When your cell phones and landlines won't work, HAM radios still will

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I am going with equipment that will not be knocked out by EMP. I already have it wrapped up in aluminum foil inside an old microwave oven. when the time comes all I have to do is open the microwave, unwrap the aluminum foil get out the string and tin cans and I'm in business calling CQ.

key up your HAM and you might as well say a prayer
as the drones would be inbound.

No shit. Listening to the local HAMs for four hours after the Joplin tornado and then their pleas for someone to take over at the comm center they had set up in Springfield, I finally got off my butt and got my license.

I know a lot of prepper types are scrambling to buy these cheap little $50 chinese 2 meter handhelds. They seem to think they will be able to communicate with the entire planet. Those cheap little Wax-On radios are good for maybe three miles on flat terrain.

If we were in a martial law, civil war or invasion scenario they could just be considered missile homing beacons.

And you would recommend what kind of portable radio that has anti missile capabilities...?

+5

Being a Ham is a great way to ensure you will never get laid ...

NERDS

i had a ham radio.

my dog ate it.

I wouldn't be so sure, military has discontinued MARS for a reason and I doubt its because they have sat phones, as a redundant or back up communication network it seems like a good tech to keep around and yet they are scrapping it, I bet it has vulnerabilities we are not being told of

My 8 watt GT-3tp with a nice Diamond SRJ77CA antenna can reach out and hit my local repeater towers for over 40 miles.
My Kenwood and Icom mobiles with mag mounts can work to around 75 miles with some static. Our repeaters are set up with Solar backups. They work quite well in a shtf situation.
nuff said.

The Beofeng uv5r radios are a gret way to get started. After you get comfortable look into the more rubust options available from the more familiar names in the radio business.
To get some distance comunicating, a recomendation of a cb/10meter radio would be advisable. They can be modded and are easy to use.
An over the road trucker could give you great advice on this subject. Most HAMMers are weird and pretty stuck up.
What you will find is that alot of money and time is spent to be able to do something very simple.
If you get involved you'll find that there's a whole counter culture for data transmission and simple communication available if your willing to put fourth the effort and $$.

Not necessarily.
Many ham bands rely on repeaters that are powered by the grid. so you would have limited range of communications. Other ham bands will tend to go much farther, often making them not of much use in local communications.
CB radio is often a better choice. cheaper and easier to obtain and operate. more individuals locally use it, designated channels, including an emergency channel and it is not tied to repeaters.

My iPhone will always work with its embedded Star Wars technology mwuhahaha

not if the air is full of ch@rged particles of flyash from yellowstone volcano.then you get a solid band of static.
next?

CQ...CQ...CQ.... when the light go out it will be like ising the HAM in this movie Testament. Terrifying childhood memories.

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Buggout Pork Frequency

Op is Hard A Motherfucker

Or you can shriek really loud too!

Vacuum tube equipment is far less apt to fail from EMP. I use it. I avoid any newer radios except for 2m/440/220. 80s era and up HF rigs are full of proprietary parts. The newest are full of firmware. My old TS 820 can be repaired easily other than the display unit, which was an option anyway.

Yes, vhf could be easily tracked. HF ssb not so much.

Don't overlook CB band. It's lawless but more people have those than ham gear. You don't have to talk-just listen. And don't knock CB; 7200 and 80 meters have more foul mouthed operators than CB does. It's always Americans on those bands (40&80) acting like idiots.

Was all that was left
ones and ohhhhhhs?

When the SHTF and I (unlicensed) use a ham radio to communicate, will anyone care and try to do anything about it?

Yes keep it safe under emp shielding

and i will finally have peace and quiet.

Couple things, the world has never had an emp event since before radios, so everyone saying stuff about shielding have no real data to go by, second in an emp, no batteries and wires will work, i dont know if ham will help you 100%.

so ... when they turn off the electric ... or people refuse to go to work and the grid goes down ... how do you expect to communicate ? even if there is no emp - keeping the masses from communicating IS a priority - because then they could organize .
and generators are as expensive as hell to run

so I bought a "portable" ham radio that runs off of a car battery ... no it's not a cb it is a fully operational Yaesu FM Transceiver (FT-2900) Ham radio - I also bought a ham radio for dummies book, and I bet that if I can't operate it, there is one of my neighbors who can .... I keep it shielded, and its is still in the box ... just in case personally I would rather be safe than sorry - it was an expensive little item, way up at the top of my prepper's list

Speaking from experience?

HAM is useful in many scenarios. When there are local disasters, first responders often rely on the local HAM folks for communication.

I have several HAM radios, and some of the gear my company designs and builds is HAM specific.

One overlooked area to check out is shortwave radios for listening only. Unbelievable reception range, no license needed, great radios under $100, and no transmission so no fox hunt and no incoming missiles.

Just get teh fuck out of the united states. If you ahve to go backwards in technology in the future because of where u live.

MOVE

Actually just listening on a radio makes you a potential target for a missile.

It took the Germans until near the end of the war to figure out that by turning on their receivers the US and British aircraft could home in on their position ... and call in the anti submarine forces.

The reason is that even in "receive" mode a radio radiates a signal that can be picked up by a sensitive receiver ... and it can be physically located vie radio direction finding equipment.