So which Portable Ham Radio Model Would You Recommend for TEOTWAWKI

Most of the time the FCC will demand that you "Cease and Desist" on the first offense. Get caught again and you're in deep kim-chi.

However, the situation outlined by Tempstar above was pretty egregious, and the FCC can tighten the thumbscrews on the first offense, as well they should have in that case.

Considering how easy it is to get a Technician license and follow a few simple rules, risking the consequences of breaking the law just isn't worth it. Best thing you can do if you want to operate HAM in a SHTF world is to get a license now and learn the protocols, and above all, get to know the people involved.

 

I keep thinking that it would be great to do an emergency simulation where someone breaks in shrieking and won't get off the channel. I'll bet half of the team never even thinks about the alternate channel we set up. Of course, I'm a noob, so what do I know? But in SHTF, we won't be running about trying to get these folks, we'll be trying to get them off the channel while assuring them they've been heard. I assume.

 

This clearly isn't a plus for everyone, but my radios all came with scriptures posted on the boxes. So, I assume they aren't the best radios because everyone prefers the other companies, but they work for my needs at present.

 

You order yours from this company? BaoFeng Radio - BaoFeng Tech
If so, this may be why? About - BaoFeng Tech
I think they are out of South Dakota.

I see another company / distributor, based out of Texas.

 

I have 5 or 6 BaoFeng UV5r handhelds. I bought the on the recommendation of a close friend who is 1) ex-Army Signal Corps 2) President of a Large Ham Club and 3) a man who has never steered me or anyone else I know wrong on radios. The BaoFeng I believe are a copy of an older Kenwood design and seems to get pretty good press. I have mine programmed for and use them primarily on UHF, they are of course capable of much more I have beaten a coupleof them pretty well mounted on packs and on/off dirt bikes. I have not yet had a failure.

Andy

 

Great quote!

 

I've bought several of the Baofeng UV5r radios as well. They haven't seen much wear but my kids all use them as scanners at thier houses. There's a channel named Zimmy that's for emergency use only.

I'm the only HAM in the family. I wish I could get them interested but when kids grow up they get too busy.

 

I missed my window for HAM classes. Now they're in the 30's and have cars and kids to manipulate themselves.

Unfortunately the grandkids are a little young. They haven't even started real firearms training yet.

 

Yes, they are great radios.

 

Baofengs are great for the money. I have a repeater built with two of them and a duplexer in a small case. The transmit one gets smoking hot but still keeps right on ticking. I have had failures of the volume pots and one that totally scrambled itself. Throw them in the trash and get another one.

 

I've just recently discovered OH8STN's channel, I want to add a great big vote to watch a LOT of his videos if you have questions about radio in general, and specifically off-grid radio. Here's a terrific one I would recommend to anybody who ever wondered "which radio should I buy"

This advice applies to anybody who asks. No matter where you want to end up in comms, you're going to want to LISTEN a lot before you ever TALK. A police or race scanner is probably already in your house, or you can get one easily and inexpensively. Newer ones are needed to listen to police etc. who have started using trunking and encryption, so the older simpler scanners don't do those users any good any more. But those scanners are PERFECT for listening to UHF and VHF ham radio repeaters.
An inexpensive shortwave radio will receive not only shortwave broadcast radio, but also ham HF bands. It takes a little nicer than basic shortwave receiver to have the feature which allows SSB. Again, these are found in many homes and can be purchased very inexpensively.
These are never going to be wasted purchases. You can always listen using these devices even if you do get your license. These are simple to set up and leave on all the time, you wouldn't want to do that with your transceiver. You can monitor for anything interesting, then turn on your transceiver if you want to talk for a while.
But bottom line is this practice listening will prepare you for when you do wish to transmit, you'll know the procedures.

well... some of this isn't misguided, but ham radio does not include the 11m band, that's a different service. Yes, radio is radio, is radio. 11m is a poor choice for the CB purpose, but learning how to make 11m work is indeed useful to the other HF bands. Yes, use the free resources to learn. Yes, getting licensed is quite easy now, since none of the license classes require any Morse code. All the questions and answers are published and available online, and are used to make the practice tests, I used those as well. I could understand the purpose of dropping code requirement for the lowest class, but for the others I think it was a mistake. Still, even though code isn't required, it is still popular and useful, and recommended to learn.
I'll split with you on the disdain for the licensees. If you don't like rules, then by all means, stick with CB.

 

11 meters was a ham band. I don't recall when the FCC created the class D services, which include the licensed FM GMRS frequencies as well as the unlicensed AM/SSB CB frequencies . Many Young Hams are learning code, CW gets through where phone doesn't. Ham and GMRS licenses, CB, with no license is free.

 

The YAESU FT-90 DUAL BAND looks like a good wee set and reasonably priced too.