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? Best Comms. for 30 miles on limited power ?

DX performance means NOTHING when it comes to a SHTF situation where you need local comms. I have worked intercontinental DX using antennas that would not get me much more than 15 miles. I have had excellent antennas on 11m (Wilson Shooting Star at 45 feet with a horizon 20 miles away) and I could not work stations 10 miles away when the DX was rolling in. DX would roll in at S-9++.
Point is I can talk local/regional on 160m,80m, or world wide on 20m, and 40m. I mean we do it every day. How many nets do we have on those bands? Lots and lots of Nets. No big deal. It's our daily routines. There are what?, 700,000 amateur radio operators in the U.S. There will be plenty of folks on the air during the SHTF scenario. I stand by my choice of Comms.
 
Point is I can talk local/regional on 160m,80m, or world wide on 20m, and 40m. I mean we do it every day. How many nets do we have on those bands? Lots and lots of Nets. No big deal. It's our daily routines. There are what?, 700,000 amateur radio operators in the U.S. There will be plenty of folks on the air during the SHTF scenario. I stand by my choice of Comms.


I agree with you 100%. My point was in relation to using 11m for SHTF comms. Myself I would never rely on 11m simply for the issue of low power and frequency of operation which is prone to very short range local comms during the highs of a solar cycle. I would probably maintain an 11m radio simply because so many others would have one however my comms would be on the ham bands where reliability is pretty much guaranteed. Between my FT-857D and my Kenwood TM-V71A I am sure I can contact someone any time I want too. LOL
 
Like said previously if Preppers ever have to go into that mode & The SHTF the least thing they will be concerned with is enforcing FCC rules .;) Besides give him a while " Capt K " will have his own Am or FM broadcast station setup & tune to his channel up north ! You won't be able to talk back , but he'll give you the info ! He'll just go back to his roots !:whistle:;)
 
Like said previously if Preppers ever have to go into that mode & The SHTF the least thing they will be concerned with is enforcing FCC rules .;) Besides give him a while " Capt K " will have his own Am or FM broadcast station setup & tune to his channel up north ! You won't be able to talk back , but he'll give you the info ! He'll just go back to his roots !:whistle:;)


What do you mean "give him a while"? LOL I actually have the means to put a 20 watt FM TX on the air now on any frequency in the band. Not that I would nor have I ever done such a thing in the past. Not even for "testing". :whistle::whistle::whistle::whistle:
 
Yay, yay, yay. Start building. :LOL:

There was a junior high kid in Athens, Ohio. He had a little setup that covered the whole town. OU students liked it. When it got press coverage from the local newspaper, he got spooked and shut it down. His uncle was our Communications Director for the County. He got spooked as well, since he provided technical advice. I could QRM the ham bands for years, but likely get busted within days for an illegal FM station.
 
yes ; not the towers, cb will be up and working as well! On 4 watts, for local 30 mile comms. Which would work better. Keep in mind 4 watts, about 36 feet to the feed, point to point. What would be the go to, cb, vhf/uhf , fm, what would be the best performer?
What makes you think repeaters wouldn't be operational?
 
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Very few repeater could sustain continuous operation without the grid.
It's not that difficult. Nor does it necessarily have to be continuous. A few hours per day would be very useful.

But I think you would be surprised by how many repeaters would suddenly sprout solar panels, if they don't already have them. Quite a few are already 100 percent solar.
 
I have no interest in repeaters, has to be point to point, if repeaters will be up, cell phone will be up. I would want a system that does not rely on third party infrastructure. 3rd party infrastructure would be open to damage, theft government control, etc. I also have an interest in manpack radio, I think I will stick with cb with ssb. I will of course have other equipment to go out of band if required. I do listen on many other bands. No I do not Tx. But I am prepared. I just find 27 mhz, easy, simple, light weight , low power, and quite effective. My man pack antenna gets out 20 miles on ssb, sets up from pack to tx in about 5 mins. From a good hill this distance could be greater when required.
 
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I have no interest in repeaters, has to be point to point, if repeaters will be up, cell phone will be up. I would want a system that does not rely on third party infrastructure. 3rd party infrastructure would be open to damage, theft government control, etc..

That is absolutely incorrect.

Here's how a repeater works. Let's say you have a base radio and a mobile radio. Your brother (or friend, parents or whatever) decides to get in on the action, so he puts up a base and a mobile. All is good. But then you discover that you can reach his base better when you are out and about, than your own base. Maybe his place is on a hill, or he has a two story house while yours is only one story. Or maybe he is just a few miles farther in a direction you normally go. Whatever.
Anyway, it would be nice if you could reach your own base as easily as you can reach his base.

Well, you can. If your group/family has control of a good radio location (which does not have to be a commercial tower), you can set up your own repeater. All you have to do is put a second radio there and connect the two such that one radio receives and the other transmits on a different frequency.
You can use a duplexer (big filter) so both the transmitter and receiver can use the same antenna without interference. But a better way is to let each radio have its own antenna, and separate them. One at each end of the house, or one in the house and one in the barn, or whatever. The radios are only connected by audio lines and a transmit control line. No actual radio signal passes between them.

That's not just theory; it actually is that simple and it actually can be owned and operated by you or your group, at the best radio location you have available. No grid tie, no infrastructure, no outside influence necessary. You can have it in your own back yard. I do have one in my own backyard, and it is wholly owned and operated by me.

You can still do the point to point thing. Either (1) have the repeater on one channel and simplex on another channel, (2) turn off the repeater portion and just use one radio when you prefer to do that, or (3) plug in a microphone to the receive radio and use that one to both receive and transmit simplex on the same channel your repeater setup receives on.

A repeater doesn't take anything away, nor add reliance on some outside influence. It just adds capabilities that the original point to point setup didn't have.
 
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