My Biggest Fear...what about the kiddiots?

[Trapper]

I cant believe the school would ban them. She would need to keep it in a backpack unless its needed. If its a marine radio they would not know the difference in it from an FRS radio if she had a small one. How far from home to the school? I could take mine to the office when I worked locally and it would easily talk from home to anywhere in our local town. It is all within 4 mile range, no problems.... It would have worked great for our kids. Then then they were also getting old enough to get cell phones. Now Im a grandpa and the kiddos are growed up.

 

[old_anorak]

As the crow flies it's about 4 1/2 miles through the hills and hollers. She has a cell phone she carries, but reception is crappy at the best of times. We are along the Missouri River bed and signals just get eaten here by the bluffs and who knows what. We have a plan in place and she knows what to do. I was thinking that the radios would be good for when she's out on her horse on the trails with her friends, in case something happens, cell phones just don't cut it. How bulky are the radios?

 

[Trapper]

The small verison I have will fit in a shirt pocket. Here is a link to the one I have. If your going over alot of hills, not sure of the reception. He had one BIG hill to get signal over for deer hunting and it did it well and that was about 3 miles distance. Multiple hills may cut reception down more. You could also put a base station in the house with an outside antenna which may help with reception and someone could monitor it from inside the house when needed.

Try the link I provided. If that doesnt work, copy paste what I have in a google search it will come up easy enough. The link is just one of many places you can get it from. Amazon has them also.
Midland Nautico 1 88-Channel Water-Resistant VHF Marine Two-Way Radio

http://www.buydig.com/shop/product....1503877809&catargetid=1889111558&&cagpspn=pla

 

[old_anorak]

Thank you Trapper. This is going to sound stupid, but are they easier than a cell phone? I'm so far behind the times when it comes to technical things. I remember using CB radios when I was a kid and they were fairly easy, but they don't work well here in the hills.

 

[savageagle]

Just a tidbit of info........As I was learning ham radio 25+ years ago I remember one thing that stood out. In mountain areas the leaves on a tree really absorbe the signal and the worst are pine needles.
Thats good info about the marine radios. Some have not realized that when tshf "ANY" frequency and "ANY" radio band will be usable by handheld-to-handheld even aircraft handhelds. The systems and repeaters will most likely be junk but the handhelds can still hear another handheld because the frequencies and bands will still be usable providing your radios didn't get fried from EMP's.
You can even setup your own repeater by using a small handheld ham radio. If you live in a place where you have a sizeable hill in the way get yourself one of the available handhelds with "X-band repeat". This allows you to talk to that handheld on one frequency (input) and the handheld will transmit on another frequency to let say your wife who is on the other side of that hill. Usual power output for handhelds is 5 watts and with 5 watts you could with a good line-of-sight path talk up to 100 miles just with the rubber ducky antenna and setting up a small charging system to keep everything charged up is very simple.

 

[Trapper]

My handheld radios as shown in the link only have a button to change the channel and a volume on/off knob. Very basic. Given them to the kids for 10 minutes and they can teach you how to use them!!

 

[HarrySachs]

funny, I too remember using these in my teen years, pre cell phones. They are however on my list
of consideration. More so down the lines, if my kids move away and go to college or w/e, I will
consider installing some to keep in contact. With big enough antennas, the range is quite far.
Back in the day, those who had 6ft antennas could talk to truckers thousands of miles away.
We had 2 way radios that worked even better. It might be old school, but they do work

 

[jimLE]

i have a pair of walkie talkies that i got from my older brother.they need chargeing.but thats a idea seeing how they'll reach a good distance.especilly without to many obstructions in the way..cb radios are good for car use seeing how they reach out further.might want to sit down with your son who drives.and have a good talk with him about every thing.who knows.you might need him to come get you instead..or go get the other from school.might save time that way..and thats great when it comes to survival..as for school lock downs go..i dont have kids of my own.but do have necies n nephews.and if a parent asked me to go n get up i would.and as thier uncle id tell um go ahead n call cops cause im thier uncle and have the right to them and im armed and i'll protect them better then any scool where thier not armed..

 

[Uncle Albert]

My wife an I both go for the kid, then to the house if possible. A second location is determined if the first is no good. We both have 3 day bags so if one of us gets stuck least we have some supplies. Now communication is the hard one or the one i am lacking in, we all have phones but they might not work. I am in need of some good two way radios. Hope this helps a little.

You're right, I've sat through 4 hurricanes here in south Louisiana and cell phones stop working. Towers are ripped down or whatever. I haven't tested it but maybe we ought to try CB's again, remember those back in the 60's? Everyone had one. Walkie talkies seem to have a short reach unless you have a really expensive one. Communication is extremely important. You need contact with officials as well, and what they are broadcasting. Radios are big.

 

[Lone Ranger]

actually my days of worrying over the kids has gone by now they are all grown and moved out of the house. Both of them know where we will be should something happen., and they will proceed to where we are at.
We all have a bag in the vehicle and add more in the winter months.

 

[Gazrok]

We have a pre-made plan to all meet at the ranch if some kind of disaster hits (and yeah, 9/11 would have fit the bill...for all we knew then, WWIII was about to start). Currently, we have two-way radios to communicate in case cell communication is out. But, they only have a range of about two miles at best, and while that is fine for them, the wife and I work further from home, so we'll be upgrading all to handheld VHF radios that have a bit more range to them. Even still, I have quite a trek home, so the plan is that they'll turn on the radio for 10 minutes at different time intervals during different days, and listen for me to make contact while I'm coming home (in case I have to hoof it vs. driving).

 

[Gazrok]

Wow, 27g's? that's quite a racket they got going there. Luckily, I know enough special forces guys to get a free assessment.