Communication in the event of the unthinkable

I've been thinking a lot lately about a collapse and everything associated with the possiblity and a thought crossed my mind. How would we, part of this group, stay in touch. Would we set a rally point or a way point? Would we all go in seperate paths and hope for the best?

At any rate we will NEED to stay in communication if all hell really does break loose. Living in the mountains alone isn't going to be an efficient way of taking on this threat should it come to exist.


So I propse this:
Let's set up a failsafe plan just in case something should happen and cause most of us to go underground. We probably wouldn't get to use much internet, not all of us at least, and we probably wont have cell phones or anything of that nature. So we'd have to know beforehand a general plan.

We'd probably need somewhere where travelers could meet quietly, eat, sleep, and resupply. Some form of general supply storehouse would be handy.

The tricky part would be staying under the radar.

I'll work on some ideas for this but I'd really like an active discussion on this. Of course this all seems a little far fetched at the moment but it's better safe than sorry.

I agree with this logic but unfortunately to do the planning on a web site or through the net is inviting what you are trying to avoid to know exactly where you are.

I have thought of this before, but never figured out a way around it, other than maybe short wave radios or cb radios in a smaller area. Even then you would have to talk in code.

So essentially my family has a prearranged bug out plan and we are sticking to it for now.

Ok I see what you mean. So we could at least set up a basic guide for a rally point.

What it needs, how to contact people, how to communicate. Ect.

Smoke signals.. If you know them and the other one does too then it will work... CB.... Trucker channel is 19... many folks also chat on 31.

Ham radio is there.

Learn mores code.

Past that?


Good luck.

Remember you can also use root words. IF someone brings up any of my screen names or web sites my ears perk up.

I'm not technical, but I keep sharing that people need to do this together in groups. In an emergency, group up and pool your small amounts of resouces and tools. Radios are important. Building them may be necessary. Get blueprints online.

there was a thread on this recently. there was mention of either certain gestures, handshakes, sayings...etc.

but like seejanerune says...it's kind of hard to get this going online...where this information is available to EVERYONE.

Pure and simple use the most powerful communication device in the whole universe, which is...your sub-conscious mind which is quite proficient in telepathy if you simply allow yourself to open it up.

I did just think of one thing. I don't have encryption buy my understanding is if the other person doesn't have the key (code) to make it work, it takes a long long time to break due to the infinite possibilities.

Maybe that would be the way to go.

As long as power stays on, the Internet should as well. The Internet is harder to "take down" than you may think, as it was created to even survive nuclear events.

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d e n y


I g n o r a n c e


Yes, I taught myself to send and receive morse code.

Build my own antennas too.

It can be done if you are willing to apply yourself.

Orangetom

reply to post by ModernDystopia


This is true but how many of us are taking our computers and wifi to the mountains if we go?

I've been meaning to learn morse for a long time.

The safest and most secure methods of maintaining communication lines ( if a tad slow ) are dead letter drops and rendezvous.

Well, if the situation means that you have to bug out and hide out in the wilderness for a while, sorry bud, but you are out of luck as far as communication goes. Make sure you have a CB radio with you so you can at least make an attempt to find others around you. Also a police scanner would come in very handy if you are trying to stay "off the radar". Only problem is the newer ones which actually cover the new police frequency bands will run you close to 1000+ bucks.

But, for the rest of us who can manage to jack back into the internet somewhere, maybe dialup, wifi, whatever you can get.. I think IRC would be our best bet. Does ATS have an IRC channel?? IRC has been around since before dinosaurs so I think that even if Internet 2 becomes a reality, there will still be IRC servers running, and even on low bandwidth you can easily hop on. We could use something that has a large backbone of servers such as EFNet for example, that way even if say half the EFNet servers are taken out in an event, we will all still be able to communicate in a particular channel. Its also very easy to monitor who comes in and out of the room, so we can filter out military and other types of unwanted IP ranges. (Obviously this can be spoofed, but not much you can do about that)
If ATS does NOT have a channel, I'd be more than willing to get one started. It wouldn't have to be affiliated with ATS, but I think it would be a good idea to at least get something started, just for backup. What do you guys think?

Great idea dude. I think there will be two main types of players in a bug out scenario.

The survivalists and the hackers, or just people who choose to hole up with their computers or whatever.

So an IRC would come in really handy.

I am actually doing some research into one of these hardened laptops..or are they called ruggedized laptops. The ones the military uses when bouncing around in their trucks and Humvees. The reports I am getting from those out in the field are pretty favorable on the performance of these units. They appear to be a bit more expensive than the regular laptops but I suppose that is the price for such ruggedness. Hoping they will come down in price a bit more in time.

My understanding is that there is some kind of wireless attachment that plugs into a USB port.

While I am not into it... there is a way to hook up a radio..two way radio to a computer interface and use a desktop or laptop to go wireless. The device is called a terminal node controller. TNC. Quite a number of Hams use this method. It sounds very high speed...burst type. Rapid groups of info. Gotta have a machine to go that fast...like warp speed.

I also carry my two way ...two meter walkie talkie with me to and fro work daily as part of my bob. It has on it a telephone keypad by which one can make repeater connections to a land line....if needed. ..for short telephone calls. One of the privileges of being a Ham. This was quite popular before the advent of so many cell phones.

While It may be slow at present ...I am also looking into one of these cell phones with the Internet on it. I see a number of the young guys at work with them. They are a bit expensive for my tastes at present but still watching and observing this trend as a possible survival tool. I suspect that this too will come down in price as time passes and more of them proliferate.
The thing about which I am so dubious with many of these new cell phones is that they often have a gps tracking device in them. In a survival situation this may not be wise...or conversely ..wise to remove the battery/turn it off.. when not in use.

Thanks,
Orangetom

Originally posted by orangetom1999
-.. . -. -.--

.. --. -. --- .-. .- -. -.-. .

d e n y


I g n o r a n c e


Yes, I taught myself to send and receive morse code.

Build my own antennas too.

It can be done if you are willing to apply yourself.

Orangetom

I'm looking into encrypted PSK31 on ham. FCC says you can't use hidden meanings or encryption on the ham bands. If everything goes to hell in a hand basket, I don't think the FCC will really care at that point.

Morse is good but others also will be listening, including yours truly.

I have a laptop, software, portable transceiver, and antenna (complete HF station along with license in hand). Everything from bag to operation in under 15 minutes. I have QSL'ed up to 1000 miles in PSK31 using a simple discone antenna.

Just a thought...

reply to post by orangetom1999



TNC is okay for some modes, look into Donner's interfaces.

TNC usually require a 110V power supply, some don't. The TNC was/is used for some very specific digital modes that general software just hasn't emulated yet. The TNC can do a better job of translating the digital signal to word meaning in some conditions, but software driven radio reception is more versatile. It's a give and take thing.

There is some high dollar, somewhat restricted software that decodes virtually all digital signals. This doesn't mean it will decrypt encrypted messages, it just means it will read the raw data stream.

Oh you'll all hear me

I'll be the guy screaming while running in the direction of the nearest mountains


Seriously... what about satellite Internet? Anyone think it would remain viable?

I've got a hand cranked AM/FM/Shortwave radio, still I can't transmit.

Bluetooth technology could possibly play a roll somehow, but obviously not for long distances.

I posted this thread way back in 2006 about this very subject. If the SHTF we'll all need decent long-range intelligence to make any sort of strategic planning possible. For example, how can you elect to 'bug-out' if you have no way of knowing what's going on at your 'bug-out' destination opr along the route?

Everyone should have multi-band, portable radio equipment (at the very least a receiver) as part of their Sit-X equipment. If things really do come undone we won't be able to count on the existing infrastructure.