Communications needs can ultimately be broken down into three major uses. Those being local, regional, and worldwide. Let’s take a look at radio comms for each of these uses.
Local:
Local comms are just that; local. In a rural environment, that could mean keeping in touch with family in various locations on your farm, ranch, or retreat. If you’re more urban or suburban, you might want to keep in touch with trusted neighbors. VHF and UHF bands are perfectly suited to this. Low wattage radios in the 4-5 watt range will do nicely for these distances.
Inexpensive handhelds such as the Baofeng or similarly priced units are popular among preppers, and while they work well for these situations, they have drawbacks. Dual banders are easily discovered. Many scanners these days will automatically tune to a frequency that it detects, making your communications very easy to intercept. This can easily be thwarted, somewhat, by choosing radios that employ lesser used bands such as the 1.25meter or 33cm bands. Mobile radios can also be had for use on work trucks, tractors, or off road vehicles.
Regional:
To get past the local area, perhaps to stay in touch with other preppers that are in neighboring towns, we must look to HF radios with an NVIS antenna. NVIS (Near Vertical Incidence Skywave) antennas push the radio signal nearly straight up to the atmosphere where it gets bent back towards the earth. This propagation pattern should be expected to give a range up to several hundred kilometers. One advantage is the inherent difficulty to trace the signal as it comes from nearly straight up in the sky.
While pretty much any HF amateur radio can be set up with an NVIS antenna, there are a few things that one should consider before choosing a transceiver. For instance, portable radios offer advantages such as running on battery power. Needing to run a generator, or using precious battery power from a solar/wind system isn’t sustainable for long periods. Ideally, an HF set should run on a small scale power system that can be charged with solar or manual (people powered) generators.
NVIS generally works best on the 40 and 80 meter bands. Power output is less important than most think, and 5 to 10 watts PEP should do you just fine for this. A properly cut and installed antenna is more important than output power.
An HF radio should be capable of multiple modes of transmission including CW (morse code), SSB(USB and LSB), and digital. While CW and SSB are great for transmitting messages, some digital modes allow for the transfer of files such as photos and text files. These digital signals are difficult to intercept as by the time someone hears it, figures out what mode is being used, then sets up software, the message has been transmitted and any information lost. Digital modes do however, require additional equipment such as a laptop or notebook computer, tablet or smart phone.
HF radios that fit these needs don’t need to be expensive. Sure, you can go out and spend $1000 or more on the latest and greatest radio from one of the big three manufacturers, but less expensive options exist. Take for example the USDX QRP set.
Worldwide:
Worldwide communications is most useful for information gathering in situations that affect the global community such as a world war. Hearing news and information from other countries can help in decision making. For this reason, your regional radio set would also work as most of what you are doing is listening. Of course, a different antenna setup is needed and a simple wire dipole mounted as high up as possible is a popular option. Using a dipole antenna will require a tuner for use on different bands. Random wire antennas can also work.
If listening only is the intended use, a quality shortwave radio would be useful. The Kaito KA500 pictured above also receives AM which travels very well at night, FM for local broadcasts, and NOAA weather radio signals.
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