I've heard a lot of chatter on the INTERNET about how to survive the numerous ignominious fates we potentially face, however I have heard very little rational discussion about communicating in the event of service/societal disruption (could be anything from natural disasters that knock out the electrical grid to an EMP or reallocation of electrical resources to provide for heavy population growth areas as a result of mass foreclosures and homelessness. Parts of AZ are already facing the probability of localized rolling brown-outs/black-outs so power can be redistributed to the LA area which is facing a massive housing crisis and tent cities.

Without electricity, there is no internet in your homes. this is kind of a "duh" thing. You should have already thought of this.

We here at ATS, and those of us who are also communicating on other web-based forums have formed a tight little community which is really nothing more than a house of cards built on the beach facing an incoming tide.

How do you all think you'll be able to communicate with each other in a survival situation where the internet is down? I've heard about people spending literally thousands of dollars on overpriced survival items and freeze-dried foods and whatnot. what are you going to do? Hang out in your survival hut for 6 months completely disconnected from the world in the vain hopes that SOMEONE ELSE will start to put things back together? You'd end up killing yourself before you even ran out of food.

A few years ago, I spent $150.00 on a 40 meter amateur radio transceiver. It operates on the 7mHz band and is usable for either voice or CW (morse code). I have been able to talk with Australia, New Zealand, England, France, Russia, Ecuador, and many other countries around the word using only a 12 volt motorcycle battery. this is simple stuff folks. It doesn't take any special skills, if you purchase the radio set on ebay or craigslist, no one will ask to "see your ham radio license" and you'll be able to get a good set which will ensure your ability to communicate with the rest of the world for $150.00 or (most likely) less.

This is how towns and communities of people across America could regain immediate contact with each other and get an accurate from the ground reports of conditions around the world and begin to rebuild society.

Are we so addicted to the internet that we can no longer function and communicate without it? If you haven't thought about how to maintain communications with other like-minded folks (who are mostly on the internet, cause I'm on the radio every day and I haven't heard a single one of you from ATS out there yet so don't even lie to me.) then you have already lost. You have failed to survive.

How long do you think your mind can hold out without knowing whats going on in an emergency situation? Really. How long in isolation can you take it? After two weeks in the wilderness, you'll start to get cagey. After 6 months, you'll be almost totally feral and most likely incapable of reinsertion into a reformed society.

Don't spend $100.00 on that cheap Chinese crank FM radio receiver. Get something that will actually do you some real good. You don't need to get your news from Homeland Security, you need to talk to the town next door, or the guy on the other side of the county, you'll need to know if there are diseases spreading. How will you know if dengue fever has broken out east of the Mississippi river and is spreading west at the rate of 35 miles per day unless you talk to Arkansas where people are actually dying of it. Wouldn't you like to know three weeks in advance that you might need to find a vaccine?

Get a 40 meter radio this week. Don't make excuses, they're all garbage and a waste of valuable time. Go online to ebay or craigslist and enter "40 meter ham radio" into the search field and find one that is in working condition for the best price. I have an MFJ portable, but the Yaesu FT101 is good too

Or like we could all just talk like really loud and stuff. Yep, I think that's a good idea.

Howsabout we just simply rely on our own abilities, and then some plucky techie revives ATS after the war?

Have you read anything about the "Grid" or "Second Internet"?!?! Don't you think for a second that if something happened that knocked out the internet as we now know it that this so called "second internet" would allow for a site such as ATS to come back?! Really?! Do you?!

Come on. The only reason ATS exists is because there is an internet that provided the medium for it. We all...all of us came to ATS through a process of browsing the internet, and there never would have been an ATS had there never been an internet. All of the traditional methods of activist communication and information dissemination and alternative news channels are so tightly controlled that it is impossible to get the kind of global reach that ATS has achieved.

This is the suggestion of an evolutionary step. Why not take some technology that is now considered obsolete, but whose functionality is unchanged, and create an ATS network that is independent of the internet network system? If the net crashes for any reason, then that will be the end of communications between 95% of the people who have already connected here from around the world. I hope there are some people out there that take this message as serious as the heart attack it's meant to be, because the friends and connections I've made here and the thoughts I have read expressed here and at other sites (that I am also making similar suggestions at) are some of the most connected adn aware thoughtforms that give me hope for America's future and the future of the human race. If we lose these connections, then we have a very strong chance of losing the war altogether.

lombozo, *schmack*

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I think ham radio has always been the general consensus on the most viable means of communication post-SHTF. I guess the only real way to form the networks is to get on the air and start hamming it up.

As far as an actual independent data network, radio modems brings back memories... not ones I wish to rekindle. I'd rather just keep things simple with voice transmissions than try to start doing radio BBSes again. It's just a huge headache and trying to get everyone interoperable would be a total nightmare. English and Spanish are standards pretty well established worldwide. No hablas Espanol o Ingles? Hablas probables Chino y nadie desea hablar con tu.

I am a HAM operator. Our community now has a local club which works with EMS, Fire and Rescue to coordinate communications in the event of an emergency. It is quite common and easy for wireless communications to become overloaded at an event so we are actually utilized quite a bit. We use VHF or 2 meter FM radio for this with a 60 meter relay to the state capital.

Local CB radio works on the AM band at about 11 meters and is good for nation wide communications. There are underground operators who run huge amounts of power on these bands, however that is illegal. The FCC does not really enforce laws concerning CB. These radios are cheap and easily powered by a 12 volt DC source.

Those with HAM radios would have a very valuable service to offer to those without one, in such a scenario.

You could form sort of a messenger network, by planning ahead with other operators in your area. When SitX occurs you could then charge people to deliver messages for them. You could charge for food, water, clothing, anything really, and if communication was really that badly damaged you could probably charge *a lot.*

I'm thinking when I get the money in my pocket, I should make myself one of those "with."

Originally posted by 1stAZRangers
How do you all think you'll be able to communicate with each other in a survival situation where the internet is down?

To be honest in a survival situation I'd be more worried about survival than anything on the internet.
My next meal isn't exactly going to be served in a to go bag. Our way of eating now is instantaneous compared to a situation of Survival.

In a survival situation, I'd actually prefer to 'bug out' and worry about civilization later (although I'm not counting on sitX happening soon). If you can't live and stay sane for 6 months without communication, you'd have a to revaluate why it is you're actually trying to survive. Aim to be Omega Man!

I'm not an amateur radio guy, but I have been into shortwave radio since a kid. I recently bought a radio with digital tuning and SSB. After all these years, it's been great tuning all the stuff that sounded like Donald Duck.

On my PC, I've played around with SSTV reception. You just plug the radio into the sound-in jack, tune to 14230KHz (one of the international SSTV freqs) and wait for someone to send a picture. That's pretty neat. It can also decode stuff like morse code, and other things like RTTY. But then, you need electricity to run the computer, and GOD knows where you can find RTTY terminals these days.

My main interest in shortwave involves number stations. If the spooks are still using shortwave, then there's something to it.