Survival series: Don’t count on using your cell phone
In our last installment we talked about the Family Emergency Plan, and I touched on communications. In this post I will cover that in more detail.
We have some amazing technology fueling our communications infrastructure. We’ve gone from Morse Code over radio to internet capable handheld devices in a rather short time, all based on technology. Back in the early radio days, the equipment was often home made and rather durable, but that isn’t the case with today’s electronics and systems. Lets start with cell phones.
At a basic level the cell phone system is based on radio waves. A cell phone tower sends and receives radio waves to/from your phone. The tower connects to the internet through the cell carriers infrastructure (which means cell towers have connections to the cell providers network and from there out to the internet) and transmits/receives the info you request to your device. Before we even discuss the problems with those tower connections to the world, there are flaws right at the tower. For starters, many towers have battery backups designed to keep the cell network in the area running during a power outage. However, those batteries don’t last forever, and an extended outage will mean towers dropping as batteries empty. As towers fall, the network will crash (at least from the perspective of you and your phone) and you will be unable to make calls, send texts, or access the internet. In addition each cell tower has a capacity limit, which means they can only service so many phones at a time. We don’t see a problem with this in everyday life, because in most cases your phone can access several to many towers from one area. If the tower it connected to is “full”, the network will switch it to another nearby tower. In an extended power outage, as towers die the remaining towers will get overwhelmed and fail in short order. For an example: when the attack on NYC on 9/11 took place, many local cell networks were crushed under the demands of millions of cell phones trying to connect at once. Many people found they could not place calls or send texts, and there were very few actual tower outages. In the end, all the towers in the city were simply over capacity and unable to allow further connections. (this isn’t a problem because usually only a small portion of a cell providers total customer base is actually using a tower at any given moment. But in an emergency, everyone will reach for their cell phone and quickly overwhelm the system)
Land line phones can suffer from the same overloading issues, but not as readily as the cell network. But, if the event is large scale, it is possible that the central offices the land lines connect to are without power and offline as well. In a situation where communication infrastructure breaks down, all bets are off. Not only will phone calls be impossible, but most folks get TV through cable or satellite, and those systems may very well go offline as well. So, what will still be working?
Terrestrial radio. Those radio stations playing the greatest hits or talking about sports may very well continue broadcasting through an emergency. The big stations have power backups (usually generator power) and since they are a one-way broadcast will not have issues with overload. Of course terrestrial TV is also an option, but it seems fewer houses even have a TV antenna these days, so I’m not sure many people will have that option. But everyone has access to a radio, be it in your car or your home stereo. I go a step further and have a hand crank powered AM/FM/Weather radio in my kit. It will run on AA batteries OR a rechargeable battery you can “crank” to fill. In a large scale event, radio may be the best/only way to stay in contact with the outside world to keep informed on what is going on. But keeping up on the news is not your biggest problem when it comes to communication…
How will you contact your family in an emergency? If cell phones are down, do you have a way to reach them? There are ways we will cover, but I’d like to point out that this is exactly why it is important to designate a meeting place in the FEP (Family Emergency Plan). If communications are down, your family should proceed to the meeting spot immediately! This way there is no need to get in touch with them prior to putting the plan in motion.
Once you are together, there are many options for ongoing communications for you to the world and between family members. For short distance communications, FRS radios are great. You can find them in Walmart or any major store. (sometimes at Family Dollar as well!) They usually come two to a package, and can be had for little money. Most run on AA or AAA batteries, but some come with rechargeable packs and wall warts. This brings us to the issue of emergency power, which I’ll cover in more detail later. For now know that you need to plan ahead for powering any of your electronic gear while in survival mode. These radios are free to use without a license. They only have a short range, so they won’t do you much good for connecting with the world at large, but they are great at keeping local people in touch with each other. (for instance during scavenging expeditions or while travelling in multiple vehicles)
If long distance communication is something you want to include in your plan, then you have to look at other options. Amateur Radio is a hobby full of people that practice emergency communications, and if you want to get good at it yourself, it is a great place to find like minded people. You will have to pass a test and get a license for “ham” radio, but you no longer need to know Morse Code. The basic test is pretty simple, and plenty of young children have passed. With a few pieces of equipment, you can literally talk around the world from a remote location, which might be invaluable in a mass scale event. And there is even a yearly event called “field day” where amateur radio hobbyists compete with each other to see who can collect the most contacts using off-the-grid radio setups! (exactly what you’d need to do in a real emergency)
GMRS radio is another service for longer distance communication. It works very much like FRS, but does require a license for your family to use it. The radios use the same frequency range as FRS, but with higher power and the ability to connect external antennas. (FRS radios are forbidden by FCC rules to be connected to an external antenna. In an area with dense clutter or deep in a valley, an external antenna can mean the difference between good communications and static.) Also, GMRS radios are allowed to connect to and use repeaters (also Amateur Radio has repeaters) which can greatly extend the range of a small handie talkie. I won’t go into much detail about how a repeater works, but feel free to ask in the comments if you’re interested. It might even be possible to build a repeater that can fit in a tool box for deployment in the field. Couple that with an antenna you can string up in a tree, and you are on the air!
This is a complicated subject, and I could go on for another thousand words. But you don’t want to read all that… I’ve given you some food for thought, and below are some links to get you further. If nothing else remember: in an emergency you can NOT depend on normal forms of electronic communication. So get those backup plans in place!
Stay safe out there!
References:
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