The Prepper’s Signal Kit: Line of Sight Equipment Suggestions Based on Requests

I get a lot of questions regarding equipment- its a common theme, as a lot of the preppersphere focuses on what to buy. As anyone who’s taken the RTO Course knows, the actual equipment itself doesn’t matter that much with some solid foundational training. One VHF analog radio, functionality-wise, does the same thing as any other VHF analog radio. Students are usually surprised by the neat things you can do with a few bucks spent in wire and electric fence insulators along with guiding hand. We wring the absolute most out of whatever you have. But that aside, I do have some suggestions for the prepper just starting out and the more seasoned survivalist who’s graduated to the jack of all trades phase. Since many folks are asking about current production gear, let’s talk about it- specifically, what gets the job done for the money, and what’s really good for a little higher end.

With that said I’ll state up front that buying a bunch of stuff and putting it in a bag or box and then never using it does you no good. You have to use your gear, whatever it is. Everything I own is used hard and heavy- not abused, mind you, responsible people care for their equipment– but used. I know the ins and outs of what I own, and you can be darn sure that if I suggest it, I not only use it, but I can show you the results. So for the folks that buy a case of Baofengs on Alibaba and then never take them out of the box, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Whether you’re buying a $20 Baofeng, a $200 Yaesu, or something somewhere in between, use your stuff and if it fails, you’ll know its limits. The next thing I’ll say is I definitely don’t require anyone to ‘be a ham’ or have any prior knowledge before coming to class. But having people to talk to is the most important part of the learning process, and like land navigation, marksmanship, and basically anything else, its very much a perishable skill. There is a learning curve to communications, especially emergency and field expedient uses, so having stuff just sitting around ain’t doing much for anyone. The unlicensed options out there, with the exception of CB, just doesn’t have much traffic and are mostly limited in what can be done. Even GMRS repeaters in most cases I know of are quiet- which may or may not be an asset to you. But having people to talk to does two things for us; it gives us a real answer to whether or not our gear works and it also allows us to branch out of our little bubble. So if you’re the guy running around screeching “I don’t need a license to learn!” you’re really doing yourself a disservice. I could care less what you do, I’m only here to help you make the most of your options; you either do it or don’t but don’t be shocked when heaven forbid you have to count on your skills that you haven’t worked on. It’s not like all these lessons are being repeated over and over in real warzones. Conversely, being in the licensed camp doesn’t mean we can’t or don’t use the license free options- I do all the time- and the flexibility of all the options gives us a broad range to use in our SOI and PACE plans in training.

And that brings us to what we can cross off the list up front. Preppers and Survivalists have to make use of gear in a general purpose sense; the more options available, the more flexibility, which in turn means more resiliency. Anything that doesn’t allow us to modify or build an external antenna should be crossed off the list. This is primarily aimed at all those bubble pack FRS handhelds from Walmart that make bogus claims about 35 mile range. You’ll actually get about a mile out of them on a good day. I really don’t like them for the same reasons I don’t like Dakota Alert MURS handhelds or anything that’s set to specific channels- there’s no modification by the end-user that can’t be solved much easier by just buying something else, so you’re stuck with what you’re stuck with. That means there’s no flexibility. And for those of you claiming that they’re so easy to use, that might be, but they’re also ridiculously easy to intercept and screw around on. You’re only left with a handful of channels to work with- that a guy with a scanner listening with one hand and radio to jam on the other can exploit. It’s not all that hard to do- I did it with a really basic (and old) scanner. Most newer close call scanners and even frequency counters also display the privacy tone, so that’s a false sense of security. The only (somewhat) exception is CB, but CB shouldn’t be your only communications means anyway because its incredibly limited. Around here it’s basically useless, unless you happen to speak a Guatemalan or Norteno dialect of Spanish. Of course if you do se habla espanol, you can score a killer deal on some laying hens, so there’s that.

Local, Local, Local: Handhelds and Mobiles