We use boafeng and handheld CB to track spurious emissions…I found my wife’s lost cell phone with the boafeng. They are crappy radios because everything gets past the front end, but they are useful because everything gets past the front end.
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I went to tsc for the first time in a few years today too. However, I didn’t google anything for it so I doubt I will get ads.
Be thankful they are only tsc ads. 
I accidentally clicked on a posted link for grandma’s whitey tighties that someone posted as a joke, and I got all sorts of lingerie ads for a while. There are some ways to cut some of that out which I used to do, and still sometimes do, but occasionally, it helps me if I am looking for something and not sure exactly what it is called… It sometimes nails it with a similar product, which gives me the right product, or gives me a more refined keyword to continue searching with.
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I will post this here because well I found this doing a deep dive into a rabbit hole on GPS receivers, because I don’t want to spend 200+ for an rtk board, and I am trying to figure out if I can get away with the really cheap ones and a microcontroller. It really isn’t much if any different then the telemetry radios they use for the rc vehicles. I am kind of wondering if you can mod it to work with GMRS by simply changing the frequency.
https://www.rtl-sdr.com/socorad32-an-esp32-based-walkie-talkie-with-data-communication/
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Sean talk to a local surveyor. Ours was using some cheap boards from sparkfun. Had accuracy to within a half inch if he had enough satellites in view.
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He was probably using the ublox F9P modules which are L1/L2 with rtk built in, and those are 200 bucks, and they jacked up the price because of the chip shortage. Survey grade equipment typically runs in the thousands. The survey grade antennas are pretty pricey as well.
Since on a perfect day and perfect line of site, you can do it with L1. I was hoping I could pull it off with multi-constellation L1/L5 receivers which are 15 bucks, then add rtk to it.
However while I was looking at that, I found SDR which is software defined radio, which take the rawish antenna output and processes it all in software. But I can’t find anything on actual accuracy. Something like this though. Then I could possibly capture data from everything and throw it at the rtk software.
An introduction to sdr is this:
and what I am trying to figure out is whether this is worth doing:
And while an interesting rabbit hole, I am not sure it actually works accurately or is less expensive then just buying the modules. The guy in the video is inside, so he doesn’t have line of site for his gps, and is using a cheap antenna.
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Came across this company that sells satellite phones. All seems pretty pricey and it would seem that their required service would still require some existing infrastructure so still iffy in a global breakdown but admittedly I don’t know how this stuff works. I think in real SHTF that being isolated without the ability to know what’s going on outside your immediate area would be one of the hardest things to deal with especially now that we are all used to being universally connected.
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GMRS with Ham frequencies I think will be suficient. Maybe add a CB as well. But dont get just one radio. They all can and will break.
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It depends on your SHTF scenario.
I would suggest getting a HAM license. They cover all sorts of radio and transmisssion technology as well as antenna’s and stuff. There is a LOT of information, and it would be a very valuable asset in any SHTF scenario.
A cheap radio might be software defined radio (SDR). then you can get a whole huge range of frequencies.
What the SHTF scenario would be is always the big question. I plan for the worst and hope for the best. There are various plausible scerarios that would take the grid completely off-line. For communications that would be worst case. Earlier we discussed a network of daisy chained users within the GMRS range that could have quite a bit of eventual reach as more users connected. That still seem like the best plan. Being of the paranoid persuasion I have some aversion to have any kind of governmentally issued license. Drivers license excluded.
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Get a decent scanner if anything that is really what you need. Then get a cheap Ham GMRS for two way com. Just dont use the PTT button unless we are post SHTF.
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Two tin cans and some string. EMP proof, too!
DOW folks can use smoke signals. Who do you want to talk to, anyway?
SHTF and who can you trust? Sorry, I’m overly unoptimistic of any good outcomes.
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My like who would you want to listen to. Might be better served and be like my grandpa who turned his hearing aids off when grandma started jabbering.
That is why the SDR made sense, then you can scan all the channels. But I think most like police and fire comm are all encrypted now… so that is another hoop to jump through.
The PTT issue is kind of why I was wondering what scenario. You figure if it is like a hunger games scenario, then GMRS is going to be heavily monitored.
They have courses you can take without getting the license. I think there are 3 levels of certification. I am guessing most of the courses are online. But they cover most everything you need to know.
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Yeah thats why I went GMRS and got my license. Ham is cool, but it wont be what most are going to use. GMRS is the new CB and what preppers are going for. So join em you can punch a long ways with a GMRS. Im getting traffic from Chicago, Lansing, Grand Rapids etc. Chicago is 1 1/2 hours away from me.
Yes all are encrypted but in a SHTF they will switch out to comunicate between agencies along with Military coms. I have the Wouxem SHTF radia and it can scan everything.
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GMRS doesn’t require a test like HAM, just a fee for the license right?
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Yup and its good for the entire house hold for ten years
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Sorry about my previous post, I was in a mood…I once knew something about 2 way radio, but no more.
Yes, if / when SHTF, Comms are important. Depending on the nature of the S, and how big the F is, we may be partying like it is 1799. My advice: bring back Morse code. We all should be learning that, and brushing up if we once learned it. That was a big advance in communications- An International standard for information interchange. If we have to build radios from scratch, and we might, a carrier wave on / off is the start point. If there is a big solar flare (Imminent and overdue) or an EMP used against civilians, we wont know what survives for sure until it happens. All of your current electronics will be paperweights.
Studying for a ham license is good. you will learn much, and there is much more freedom on bands, frequencies, transmitter power, modulation, etc. If you are really a prepper, do that. get your ham license. GMRS great until all the silicon IC chips get fried. They are more delicate than you think. Think Humans, bicycles, horses, mini-bikes, antique vehicles, pen and paper, messengers, couriers, pony express stuff. Could get real, real soon. Yee Haa! 
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You guys need to unscrew your tin foil hats. Now that I’ve pissed you off, do you really want to learn how to communicate without a license using encrypted communication, that will work during a s*** hits the fan scenario?
The quickest out of the box answer is a unlocked boafeng UV5r, using the MURS frequencies. $25
You are not going to be building radios. You are not going to learn morse code. Persisting in these fantasies is really fruitless. If you want to know what will happen you need to start watching what’s going on in the Ukraine. That is a s*** hit the fan scenario and the first thing they did was outlaw the use of ham radio. Everybody is communicating with a Boafeng. Out of the box Boafengs are not encrypted. So what is to be done?
First of all, if there’s some sort of Carrington event and your Boafeng does not survive, you won’t either. If you put your Boafeng in an ammo can and it survives the ionizing radiation, you won’t. So I think you should throw that scenario right out the window. Otherwise yes, put sensitive electronics in a metal box so they’ll be protected from some sort of EMP. But protect your body as well.
The other important thing to understand, is the only radio frequencies that can overcome a solar flare are in the microwave range. So devices like your Wi-Fi router or cell phone actually can work during a solar flare whereas ham radio bands are impossible to operate. Look at the space weather website right now and you’ll see that the ham bands are dead because we had a solar flare.
The encryption component is important, and so is baud rate. Go to GitHub and search for Mark Qvist and Reticulum. Reticulum is a communication stack that has a variable baud rate, which depends on what frequency and bandwidth you are using. Reticulum is encrypted. It uses IPv6 addresses, and without the use of a Quantum processor is impossible to crack right now. Reticulum is peer-to-peer, and does not use a central DNS server to distribute the data. So it operates much like a point to point radio. In fact it can be used as a point-to-point radio with the MURS Channel or FM CB.
You will need burst transmissions, with an extremely high baud rate. These new anti radiation seeking drones are able to send missiles right down to the source of radio transmissions. So you need to use esp32s, to relay your transmission to the transmitter so that the anti radiation missile doesn’t actually seek you out. Reticulum is particularly good for this because it works across a wide variety of transmission methods and radios.
I would watch some documentaries about what’s going on in Ukraine and ask some questions about how they are operating in that environment, and then start making decisions about s*** hit the fan scenarios. Because things have changed. You’re not going to be sending 20 words per minute with Morse code and surviving long enough to hear the answer. It’s going to require a whole different style of tin foil hat.
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Hmmm. I read. I listen.
I watch people. Look and learn.
There are important human needs just as important as air, water, food and shelter.
Meaningful work. Love. To be loved. To love someone else. And these mean being seen and heard.
Why the cave paintings. The rocks etched hieroglyphics. The written letters. a Telegram. A voice phone call.
BruceJ brought up keeping up with the times. Can’t go back. You must live within your own time frame. And only bother with truly survivable evaluations.
Small self-launching Drones are the new reality. Any one of my neighbors can, and do play these photo’ing games. And Government agencies certainly do now from the smallest County agency thru the States and the up thru the Federal.
Another Modern that must be acknowledged and accepted . . . the double strike. The first event to damage, yes. Then draw out responders, yes. Then the more effective damaging second event triggered to eat up response and fall-back resources.
So whatever you would choose to do have THREE independent of each other. You just might have that third still useable after the first two get wiped by intentional take-downs and confiscations. One of three usable after your busy normal life, ignore and neglect.
Smart squirrels know to eat some now. Store-away twice what they could ever need; to account for lost, forgotten and stolen. Much of the stolen actually survival food for others, needful.
Ha! My always have three are the one for me. One for you. One for that other fellow or gal who will prove worthy.
Be smart squirrels.
Steve Unruh
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Ha! Ha! To lighten up things a bit you can ID a fellows concerns-fears by his phrases.
OK a test game.
Run-out.
Run-up.
What do I fear and account for?
Tsunamis. Run-up. Snow and rock avalanches. Run-outs and Ups. Dam bursts and collapses. Run-outs and Ups. Volcanoes mud flows. Long, L-o-n-g, Run-outs
Hey. Read the roadside warning signs here regionally. These are all real have-had’s, will-happen-again’s.
Come visit and I’ll show your one mile from me the mid-stream aftereffects of a 100 mile melt-down mud flow run out.
Just live stepped up high enough away. And aside. Missed me!
Better’n dodging or hunkering down for tornadoes. Every other year flooding. Creeping crawling sneaky real biting snakes.
Steve Unruh
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I was ALL excited. It was a huge build up! I was waiting in anticipation for your thought provoking wisdom to shine though. I thought for SURE you were going to say ESP. 
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