Looking for Communications Radio for Emergency

[Jim Costa]

Cheap antennas for house tops:
Cut a two foot square sheet of metal, screw it on your roof as a ground plane reflector.
Then purchase a cheap magnetic car antenna and stick on it.
Spray paint the metal to make the wife happy.

This works just as good as the tall 3 meter antenna pole mounted rig I have.
They are equal in range.

This 3 foot wire might get you from rooftop to inside the house.
longer wires are available. $8

 

[user 7000]

I am looking for information on 2way radios for my family to use in case the world goes totally 'south'. If our cell towers go down, I need to find something that I can communicate with my family. We are about 20 miles apart over flat terrain although there there many forests between us. Of course, should we have to 'bug out', I also need them to be hand helds.

Will ham work? Will ham repeaters remain up even in a disaster? Are there other/better alternatives?

I had one person suggest this:

https://www.amazon.com/BaoFeng-1800...cp8Kq-I5Nq6uX5eA_YJWcrsv0x1hcixlOjQ3ovFh0TZt4
but I'm not convinced something that cheap will do the job (and don't get me wrong, if it will I'm all for inexpensive)

I do have a newer shortwave radio to I can listen in on what is going on worldwide (hopefully) so that part I have. It's the 2way that I need to figure out.

Thank you.

Pay $35 for your GMRS license. That covers up to 12 immediate family members (each individual would need to get a ham license). Look at companies like Retevis and Anytone. GMRS License allows you to use up to 50 watts and the radios are affordable. Get yourselves base antennas which will cover the 20 miles easily. I have both 5 watt HT's and 50 watt mobiles. A much cheaper way to go for your intended use. The are also GMRS repeaters and linked repeater systems. Most ham and GMRS repeaters have battery back up systems for power outages. Some in this area even have back up microwave links. This is the best advice I can give. Though I'm not a fan of the guy, check out NotARubicon on YouTube. He gets it right about 70% of the time.

 

[Outfitterbm]

Which is why I use CHIRP for programming everything.
https://proofpointisolation.com/browser?url=https://chirpmyradio.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home

 

[Jim Costa]

Regarding Programming everything.

In a chaos situation one only needs radios to protect the home.
One guard outside and others home sleeping but ready, with one awake and on guard in the home.

In that situation most guards only need one or two channels for communication with each other.

Don't program all the local repeaters. They will only get the guard killed.

 

[Jim Costa]

My apology, I just realized I am talking to only radio folks here. I thought it was a newby but that was a year ago.