Suggested Gear for Emergency Communication purposes

Here is a sampling of gear I find useful for emergency communication purposes. Let me know if you have others to suggest. Note that while I have used some of this equipment, mostly it is simply the kinds of things that you might want, and an idea of the prices. I might be missing things like power supplies and connectors that could be useful as well to make the setup complete. Feel free to leave a comment if you want some more specific recommendations.

No Amateur Radio License, low budget:


Books to get licensed:


Low budget, Amateur Radio License


Medium Budget Amateur Radio


High Budget Amateur Radio

HF antennas

Someday I'm hoping to get an HF rig, to be able to talk across the world. I've been doing a bit of research both into the antenna as well as the transceiver that I might buy. This will talk about a few of the HF antennas that I am looking at.

Looking for an HF starter radio

I've got my amateur extra license, and as a result, I would really like to get on HF. I've been doing quite a bit of research into the radio, antenna, and other gear that I will need to make my HF experience awesome, and to be able to talk across the world! Here is some of the radios that I'm considering:

Mission Accomplished!

As I've mentioned here a few times, I really have wanted to get an antenna up in my attic. This has a few really nice advantages. First of all, it allows me to have a permanent home for my antenna. I've been having to manually position my antenna closer to the window when I need to use it, causing a potential trip hazard. Secondly, it gets it above the aluminum siding of my home. There are all sorts of issues with that, but basically, it really blocks signal badly. Lastly, I wanted to use my new Arrow J-pole, which doesn't require an RF ground, as it is a balanced antenna. That allows me to greatly simplify my set up.

The Quest for Cable

As I've mentioned a few times, I'm looking to put antennas in my attic or otherwise in a high location. In order to really do that, I'm going to have to find some good quality cable. Cable is perhaps the unsung hero of amateur radio. You can have the worlds best antenna, and 1500 W out of your transmitter, but if your cable isn't up to snuff, then you can lose a significant portion of your power before it even hits the antenna.

Optimizing equipment

So, as mentioned in my previous blog entry, I have a magnetic mount antenna. I've been trying to figure out how to best use it. I thought I'd share what I figured out.

My first attempts were to just give my call sign. I was able to make contact some of the time, but usually only with a very powerful signal, usually in the 30W range. To make a contact with a repeater less than 10 miles away, that's just too much, especially without any major obstacles in the way...

My first radio, and future goals

There are two bands which I have the most interest in talking on. This greatly shaped what equipment I decided to buy. The two bands are 2m, and 75m. For the time being, I'm located only on the 2m, but I have my eye opened for the 75m some day. How did I pick these two? Let me take it one at a time.

Two meter seems to be the single best band to start with. No doubt I'll have people dispute that, but let me explain a bit. First of all, there are a multitude of 2m repeaters out there. Repeaters have a couple of nice effects. First of all, they allow you to talk with people further away than you normally could. If you can make the connection to a repeater, then anyone who can connect to that repeater can talk to you. This tends to allow you to talk to anyone in a metropolitan area. From my brief exposure thus far, I have heard people from as far as 30 miles away, and I'm barely started! The other nice thing about repeaters is they give a single frequency that you can go to and meet people. Put in a few key near-by repeaters, and you'll never lack people to talk to!

75m is a bit harder to explain, but I'll give it a shot. This frequency allows you to talk distance occasionally, but more than that, it allows you to talk well to people who you could actually drive to in a few hours, if you really wanted to. 75/80m seems to be a very common frequency for use in disaster relief, because of this characteristic.

I'm also interested in 20m, and a few others. But I really just don't have a lot of knowledge of high frequency, so I'm starting out slow and working my way into it. Besides, the cost for a HF transceiver is much higher than a 2m rig, and there's really no big hurry.

So, what did I end up getting? Well, I decided to just start out with 2m, with an eye towards the future. I bought a Yeasu FT2900R transceiver, a C*MET M-24M magnetic mount 2m/70cm antenna, and an Alinco DM-330MV power supply. The power supply was somewhat more than I really need now, but it will last me for some time to come. The radio seems to work well for me for now, I've been able to do fine. Having an indoor antenna is definitely causing me some issues, but it seems to work well enough for me for now. I have all the power I will ever really need on the 2m band, so I'm content for the time being. I can recommend this setup, most especially the transceiver, to whomever might be interested in buying their own gear.