The Survivalist and Ham Radio
by Joseph Parish

This is the first part of a series I am working on to introduce the survivalist to various aspects of ham radio. This part starts of the series with FRS and GMRS radio services.

In the event of a national emergency of any sort you can safely make use of the FRS for several weeks until such time as the available food and supplies begin to run out at which time RF hunters will begin searching for individuals to victimize. These searches will be conducted mostly on the FRS/CB frequencies since they are limited in numbers and often used.

FRS units are not just your common set of walkie-talkies. We all can remember as children how our walkie-talkies did not work any better than tying a couple of tin cans together with a piece of string. Like many of the wireless electronic items our 2-way radio systems have grown up and transformed into high-tech communications devices which far out perform its ancestors.

The FRS radios of today are quality, compact transceivers which transmit and receive over greater distances while providing superior clarity. They operate on UHF radio frequencies which are not as prone to the usual static and interference which has traditionally plagued the CB frequency bands. This means that you may be fully justified in placing an FRS 2-way radio in your BOB or in your BOV.

These FRS 2-way radios represent a great way of keeping in constant touch with members of your group. Since they have the abilities to talk and hear other similar radios within range of course they are a lot like having personal short-range cell phone but free.

These little radios have a vast array of uses from maintaining communications with members of your party when they roam from the base camp, when members are exploring areas ahead of the unit for safety and advanced information, when hunting for food or for general communications between several BOV's that are traveling together.

There are several advantages associated with the FRS radios over the more common CB radios or even cell phones. These advantages include no airtime charges, no per call charge, freedom from static and interference, they are compact and lightweight and easy to operate.

FRS is commonly known as Family Radio Service and they are handheld, compact, wireless radios which provide good clarity over a short range. The FRS radios have 14 dedicated channels that they operate on. Their legal maximum power is 0.5 milliwatts or 1/2 watt.

Unlike citizens band radios there is no license required for use of FRS radios and you will encounter no fees for its usage.

Closely associated are the General Mobile Radio Service radios (GMRS) which have 8 channels of operation. Their power rating is 1 to 5 watts with a maximum power of 50 watts. These radios are similar to the FRS radios except that the GMRS radio requires you to purchase an operator's license, they usually have a greater range, and they may be outfitted with optional car antennas to extend their range. You can easily communicate with any additional users of either the FRS or the GMRS radios if the operators are within range regardless of the make or model of the unit.

Often you will hear the term "privacy codes" mentioned when dealing with FRS radios. This is a bit of a misleading term since anyone who may be tuned to that channel may hear the conversation. Privacy codes tend to expand the actual number of channels which you can use on your FRS by adding 38 CTCSS codes. Therefore, in the case of your FRS radio instead of having a mere 14 channels to choose from by using these sub-channels you can effectively have 532 available channels. It certainly makes it much easier to find free channels of communications.

There are many features often found on the FRS or the GMRS radios such as a built in GPS system, weather band, Backlight, Adjustable squelch, a VOX system hands-free operation, Auto scan and more.

As you can ready see these personal communications devices can provide a great service to survivalists and should be seriously considered.

Copyright @2008 Joseph Parish