This is not database related, so if you’re not interested in hearing about something besides SQL Server, PostgreSQL, DevOps, community or data management in general, time to move on. Figured I’d just let you know up front.
In the last year there have been several very large scale emergency events, examples include Hurrican Helene in the US and yesterday’s massive power outage in Spain, Portugal and France. There have been others as well. Before I go further, my heart goes out to all the people affected in Europe. I hope no one was too hurt by the outage and you all recover quickly. What’s been somewhat unique in all these cases is that cel phone services have gone out, on a massive scale. Which means everyone is cut off, and we are not used to being cut off.
So, I see people online, looking around for alternatives. One thing that does come up frequently is taking advantage of satellites, either satellite phones, or a service like Starlink. The phones, and services, are quite expensive. Starlink is pretty cool (I’m typing this over that right now), but does require a power source when the lights go out, so plan for that.
Another one that comes up, because it’s a simpler, cheaper, alternative, is radio. Let’s talk about it.
Why Radio?
Before we get into why radio, let me establish my source of knowledge, just so you know. For those who follow me, I may have mentioned, once or twice, that I was into amateur radio (yeah, OK, I won’t shut up about it). I’ve been an amateur radio operator, or ham as we affectionately call ourselves, for a little over 6 years. I own… honestly, too many radios. A bunch. I have coverage across just about every conceivable frequency range that I’m allowed on and operating mode out there. Being the obsessive nerd that I am, I’ve also spent tons of time learning about them and experimenting with them. I hold an Amateur Extra license in the USA (topmost license available, here’s how you get one). I volunteer with the local Skywarn team, ARES team, and the Oklahoma Medical Reserve Corps as a radio operator. I also occasionally play Parks on the Air. For the truly pedantic though, no, no engineering or electronics degree and no professional experience as a radio operator or technician. I’m just an amateur nerd with a bunch of radios and practical knowledge of how they work. Cool?
So, why radio? The simplest answer is because they’re completely independent. No internet is needed (although, internet can be used in several different ways through digital modes, more on that in a bit), no satellite required (although…), no need for any other kind of external support system (assuming you can charge your batteries). When our wonderful (and I mean that) system of communications goes offline, they are the backup… to the backup… to the backup.
In the US, we have the NOAA Weather frequencies that broadcast constant updates on weather, including emergency alerts. Worldwide there are common frequencies in the marine band for emergencies. Lots of countries, states, locales, have emergency frequencies you can tune to in order to get old school information. Hospitals have radios as a backup. Many emergency bodies across the world maintain, test, and use their radio rooms as emergency backup. It’s technology that is over 100 years old, yet, just works and works well.
Further, radios are cheap as dirt. You can pick up a receive only emergency radio for next to nothing. It’ll even charge your phone (as long as you have the patience of Job, cause that little crank doesn’t do much). You can get a decent transceiver (transmitter and receiver) handheld for also next to nothing. NOTE: they are called handy talkies, not walky talkies, I’ll fight you on this. For those interested, as a starter radio, I recommend either the Baofeng 5RM (including my review) or the Tidradio H3 (also reviewed this one). With these you can talk to one another as well as receive from your local frequencies (Radio Reference is your friend here). Heck, as far as receivers go, you can even look at getting a Software Defined Radio (SRD), which is a funny name since you need hardware, but, whatever, to receive across a wider range of frequencies and modes than any of the examples I have listed.
Further, you can do some wild stuff when you combine your phone or laptop with some of these radios using digital modes. Yes, it’s some additional hardware outlay, but it’s possible to then do some neat things. First, you can send email over radio using Winlink. It’s possible to send your location, and messages, over APRS through a radio that supports it, or, radios that don’t if you use a phone app such as APRSDroid. I’m participating in setting up a Meshtastic grid across Tulsa that allows for text messaging without the need for cel towers or the internet. These and several other digital modes expand what’s possible in emergency communications.
In emergencies, especially when everything else has failed, radio is right there, waiting, ready to help.
BUT
Why Not Radio?
Let’s be clear, I’m pro radio. I think you should have one (or more) at hand. However, there are things you need to know.
First up, that emergency crank receiver? It’s a bit of a piece of junk. I have two in my house and two in my son’s house because I know, one of them is likely to fail when I really need it. If anyone knows a truly well made one of these, let me know. In the mean time, I’ll protect myself through redundancy since they are cheap.
Second, those cheap handheld transceivers, and, for that matter, extremely expensive handheld transceivers (I spent $700 on my Kenwood TH-D75A and don’t regret a penny), radio-to-radio, no additional equipment, are only good for about 1-3 miles (2-5km). And terrain, you know, buildings, woods, hills, mountains, can limit that even farther. However, when it comes to radio, height is might. Getting an antenna up higher in the air means great distance. For example, most emergency services, including a lot of the stuff mentioned above, have towers with antenna high up there, so that, for example, those NOAA weather transmissions can go hundreds of miles. But you have to know how the radio you get operates, which means operating it. Practice is necessary. You really can’t simply buy a radio, toss it in your closet and then pull it out expecting results when the emergency hits. Further, if you want to reach out beyond 10s of miles, to hundreds, even thousands of miles, you need a High Frequency (HF) radio. Which brings up another point against radios.
While there are things like Family Radio Service (FRS) in the US and PMR446 in the UK, just as examples, that are license free, they have severe limitations on hardware and transmission power that can make them less than useless in an emergency. In the US we have the General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) which allows for a lot more power and capability, but it requires a license. Good news is for my US readers, GMRS is a license for your family. By that I mean, spouse and children, sure, but also parents, siblings, and their kids. One $30 license covers them all. However, again, to really take advantage of radio, and get your practice in, and, if you so desire, get on HF, around the world, in most cases, you need an amateur radio license. That requires passing a knowledge test (I linked to the US test above, and here’s some information on global licensing, there’s more, search for your local requirements). It’s not a hard test in most places for the base level license, but every single person who wants to operate in the amateur frequencies will require a license. I’m not aware of anywhere that lets you on HF without a license.
Now, that said, in the US, there is a law that says, you can transmit on anything you can get your hands on in a life or death emergency. So, need for the license, right? Well, yeah, but, practice. How do you know you can transmit? Have you stored all your local frequencies correctly? How do you know how to operate, program, just plain work the radio? Practice. Is you practicing a life or death emergency? No, of course not. So, yeah, get your damned license.
But Yeah, Radio
I’m not even going to provide links to this. You can search it up yourselves. There were people standing back-to-back during Hurrican Helene, out in the woods, with an antenna up in a tree, acting as human repeaters. A repeater repeats a signal so that it can go further. In this case, one person received a signal and then handed it to the next person to transmit, extending everyone’s range. That was the only way to get word in and out of some communities. As I said, look it up, there are tons and tons of examples.
Put simply, in an emergency, radios work.
I have a Tidradio H3, properly programmed and tested, in every car in the family. I have a stack of GMRS radios, as well as a base station with an antenna up on the top of the house (height is might), ready in case the family needs them. I have extra batteries for my radios. I have a couple of portable solar panel chargers that I’ve used to charge those batteries. I even have a few inverter-type batteries that convert DC to AC so I can power my laptop (and Starlink, I’ve used them more for local power outages than anything else). And, I practice.
I don’t want you to be scared off from picking up a single radio for your house. You should. However, you also need to know that these things are not toasters. They’re not going to just “work” in an emergency. You will need at least a little preparation and understanding for them to properly serve you when, the gods forbid, you find yourself sitting in the dark without cel service.