No license fee (there is usually a test fee to take the exam, but once licensed, you never have to pay another fee to maintain it).
Exam based licensing ensures that operators have some exposure to radio theory and protocols, making for more effective communicators.
Self-Policing, in cooperation with the FCC, which keeps the number of on-air jerks to a minimum (but they are still out there).
There is a large subset of the hobby that specializes in emergency communications. They provide a pool of personnel that have wargamed and or practiced for real, in exercises, and in contests. Thus there are likely going to be people outside your group that you can contact, and that can provide assistance and training.
Experimentation and do it yourself are encouraged (within the limitations of the regulations). Hams can and do build, repair and modify their own equipment. This is unique in the radio services. FRS, CB, GMRS and MURS all require what used to be called “Type Acceptance” from the FCC and must be certified to meet certain technical standards before they can be sold or used. Thus it is illegal to build, or modify transmitters and then use them on the air for these services. The equipment is often designed to only be repaired by certified/factory technicians, and, in the case of FRS particularly, makes repair non-economical.
Cons: License with exam requires study.
More complex than the other services. Amateur Operators are expected to know the theory of how their equipment works and to keep it working within legal limits. Same with operating procedure and protocol. For example, there are no channels as in CB, FRS etc. you have a range a frequencies to work in, and you are expected to only operate on the frequencies and in the modes you are authorized to by your license.
Equipment more expensive and not as readily available (i.e. not in your average Big Box store) as other services.
ARRL: American Radio Relay League. The primary US national level amateur radio organization (think NRA for hams: not the only one, but the biggest). They can provide information of getting licensed, testing, training for emergency communications, technical information, etc. Their Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) is their organization that specializes in providing emergency communications support.
RACES: Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service. Basically a government controlled version of ARES. Radio operators that support local, state and national government communications, often using amateur radio. They usually work for the local Emergency Management Agency. Also known as the Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) in California.
REACT: Radio Emergency Associated Communications Teams. Basically a non-ham version of the ARRL’s ARES organization. Specializing in use of non Amateur band equipment (CB, FRS, Business band, etc) to support disaster relief operations. They also use amateur frequencies when they have licensed operators available.
This has just been a basic overview. I hope this has been useful in giving you factors to consider in your personal disaster response plan.
