Global and local backup communication channels

Hello there, world!

In case the seemingly probable happens and something takes place that disrupts Internet and/or other means of local and/or global communications, it is good to have some prior knowledge about backup systems which should be able to work as long/soon as there is electricity.

The obvious backup after Internet and/or [mobile] phones stop working (which doesn't take much of a catastrophe) are all sorts of analog amateur radio equipment.

Some, such as CB and PMR phones, are free and easy to use, widely available and very affordable. Setting up a well equipped, powerful and sensitive CB station able to reach other similar stations hundreds of miles/kilometers away, only costs few hundred bucks. Getting your hands at and familiarizing yourself with a CB radio, including the whole bunch from backup power to some very basic antenna theory, might turn out to be a very valuable investment in the near future. You can easily find both information and all the necessary hardware by googling around using phrases such as used cb radios, cb radio howto, cb radio antennas etc.

A powerful CB radio equipped with a good antenna can, in good conditions, provide connections up to a maximum of about 1 000 kilometers - more typically up to few miles or so. A hand-held CB radio carries a significantly shorter distance, very much depending in the surroundings, weather conditions etc. A hand-held PMR radio is very weak and only carries few hundred meters or so, although many manufacturers claim that their PMR radios carry up to even several miles (which, believe me, is bullshit).

For global backup communications, the obvious answer is radio amateurs and radio amateur stations. There are still many of stations around, and the people running them are generally extremely educated about their stuff. Even modest amateur radio equipment allows you to make global connections easily. Also, radio amateurs have a long background of both having and willing to co-operate in case any kind of unexpected emergencies take place, so these people and their tools will be of extreme importance, especially if SHTF big time.

Different analog radios, especially CB and HAM (the latter referring to professional amateur radio equipment), can be used to efficiently communicate both locally and globally. Although there are many limitations such as the fact that anyone can listen in (or mess up with) the connection, especially the CB gear is very useful, cheap and easy to use.

Again, I firmly believe it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with this stuff, and if you can afford it (it's very cheap indeed) then the best way for you to understand how the whole thing works is to get yourself one and play around with it for a while. There are laws so check those out, but in general owning and operating a CB radio is pretty much allowed everywhere - except, of course, where it's specifically forbidden. Anyways, it's part of the rehearsal to find these details out yourself; I can't lay them out for you anyway since it completely depends on where you live. Google is your friend.

Should things go haywire, I'll be listening to and (at some point) broadcasting on the following international HAM frequencies:

1919 kHz (SSB) 00:01 - 00:10 & 12:01 - 12:10 GMT
3636 kHz (SSB) 00:11 - 00:19 & 12:11 - 12:20 GMT
7070 kHz (SSB) 00:21 - 00:30 & 12:21 - 12:30 GMT
10111 kHz (SSB) 00:31 - 00:40 & 12:31 - 12:40 GMT
14111 kHz (SSB) 00:41 - 00:50 & 12:41 - 12:50 GMT
18111 kHz (SSB) 00:51 - 01:00 & 12:51 - 13:00 GMT

These are "hailing frequencies" listened through twice every 24 hours according to the above schedule. If a connection is initiated, then a different frequency may be chosen for further discussions. Different frequencies are used because different wavelengths travel different distances depending on factors such as the state of the ionosphere etc.

It's impossible to say what to conditions will be should there be a wide need for a backup communications arrangement based on CB and/or HAM radios. It may be nothing like that will be needed, or it may be we're faced by a catastrophe so huge we can permanently forget we ever knew such a thing as a radio. Who knows. Which is why I think it's best to at least get to know the available backup systems and learn how to use them before the day comes they are needed - it may be very difficult by then.

For as long as the Net is there, you are free to use a very secure irc server running in the Tor network at the address atwypbvqrqx7b37f.onion, port 6697 (SSL mandatory). A working (tested) combination to access the server is Vidalia Bundle (takes care of the Tor part) with an irc client called X-Chat 2, capable of using Tor as a socks 5 proxy. It's not a bad idea to learn this Tor stuff too, and although I could provide much more detailed instructions, I'll just say this: After downloading and installing Vidalia Bundle and X-Chat 2 (X-Chat Aqua if using OS X), just launch Vidalia and make sure Tor is running, then configure X-Chat to use socks 5 proxy at address 127.0.0.1 and port 9050. You should then be able to connect to irc server atwypbvqrqx7b37f.onion (port 6697) with SSL enabled. You must also check the "Accept invalid SSL certificates" box in the server/connection options. If you make it to the server, just join the queue (/join #q) or send privmsg to nns and say hi, you'll then be invited to an unknown location. ;)

Interesting times! Take care! <3

Last Edited by NordicNeoShaman on 10/17/2012 10:24 AM