Survival Communications FAQ
Version 1.12
Mike Medintz, Editor
DISCLAIMER:
The authors and editors of this FAQ panel assume no legalresponsibility for any errors in or misuse of this information, and are not to be heldlegally liable or responsible for any death, injury, loss of property, or other negativeconsequences resulting from use, misuse, or abuse of this information.This document was based upon an earlier FAQ written by another m.s lurker, and hasreceived many contributions from m.s members who wished not to be named here. Anycomments should be sent to me at medintz@idir.net, and will be acted on or forwarded to
the other authors as appropriate.This FAQ is a work in progress. Suggestions, comments, and recommendations arealways welcomed, and will be acted on or forwarded as appropriate. Further informationon radio may be gathered from
The ARRL Handbook
and the
ARRL Operating Manual
)A topic as broad as communications can never been completely covered, especially inwhat should be a terse and matter-of-fact FAQ. We'll start out with the most generaldescription we can provide, and get more specific deeper in the document.
Outline
Types of CommunicationsWired Communications
Radio Signals
AM Radio
Unlicensed Services
CB Radio (AM and SSB)
49 Mhz Radios
460 Mhz Family Radio Service (FRS)
1750 Meter Lowfer Band
Micro-power AM and FM
Amateur ( Ham ) Radio
6-Meter Band
2-Meter Band
MF/HF Bam Bands:
Cellular Phones
Paging
Radio Equipment, Antennas, and Propagation
Basic Radio Antennas
Antenna Effectiveness
1/4 WaveLength Vertical
Dipole
Quads and Yagis
Schedules
Guard Channels
Codes
Authentication
Brevity and Message Coding
SOI Spares
Morse code by light
Semaphore
Three-in-a-row rule (whistles, gunshots...)
American sign language
What Is Communication?
The first step in understanding communications in the context of survival isunderstanding of the fundamentals of communication itself. Communication is a verycomplex topic, as difficult to completely define as truth, beauty, or time; however, in anattempt to cut to the chase and make our life simple, we'll start with two definitions:COMMUNICATION is the successful transfer of information from one person to another person or entity.COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS are comprised of equipment, methods and techniques of supporting information transfer, enabling communication to take place between two people. (Please note that these definitions are cheap outs, since we haven't defined whatwe mean by information, but you get it, right? Note that we re also limiting things byrequiring at least one person in to loop, to reduce the scope of this document.)
What Happens When We Communicate?
In order for any communication to take place, there are three major requirements thatmust satisfied.REQUIREMENT ONE: There must be a sender and a receiver. For most survival purposes, this means a person trying to send a message and a person looking for amessage sent to them.REQUIREMENT TWO: The sender and receiver must understand how the message is to be conveyed, and must understand the message itself. In the survival context, this meansthat both people trying to communicate understand how their communication systemworks (how to operate the communications equipment, that one or two lamps havedifferent meanings, how to look up a word in a dictionary) and that they understand themessage (the message in clear and in a common language, that one lamp means that theBritish are coming by land and two lamps means by sea.)REQUIREMENT THREE: the communication system must be capable of delivering themessage. (There's not so much fog the lamps can't be seen, or that the radios are withinrange and working properly.
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Survival Communications FAQ
The first requirement being that there is someone trying to send a message and someone expecting to receive it may at first seem obvious, however in practice it is probably the most violated requirement of communications in a survival context, providing the violator with a false sense of security until they need to communicate.
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