Iridium Sat phone for SHTF?

[vagrant]

Plan and go camping for a week away from water sources, toilets and AC mains power. You will learn what resources you need and what you do not. It will give you real world experience. You can then realistically estimate how much gear and what gear you need for a week/month. Don’t forget any medication, as driving down to a pharmacy is out.

Alternatively, shut off the main breaker on your home and turn off the water main for a week. Adios fridge and enjoy a bucket or outdoor hole restroom. Wave to your neighbor.

If impaired and extraction is needed, I recommend a Garmin inReach device along with a subscription. No need for a chatty-cathy satellite phone. Remember, you may be on a long list of extraction priorities.

When all else fails…well, nothing lasts forever.

 

[dkcorlfla]

Looks like Florida is about to get hit with a SHTF event. I spend the morning cleaning up the yard and trying to get ready for the big blow (Milton) I'm on high ground so flooding should not be a problem for my area but watch out Tampa.

I really hope the roof stays on and the big pine misses the house if it comes down!

 

[MUTNAV]

Yeah, communications is waaaay down the totem pole when it comes to REAL SHTF survival. What is it again? Water, shelter, food? In that order?

SHTF prepping means you learn how mankind lived during the medieval period and before. Knowing how they made fire, cooked , gathered water, etc. That's the key. Forget about all the technology crap. Heck, you might want to learn how to use human couriers and one time pads... But I digress. When it comes to technology, spend the money on medicine and first aid equipment. Get the book Where There is No Doctor.

Although I agree that is the general order, it can be different.

In Alaska or North Dakota, Shelter could easily be the first priority (time wise). I've also seen air in the list.

I've always liked the Greek Dark Ages example, not only did civilization collapse, but they lost the written language, no one has been able to translate the previous written language, keeping the written word just it wasn't important to immediate survival.

Thanks
Joel

 

[Nickantyt]

Richy Rich will have a sat phone, as well as one for each immediate family member. Billy Bob and his family won't.

 

[dkcorlfla]

Richy Rich will have a sat phone, as well as one for each immediate family member. Billy Bob and his family won't.

At the risk of going political, Richy Rich will get FEMA supplies and help but Billy Bob will not. Billy Bob will know how to Git er done while Richy Rich will be lost.

 

[sempai]

my partner is telling me that i should teach workshops on using radios to people because while a lot of men think being prepared means Buy Stuff, apparently there's a large demographic of women that don't like to rely on men that think that way 😂

i am whittling away at a syllabus on basic radio knowledge (using the auroras we are seeing in North America with increasing regularity as an aid at some points) and designing a gmrs system.

i do need to recommend best practices for making contact outside of your local household or organization though and volumes of text have been written about everything from old federations of volunteers and travel tones, the GMRS 19 at 9pm events happening in some places, and of course that GMRS isn't intended to be used to meet people (i am aware 😂) and reading and summarizing dozens? hundreds? of emergency response plans for households and small orgs.

gmrs has interoperability with plentiful inexpensive FRS radios which is a large part of why i think i would favor those. apparently people are freaking out about _leave the world behind_ and that movie isn't very far-fetched frankly, and in-person hands-on workshops may be a good way to give families a running start on being able to navigate communities without the POTS system and IP networks.

 

[mmckenna]

my partner is telling me that i should teach workshops on using radios to people because while a lot of men think being prepared means Buy Stuff, apparently there's a large demographic of women that don't like to rely on men that think that way 😂

Good luck. I periodically do radio training for work. It's a careful line you need to walk. You have to adjust the training based on the skill/knowledge of the user. Often it's easy to get too technical and overwhelm people. Gotta remember that while many think they are knowledgable about radio, their limits usually stop at "push to talk, release to listen". Anything beyond that gets them lost really quickly.

i do need to recommend best practices for making contact outside of your local household or organization though and volumes of text have been written about everything from old federations of volunteers and travel tones, the GMRS 19 at 9pm events happening in some places, and of course that GMRS isn't intended to be used to meet people (i am aware 😂) and reading and summarizing dozens? hundreds? of emergency response plans for households and small orgs.

One of the big challenges with GMRS is PL/DPL usage. Most users can't comprehend how it works. A lot of people on these forums have a hard time understanding it. Training people to comprehend how it works and how it screws things up can be difficult.
Too many of these plans that are out there rely on having a preprogrammed radio that the user cannot adjust.

The ideal radio for this sort of application would be a single channel radio with only an on/off/volume and a push to talk button.

A -lot- of those home grown radio plans are garbage. Dreamed up by self proclaimed raydeeoh teknishuns/YouTubes experts who don't have a full grasp on the technology. Might be some useful info out there, but I'm betting that 75% of the plans are pure garbage.

If you want a good radio interoperability plan, take a look at the NIFOG guide. It's built on users from different agencies/cities/states being able to interoperate. Standardization is the key, taking guess work out of the equation, and keeping things simple. Unfortunately many of these home grown radio groups get blinded by the technology and over complicate things.

FRS/GMRS channel 1. No privacy code, no PL, no DPL. Analog only. No roger beeps, no ring tones, no CCR's, no hacked ham radios. Use alkaline AA or AAA batteries that you can get at 7-11 or stockpile from Costco.

I know, probably not what you were asking, but I read through some of these "radio plans" and I see so many that miss the point and think adding technology and complications will somehow make things work better.

 

[sempai]

Good luck. I periodically do radio training for work.

i just wanted to thank you for your feedback and thoughts! much obliged. i do work in an adjacent field (infosec) so i have seen this document before but its been revised!

 

[IC-R20]

The single ground stations would be a limitation. Would be ideal if they could bounce traffic from satellite to satellite to find a ground station, no idea if it works that way or not.

But, I think the point is that the ground stations would be pretty robust and not have a single connection into their network. Unlike consumer users who have a single IP connection to a single carrier (in most cases), most data centers or communications hubs would have multiple connections to multiple resources.

No communications network is going to be 100% foolproof. Ever.

The imaginary "SHTF", "Zombie Apocalypse",whatever, attitude isn't something I quite comprehend. The idea that someone might go a day or three without internet access or cell phone service doesn't quite concern me as much as it seems to worry others. I often go camping and do just fine out of touch for several days.

For most consumers, the idea of needing a $1500 satellite phone + expensive service, seems a bit like an odd reaction to an event that is either going to be unlikely, or short duration.

I sometimes get the feeling that the whole "prepper" thing is more about spending money and/or being a consumer and/or bragging rights than actually preparing for anything that is likely to happen. But I grew up in California where earthquakes are a thing and being somewhat ready to be able to look after myself, my family and assist my neighbors is just SOP.

There's lots of tools for the job. I'm not convinced that buying a satellite phone is a good investment for the average individual.

Iridium does relay the call between satellites to get to the ground station, so even if the only australia ground station was left it could jump a signal across the relay chain to it. Also the paging signal is strong so antenna down and in a lot of single story buildings I‘ve gotten ringed on the 9555, though had to step outside and pull up the antenna to take it.