A discussion on emergency communications.
The power just went out. Your computer doesn’t work. Landline phones are out (who still has those anyways?) Cellular phone towers will last anywhere from hours to days before their backups run out. Do you have a plan to get information, or a way to contact somebody to ask for help? There are many ways to do this, and they come at all skill levels from beginner to advanced. This article is going to cover the basics that most people can do on their own without extensive training or licensing.
Receiving Information
The most reliable source of information in an emergency is NOAA. This is the US Government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service, and have radio towers across the country broadcasting on multiple frequencies labelled WX1 through WX7. Channels WX8 through WX12 have been retired. In New England, they use WX1 through WX3. Also to note, the Channel names are slowing becoming less common, and replaced by just the frequency.
You can purchase an emergency radio like this that receives these frequencies for under $50, and many have an integrated battery power bank to recharge your cell phone. Many will even have a small solar panel and a hand crank to recharge them after you lose power.
To get hyper-local information, I use an app on my Android phone called “Scanner Radio Pro: Police/Fire”. While app costs a few bucks, there is also a free version called “Scanner Radio – Police Scanner”, that is ad-driven. This app provides a very easy user interface and lets me listen to most Fire and EMS radio calls across the Southern New England. They have emergency radio stations across the country that you can tune into, and some police frequencies, but none of those are local. Once installed, there is a search tool where it will pull up any stations near you, using your GPS location. Or you can type the name of a town into the search tool and it will pull up a shorter list of locations.
I started out with the free version and liked what I could hear, but the ads got quite annoying pretty fast. The Pro version cost me a one-time payment of $3, which I felt was very reasonable to get rid of the ads. Both apps are published by GordenEdwards.net LLC – see images with links to Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store below.
Android Free: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=om.scannerradio
Android Pro: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.scannerradio_pro
iPhone Free: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/police-scanner-radio-fire/id498405045
(Android links will only open in Play Store, not in a web browser)
There are a ton of other apps out there that are similar, and you can play around with all of them. I am mentioning this one because I have personally found it to be the best as far as ease of use and the number of channels available to choose from. You can also leave the scanner on after you close the app, so it runs in the background (at least on the Android version). As I do not have an Apple device, I can’t make any promises there.
As for the police radio channels, we don’t get them. This is because they operate using encrypted frequencies that cannot be picked up and listened to over the airwaves, so they cannot be transmitted into the livestream. While listening to police scanners was big a couple decades ago, it got to a point where some new stations were getting to crime scenes before the police, and the “bad guys” could listen in to what the police were doing and use that to avoid or minimize contact. So now, the frequencies and encryption codes are kept highly classified – often not even the departments know these details.
Reaching Out
This is where it gets a little trickier. There are plenty of different types of radios that can be used to send voice signals to ask for help. But which ones have people listening, and which channels do you need to use? There are a few radios and channels that can be used by anybody, but a lot more that require the user to be licensed by the FCC. Note that a license is not required to transmit on these frequencies in a life or death situation, but reaching out for requests for other types of assistance can get you into trouble. I’ll provide information on the legal to the public device types and channels, and a little information on the licensing bit. Anything from there on is a story for another day.
The biggest problem with radios is the signal strength. A good handheld radio will get you maybe a couple miles of distance, if you’re lucky. A mobile or base station radio, attached to a larger antenna mounted on the roof of a car, a home, or a radio tower will get you farther. But you may need a license to broadcast at that power level. That makes these good for talking to neighbors, or maybe listening to your local first responders, but not really for calling for help without pre-planning.
Two-way radios, or “walkie-talkies”, operate on set frequencies, with most devices having multiple selectable channels in a limited set of bands. If you are trying to set up neighborhood communications, find a model that has the strength to travel the distance you need to get the community together, and have everybody buy that type of radio. Because of the channel limitations, you may not be able to call your fire department over the radio, but you can call a neighbor that might be able to help you.
Family Radio Service
The safest – legally speaking – radio to use for local communications would be Family Radio Service, or FRS handheld radios. These are limited to around a mile, with some radios having a little more power than others. FRS radios can legally only be used with up to 0.5 watts of output, and any FCC-approved commercial radio will not allow you to broadcast with any more power. The Family Radio Service has 14 channels assigned to it that can be used, and some radios will be able to use all of them, while others may be limited to the seven channels. This is because channels 1 to 7 are shared with GMRS, but channels 8-14 are only allowed on FRS. The best part about FRS radios is that there is no licensing required using it. Anybody can purchase an FRS radio and start using it with friends, family, or even their business to communicate on large job sites or within buildings. Since this is open, you may find others in your area that are using the same radio channels. If you prefer not to listen to them, or have them listen to you, you can simply change channels.
Multi-Use Radio Service
If the range of an FRS radio isn’t quite enough, you can look into a MURS radio. These radios are limited to five channels, but with a 2 watt power output they have a range of up to ten miles with a proper antenna and assuming no obstructions. Even with the basic antenna, you can reach a few miles further than an FRS radio. While these are less common, due to the low number of channels available on MURS, if you run across anybody else using these channels near you, it is up to you and the other party to find an amicable arrangement. Like with FRS, no license is needed for a MURS radio.
General Mobile Radio Service
If you are looking to get the maximum distance on your radios, then you should consider a GMRS, or General Mobile Radio Service device. Under ideal conditions – line of sight – a handheld 5 watt radio can reach up to 35 miles. If you know how to set up a repeater and move up to 50 watts, you can reach a hundred miles.
GMRS radios share the first seven channels as the FRS radios, but also have eight additional channels for GMRS only usage, plus another eight on top of those that are used for repeaters to extend the radio signals even further. While setting up a repeater is complicated and requires multiple radios and large antennas, the GMRS radio frequencies are allowed, by default, to use a larger power output than the FRS radios, giving them a larger range out of the box.
There are also GMRS/FRS hybrid radios out there that can use the seven FRS-only channels, the 15 GMRS-only channels, and the seven FRS and GMRS shared channels. However, you will need to be careful as the shared channels will use the higher 5-watt output power. As mentioned, GMRS requires a license, so if you are using these channels without a valid license, you will be in violation of FCC regulations and could be located and fined.
The license, however, can simply be purchased from the FCC online licensing portal. You will need to request an FCC Registration Number (FRN), which will be your login ID. Once you have this, you can log in and purchase your GMRS license. This allows you to use all 23 GMRS radio channels at the full output power. Everybody with a GMRS or hybrid radio using these channels will need to have their own license. As of now, the license costs $35, is valid for 10 years, and covers immediate family members of the licensee. The license does not allow this to be used for commercial purposes, and does not allow the licensee to charge for their services in the use of this license.
CB Radio
CB, or Citizens Band radios have mostly gone the way of the dinosaur. These were very common in the 70s and 80s (think of Smokey and the Bandit), but their use has been waning over the last couple of decades. CBs have 40 pre-set channels that every radio can use out of the box without programming, and can communicate with other CBs of any brand, make, or age, making them simple to set up and use. Channel 9 is designated for emergency purposes, so if this is your goal, listen or talk on channel 9, if anybody can hear you. Many truckers still use channels 10 and 19, if you are near enough to the major roadways to pick up that chatter. In order to get any decent distance, you will need tohave a long antenna, usually five to nine feet in length, mounted outside your home or on your car if you are mobile. No license is required to operate on the preset channels, limited to 4 watts. Overall, I do not recommend a CB for emergency usage but wanted to mention them at a minimum, and to provide the channel list for anybody that wants to give this a try.
Amateur Radio
Amateur Radio, sometimes also known as HAM radios, will provide the most flexibility and power options. Some people have used amateur radios to talk to people half a planet away. HAM radios can operate across many frequencies and allow the user to enter the frequency on which they wish to listen or transmit. While the frequency range allowed will depend on the device, the majority of radios have a range of overlapping frequencies that will allow you to use all of the channels listed above and many more. Your neighbors can all have different radio models and still use the same frequency, although having one brand makes it easier for everybody to work together to program their radios, or one of the more technical neighbors can program everybody’s radios without having to learn all different models.
Some radios also have a higher output and do not automatically limit the FRS frequencies to 0.5 watt or MURS to 2 watts, so you need to be aware that when using these frequencies, you need to manually lower the power on the radio through the on-screen menu to stay within the law. Another benefit of using HAM radios is that you can pick out any other frequency within the operational range of the device you are using, outside of these preset ranges, and use those. While there is no actual security in doing so, there is a lower chance that somebody else is sharing your frequency. The reason that all of the tables above include the frequency for each channel is so that I didn’t have to repeat them again in this section. For instance, if you program your HAM radio to use 462.550 MHz, you could be talking with somebody using channel 15 on their GMRS radio. For a specific radio, I use a BaoFeng BF-F8HP 8-watt handheld radio. These can be programmed using a USB cable linked to a computer using the free Chirp application. Using this, you can program in your emergency frequencies and give them names, and program any additional channels that you can use to talk to your neighbors, including those open MURS channels where no licenses are required.
The largest limiting factor with amateur radio is the legal aspects. In order to communicate across these expanded frequencies and power outputs, you will need to get an FCC license. This requires learning about radio waves, channel frequencies, bandwidths, antennas, and the laws surrounding them. There are three levels of licensing, all of which require passing a test proctored by a local Ham radio club or organization with members who are licensed at higher levels and authorized by the National Association for Amateur Radio, or ARRL. Don’t ask me how an organization with initials N.A.A.R. got the acronym ARRL, I don’t know but it’s probably some older historical name for the group.
The licensing levels are Technician, General, and Amateur Extra. With each level, you get more rights and more transmit power allowances. For most people, the Technician license is enough for their needs. It is also the only test that you can pass by simply memorizing answers through a study guide. While there are several versions of the test, there is a large bank of questions online available to study. So to pass the 35-question test, you may need to study 150 questions and answers. There are many phone apps that will help you prepare, just search for “Ham test prep”. The next two levels require a greater understanding of power and waveforms and in some cases circuit board layout, and you need to learn the math to calculate these things. The licenses themselves are similar to the MURS licenses, at $35 and valid for ten years, but they only cover the licensee and not their family. Also, while using these frequencies, you need to provide your call sign at the start of your communication and at least once every 5 minutes during your broadcast. This isn’t as bad as it seems, as long as you can remember your 6-character call sign, which is made up of seemingly random letters and numbers.
Emergency Frequencies
There are specific frequencies that are used and monitored during emergency situations more than others. You will need a radio that can access these frequencies, but there are a wide range across multiple bands, so most radios can hit at least one of these. Calling out on most of these is illegal if you either don’t have a license, or is not a life or death situation, so please do not just go play around on them. That said, you can certainly pick up traffic and listen in to hear what’s going on.
Communications Clarity
The US military developed the modern Phonetic Alphabet so that radio operators can understand each other. Oftentimes, radios will be distorted or picking up interference and causing the connection to be less than ideal. In these situations, you can spell out the words you want to get across. Since letters like B, C, D, and E, or M and N can sound very similar if part of the connection is not clear, we use words that sound unique enough for every letter. The first letter of each word is the letter we are trying to convey. While the universal phonetic alphabet is designed to use these specific 36 words, if you cannot remember them, using other words that also start with the proper letter, like “Apple” or “Boy” instead of “Alpha” and “Bravo” will be understood by most radio operators. If you are using your radio in a fixed position, like a home base station setup, I recommend that you print out this table and post it near your receiver as a reference. In fact, you could print out the emergency frequency chart as well, in case the Internet is down when you need help and this article isn’t available to you.
Another form of communication used over radio to provide clear information is Morse Code. This was developed for the telegraph system, before voices could be transmitted, and was maintained in use because it can be used universally. Morse is a series of signals transmitted in a specific order and duration that is translated into letters and numbers. When using Morse, these signals are calls “dits” and “dahs”, and each one has a set duration, with a set duration of silence in between. Each “dit” is one unit, a “dah” is three units. The space between each dit or dah within a single letter or number is one unit, the space between letters in a word is three units, and the space between words is seven units. A unit is an unspecified but uniform period of time that should remain the same for the full communication. A unit could be a quarter of a second, half a second, a full second, or longer, depending on how slow you are talking.
For the purposes of this article, we are talking about radio communication, so the dits and dahs will be transmitted as beeps over the radio. However, this could be used with flashes of light, vibration patters for tactile signaling, or even pounding your fist on a wall if you are trapped in a building and need to make contact with a rescue team. You may have seen this in TV and movies, however those signals are usually abbreviated and not actually using the Morse alphabet, which is long and slow, and not a simple series of 15-20 beeps for an entire sentence, as it is usually portrayed. I would recommend if you are using this to have a pencil and paper handy to write down each letter or number as you hear it, and then combine it into words and sentences afterwards. To transmit, write your message out first and translate it into Morse before sending, so you can keep up the rhythm.
Assuming we use one second units, then the letter “S” (S = dit, dit, dit) would sound like this and take five seconds to send from start to finish:
- One second beep
- One second pause
- One second beep
- One second pause
- One second beep
If you are sending an “SOS” signal (S = dit, dit, dit; O = dah, dah, dah; S = dit, dit, dit) on a one second unit, it would sound like this, and take 27 seconds to broadcast:
- One second beep
- One second pause
- One second beep
- One second pause
- One second beep
- Three second pause
- Three second beep
- One second pause
- Three second beep
- One second pause
- Three second beep
- Three second pause
- One second beep
- One second pause
- One second beep
- One second pause
- One second beep
Licensing
Licensing all happens through the FCC. For an Amateur radio license, you will want to find an ARRL radio club that hosts licensing tests after you have studied and feel you are ready. If you pass the test, you will get your license information emailed to you within a few days – the FCC says 2 business days after processing. Some clubs host classes or study sessions where you can work with licensed operators to learn what you need to know to get your Tech license.
If you are looking for your GMRS license, you can purchase this online under the FCC’s Universal Licensing System. You will need to create an account, request an FCC Registration Number (FRN), and then purchase your license. This also states that you will receive the license within two business days.
If you found this article useful or even just interesting, please share it with your friends, family, coworkers, or anybody that you think would appreciate this information.