I currently have 3 cases of communication equipment that make up the alternative communications plan. Most of the equipment is at least 10 years old, so there are probably newer alternatives out there,,,,
Case #1; FRS…….the lowest denominator.
I remember driving up to Joplin, Missouri a few days after the tornado hit back in 2011. A group of volunteers from work and the Benton County Fire Dept. had convoyed up and arrived at the place in Joplin where local disaster relief efforts were being coordinated. There were city, county, state, and federal organizations at the staging area as well as disaster relief NGO’s. Amongst the confusion that was occurring all around, someone had written in Sharpie (on a piece of poster board) “All volunteers use FRS channels 7 or 11 to communicate” and put it up on the wall outside the entrance to the main building….and that’s all it took.
A Primary and Secondary volunteer frequency on a radio network had been established, and while a little chaotic, people were able to talk to each other on it. Both FRS channels also had a Ham radio operators that were able to relay emergency traffic messages from the various groups (using FRS) to the local HAM radio Net Control stations (on the local repeaters). The main Ham Net Control station was literally 20 feet away from the County Emergency Operations Center, so the radio operators could pass along emergency traffic directly to where it needed to go. Volunteers were using the FRS networks for INTRATRIBE (within the group) communications and local Ham operators from the group were using the UHF/VHF Ham frequencies and repeaters for INTERTRIBE (between the group and the outside world). It was a classic hub and spoke architecture that worked o.k. Sure there were some challenged people on the radios, but with all the cell phone towers not in service or tied up with prioritized traffic(and no service available) it was better than nothing. The FRS radios provided the simple communications ability and base to build the other networks on.
FRS radios require no licensing and come in a variety of flavors. I have used the Garmin Rino 120’s for a few years now without any issues. I would recommend buying radios that can be powered by a AA battery source.
I also recommend keeping the manuals with the radios you buy, as well as a printed copy of FRS/GMRS channels and corresponding frequencies, in case you might want to program other radios..........
