The Common Sense Practical Prepper

From NOAA to Ham: Building Your Off-Grid Communication Strategy

• Keith Vincent

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When disaster strikes, our most vital lifelines—cell phones and internet—are often the first to fail. This reality leaves families isolated and vulnerable precisely when information becomes most critical. From severe weather events to power outages and beyond, having reliable backup communication methods isn't paranoia—it's practical common sense.

This comprehensive guide walks you through practical emergency communication options for every budget and scenario. Starting with affordable one-way devices like NOAA weather radios that provide critical alerts for as little as $20, we explore the differences between license-free Family Radio Service (FRS) and the more powerful General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) systems. Learn why a $35 GMRS license might be your best investment for neighborhood-level emergency coordination.

For those seeking more robust solutions, we dive into the world of amateur (ham) radio, where operators become critical community assets during disasters. During recent hurricanes, ham radio operators provided the only functioning communication in devastated areas, helping coordinate evacuations and emergency services when all other systems had failed. Discover which entry-level equipment offers the best value and why antenna quality matters more than radio price.

We also explore satellite communication devices that work virtually anywhere on earth, emerging mesh network technologies that create device-to-device connections without infrastructure, and crucial operational security considerations to protect yourself during emergencies. Most importantly, learn why regular practice with your devices before disaster strikes could make all the difference when seconds count.

Don't wait until you're in the dark to figure out how you'll reach loved ones or receive critical information. Subscribe now, share with family and friends, and take the first step toward communication resilience that could someday save lives.

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Speaker 1:

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm warning. Welcome to the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast, where prepping doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. Coming to you from a well-defended, off-grid compound high in the mountains, coming to you from his florida room in richmond, virginia neither off-grid nor well-defended, unless you count as chickens and cats, here is your host, keith hey y'all, it's keith the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast, september 18th 2025.

Speaker 2:

A couple weeks ago we spoke about emergency communication, specifically satellite comms, with the Garmin InReach Mini 2. However, today I want to go over in a little more in-depth several different methods that you can use to communicate in an SHTF situation, whether it's a power outage, natural disaster, supply chain disruption, standard systems like cell phones and internet tend to fail first. Okay, if your power goes out, you don't have access to your computer modem. Cell networks get prioritized to first responders, technically leaving cell phones not an option for us to communicate. There are different types of methods out there. It's very important that we have a method that we can receive alerts from authorities via the emergency broadcast system to be able to share intelligence on resources, safe routes or safe water sources. It can be something as simple as a hurricane comes through. You're in a neighborhood, several large trees are down and you and your friends across the street on the other side of the neighborhood have some emergency communication devices and you're able to talk to each other about storm damage and the best egress out of the neighborhood. If you need to bug out, emergency comms are a very efficient way of providing the information to the folks that you need to get it to bug out locations, times to leave, when they should arrive and any particular information they need to know about that. First, we're going to talk about one way, so just a radio or a device that receives information only, and the easiest example is a NOAA radio National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, noaa the NOAA frequencies. When you get a NOAA weather radio, the frequencies are already programmed. You can also get AM FM broadcast, the emergency alert system.

Speaker 2:

Many models include a hand crank or the ability to charge it via solar. Now, it's very practical because you can put it in your bag, it's not going anywhere, very easy to use and they run as little as $20. I've seen some $50, $60, $75. And again, battery operated hand crank or solar. The best place for that radio. A couple different places One up on a shelf where you can reach it easily, and two in your bug out bag. Very important to have that in the event you need to leave your residence in a hurry. You have that already in your bag.

Speaker 2:

Now, during the 2025 hurricane season, these are critical with providing up-to-date information and early warnings and evac warnings for folks who otherwise could not get that information. So, speaking of hurricanes and natural disasters, folks here in the States, you can go to the FEMA website, f-e-m-a, and download their app. It has alerts and a ton of information. You can just pick your disaster. It talks about a three-day kit, a go bag and some of the basics that you need Food, water, shelter. It's actually it's a very good app. I was really impressed.

Speaker 2:

The limitations with the one-way device is exactly that you can't call out, you're only receiving the information and the range is broadcast dependent. So if you're very far away from the antenna where the broadcast is coming from, you may have spotty coverage. Obviously, the closer you are to the source, the better. If you live in a major city, you're not going to have any problems. If you're way, way out in the boonies potentially might have a problem picking up the NOAA frequencies.

Speaker 2:

All right, we're going to talk about two-way devices and there's several different versions the FRS, or Family Radio Service, and GMRS, general Mobile Radio Service. Now, when I say FRS, think of the radios that you can get like at Walmart. They come in the blister pack. Midland makes a bunch of them and they're like brightly colored orange or red and you can hand those out to the kids. They're playing in the yard. Everybody's going to Disney to keep track of everybody.

Speaker 2:

Very low range, only about two watts power. So you're not going to get a lot of range but it suits certain needs in certain situations In open terrain. These are line of sight. In open terrain, if you're lucky, you're going to get about a two-mile range. If trees or a building or several homes are in the way, it's going to cut that range down dramatically. There is no need to have a license for FRS. For GMRS it is a little bit different. You do have to have a license. It's $35 through the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, and it allows you to have both a handheld or a base station. Gmrs that can punch out 50 watts no more than 50 watts for a GMRS, and they have handhelds that get 10, 12, 15 watts. But your base stations are going to have the much higher wattage.

Speaker 2:

Now, range Again, it depends on the terrain. But with a 50-watt system, potentially 5 to 20 miles if you have a repeater. If you have a friend across town and you both live in the city, he's 8-10 miles away. You're not going to be able to reach your buddy without a repeater. A repeater is another antenna that takes your signal and then broadcasts it down on the other side of the antenna. Just for a very simple example. So if you're in a valley and there's a repeater on a mountain and your friend is in the valley on the other side of the mountain, you broadcast, you hit the repeater. It has a specific frequency. It then takes your signal and then it broadcasts it in all directions and your buddy in the other valley will be able to hear you. So you're not talking radio to radio, which is called simplex. You're actually using your repeater to boost the signal, therefore extending the range as far as a best pick and there's a million of them out there a best pick, and there's a million of them out there the Motorola T600 says about a 35 mile range with GMRS.

Speaker 2:

35 miles with GMRS maybe line of sight, maybe no barriers, maybe flat terrain maybe. Or the Baofeng and Baofeng is known for its radios and they make some very good radios is known for its radios and they make some very good radios, not expensive at all. The Balfang UV5G for GMRS is kind of a GMRS FRS hybrid and it's less than $30. You can get these on Amazon, two for $30, three for $20. They have several sales and they have sales constantly. These are not very expensive. So you can have a GMRS radio that also has the FRS frequencies. If you have that radio with the GMRS, you need to have your license and you can broadcast on all of those channels, gmrs as well as FRS, because that does not require a license. If I had to pick one of the two, obviously I'm going with GMRS, just because it has more power, more wattage and a longer distance.

Speaker 2:

When checking in with your group, it's very important to make sure, especially in an SHTF situation, that you're maintaining some sense of OPSEC or operational security. Don't just get on there and blab about what you're doing and where you're going and what you have, because, remember, this is not a secure communication system. If your buddy can hear you, other people can. People can hear your conversations. So it's very important Again, given the situation, you may want to talk in very vague terms. It's very important Again, given the situation, you may want to talk in very vague terms. And for check-ins, if you don't want to waste the battery, you can always tell your buddy or tell your group. At 3 pm we're going to check in on channel three and then three hours later, at 6 pm, we're going to check back in on channel three. You can make it whatever type of pattern that you want. You can switch channels every hour, switch channels every three hours. As long as everybody knows where everybody's going to be, you're going to be able to get in contact. You know, at the top of the hour, at the top of every hour, meet on channel six and there you know that the top of every hour, once an hour, you're going to check in and provide information and receive information.

Speaker 2:

These can be charged by USB. Most of them are USB-C now, but they also have rechargeable batteries. A rechargeable battery pack, and that's what most of them use is the rechargeable battery pack. Some have solar, but very few and I really wouldn't trust the GMRS radios with the little mini solar panel. It's not going to do much. When you get the radio, the GMRS radio, especially on Amazon, sometimes it'll have like an extra battery and the docking station and an earpiece and a lanyard. A couple other goodies to help sweeten the deal. Limitations for GMRS a couple other goodies to help sweeten the deal. Limitations for GMRS terrain like any radio system, terrain limits the range and it's not really for long distance unless you're using repeaters.

Speaker 2:

All right, let's kick it up one notch and we're going to talk about ham radio or amateur radio. You have to have a license to talk on the ham radio frequencies. The technician's license is the easiest to get. I got mine through hamstudyorg and it's a free app and the test is like an additional $15. It's kind of learn as you go and when you take the tests you can either take an online or, if you're part of a ham radio group in your city or town, a lot of those folks are licensed, I guess, to proctor some of these exams. In fact, some of these amateur radio groups actually have instructors that actually teach ham radio to new members.

Speaker 2:

So in significant SHTF situations or post-hurricane, like happened last year down in western North Carolina, ham radios saved the day. A particular gentleman had access to his repeater and he was able to speak to people on the other side of these mountains that had no communication whatsoever. He was able to reach out to them on their ham radios because he had access to the repeater and they were able to get him messages. Hey, mike, would you please call my sister in San Diego because we don't have cell service. Our landline has been washed away, along with our home and everything else. This gentleman was instrumental in providing coordinates because addresses there was no streets anymore, so you can't really say these folks at 123 Mainstream need assistance. He had to give the Latin that need to be evacuated before FEMA was able to come in and set up their resources.

Speaker 2:

It's very important that you know the proper etiquette and I won't get too deep in the weeds about the proper etiquette when you're using the ham radio, the proper etiquette when you're using the ham radio. A couple picks the Yaesu FT-60R. It's a dual band, pretty rugged, runs you about $150. Of course, baofeng, the BF and the BF-60R, f-8-h-p, fully programmable. Some of these will sync with your smartphone. If you've got to do a lot of programming, there's a cable. You can tie it into your laptop to be able to do the programming via your laptop and download or upload things onto the radio, because it can get a little tiresome having to click all the buttons to put in all the different frequencies.

Speaker 2:

Now, the only drawback is that it requires a license and one thing you need to remember is you need a really good antenna. The stock antennas are okay, but you can have a very expensive, very good radio, but if you don't have a good antenna it's pretty much useless. So every GMRS and every ham radio that I have, I immediately do some research and look at recommendations for different antennas for that particular handheld. Now we're not going to get into UHF, vhf, hf frequencies. Basically, you have the ability. If you have the proper license, the proper radio setup and the proper antenna, you have the ability to talk to people all over the world and it's a really cool hobby.

Speaker 2:

All right, we're going to talk about SATCOMs briefly, but I did cover that a couple of weeks ago. Like the Garmin inReach, the SpotX so remember the Garmin inReach. They're on the Iridium satellite network. The Spot X is on the GlobalStar satellite network and with all these devices texting, gps tracking and SOS no cell service needed, strictly through the satellites. So this is ideal.

Speaker 2:

These type of devices that use SATs are ideal for remote bug outs. You're separated over long distances. You have the ability to communicate with other folks that have these type of devices. Now remember the Garmin inReach Mini 2, I'm able to message folks that have cell service. So if someone is 300 miles away and they're not affected by this natural disaster, I have the ability of making contact with them and sending them messages. I'm okay, I'm on the way home, electricity will be out for two weeks and then they can then send messages back.

Speaker 2:

Okay, thank you, whatever it happens to be, and remember what I said a couple weeks ago if you get one of these devices, make sure you do all the programming ahead of time, because when things get really hectic and chaotic, the last thing you want to do is to pull out the instruction book and try to figure out how to program your device. They have updates and again, you have the ability of backtracking. Like I said before, if you have the mapping feature on and you get lost, you can basically just turn around and follow the lines back on the device. It does sync with your cell phone, so even if you don't have cell phone service, you can still view the device through the app and it's a lot easier to handle that way.

Speaker 2:

While you're at it, with these SATCOM devices, get a Faraday bag. Faraday bags are not that expensive, but they're worth their weight in gold. Why would you have this device that's going to link you up with your loved ones or emergency services and not protect that device with a Faraday bag? And this is assuming there's some sort of EMP. So make sure the Faraday bag fits the device pretty snugly.

Speaker 2:

You don't want to have a lot of extra room in that bag or a lot of air in that bag. That just provides an environment for the EMP. So you get the device. You make sure it's sealed correctly either it's zippered or it's Velcroed. Look at the particular bag and follow those instructions, because you want to make sure it has a tight seal. Make sure your device is fully charged when you put it in and every couple months pull it out, turn it on, test it, make sure it's got a good charge and then go ahead and put it back in the bag. And again, like I said before, the only limitation is there are subscription costs. It's certainly not as quick a communication device as talking with somebody over ham radio or GMRS. You literally have to wait for the message to get to your party, they read it and then they respond. So it may be several minutes or hours before they get that message. And again, subscription costs relatively inexpensive up to the ones with unlimited text messages are fairly expensive.

Speaker 2:

Now next thing I want to talk about is the mesh network, and I don't know a lot about that. I'm doing a little bit of research on the mesh network. So apps like Tenna, bridgefly. It creates a device-to-device network and these things are tiny, little bitty antennas. It creates a device-to-device network via low-energy Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, no towers and the hardware. There's Beartooth and other radio mesh hybrids out there. Again, I'm still doing a lot of a lot of research on this. It's becoming very popular. It's been around for a while but it's becoming very popular. And this is great for people that live in the city, because if you have a lot of buildings and a lot of terrain, that might be in the way. Gmrs and FRS might not be the way to go. Satcoms would work, but just be mindful if you're under an overhang or you're in an alleyway between two very tall buildings, that's going to affect your ability to make contact with a satellite. The phones with the apps pair to the devices, making it much easier to program and to communicate. So your little mesh device is out there just constantly looking for other mesh devices. So the more you have, the better connections you're going to make and the more people you're going to be able to make contact with Again, something I want to look into and maybe try it out Some of them can be expensive. I've seen some of the mesh devices 80 bucks, 90 bucks and I've seen some less expensive ones, but again, I don't know that much about them so I don't know. I'm sure it's pretty much you get what you pay for. I'll do some more research. In the meantime, if you want to go to YouTube and look up mesh devices, there's a lot of good information out there.

Speaker 2:

So, when it comes to building your particular comms kit, assess your needs. Are you in the suburbs, are you in the city? Are you out in the middle of nowhere? So then you're looking at ham or satellite and remember, everybody is going to start out with a NOAA radio, either battery operated, hand cranked or solar. That's the very basic that we should have in our bag or on a shelf that we can get to very easily Use the devices, train with the devices and test the devices Again. Don't leave it in a bag for six months and it loses its charge. Take it out, turn it on. Have somebody run down to the end of the block to see if they can hear you on the FRS or the GMRS. Have your buddy drive halfway across town, grab a repeater with the GMRS and make sure that you know how to operate it Again the last thing you wanna to do in a very chaotic situation is then try to learn on the fly how these communication devices work.

Speaker 2:

Common pitfalls that we need to avoid and this is a very simple one we rely so much on our cell phones. If you are without your cell phone, you can't check email, text messages, phone calls, what's going on in the internet, what's going on current event wise. If you don't have that, if an EMP or something happens and it turns your phone into a brick, you are isolated. You have no way of communicating with anybody else unless you have some of these other devices FRS, gmrs or a ham radio. That's why I think it's very important to have I would say redundant, but I'm not going to say everybody should have a NOAA radio, an FRS, a GMRS, a SAT device and a ham radio handheld. That's just not practical. But whatever you choose makes you are, make sure you're proficient in that.

Speaker 2:

And with a lot of these radios, especially the emergency communication radios or the one-way radios, the NOAA radios, certain cities and counties have their own little emergency broadcasting network set up. So if you're in a relatively well-populated city or a suburb next to this large city, they might have their own for lack of a better term emergency broadcasting system you might be able to pick up messages and information about the power outage, the trees that are down. The 911 communication center is offline. So if you call 911, it's just going to ring forever and nobody's going to be able to get to you. So you need to make other plans.

Speaker 2:

All right, folks, I know I went over a lot of information, but I wanted to take the time to go into these types of communication devices in a little more detail because I think it's very important. I've learned a lot. Like I said, I have my ham radio license, I have GMRS, I have FRS. As I do research, I learn more and more. There are software upgrades.

Speaker 2:

These radios are becoming, especially the GMRS. They're not very expensive to begin with, but they're becoming less expensive all the time with added features. Now, with added features comes a little bit of confusion. Oh, should I use this? What about this? A lot of the advanced features on these radios I don't even mess with. I have 20 or 30 local frequencies plugged in to my GMRS. I can listen to local law enforcement, police and fire dispatch, airport. A lot of them have the ability to get the air bands. You can't broadcast on the air band, obviously, but you can listen to air traffic control and emergency broadcast messages that are distributed through these different networks.

Speaker 2:

All right folks, thanks again for coming by. If you need to reach me practicalpreppodcast at gmailcom or on the Twitter, you can always search Common Sense Practical Prepper or the official handle prep underscore podcast. And again for my shameless commercial plug, I'm part of the affiliate program with Augustin Farms. I'll drop the affiliate link in the show notes. Please use the affiliate link. It takes you to their page. In the event you order something through the affiliate link, there is a chance that I will get a small commission. In addition, podcast prep using that affiliate link, podcast prep at checkout will get you an additional 10% off your order. All right folks, thanks again for stopping by and, as always, be careful out there. Take care of one another and until next time.

Speaker 1:

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