Communications methods in a SHTF scenario.

This information may have been answered many times before, but possibly spread about in different posts.

In a SHTF scenario where everyone who could, grabbed their backpack and headed for the wilderness, ideally, what means of communication would you want to use to receive and send messages?

Rather like the resistance fighters in the WWII, I am assuming that there would be a need to communicate and then immediately move on so that your position could not be determined.

Of course, it would depend on the type of event which caused you to go for the wilderness in the first place but I guess these would be a situation where the structure of society had broken down completely. No water, no electricity and no liklihood of these returning to normal citizens anytime soon.

Any thoughts on this and what communication methods would be used/necessary in those type of situations?

For me I am thinking about keeping it simple along the lines of flashlights and morse code, maybe a radio transmitter/receiver and ways which did not use too much battery power or used rechargables.

no, forget the radio... you d be a battlefield emmitter for any government drone out there, they could home in on your frequency... use smoke and flAshlights as you already suggested

Hi!
My sister & I actually talked about this a while ago!
Not so much in a bug out situation,
but in order to be able to communicate.
We live 10 miles apart in different towns.
Lots of woods & mountains between us.

We thought of raising homing pigeons to carry messages back & forth!
It seemed like a really good idea at first...no type of power needed,
won't draw unwanted attention, they don't need excessive amounts of feed,
don't take up much space, don't bark or make loud noises,
in good weather they could travel pretty quickly...

Then reality hit! In a SHTF scenario, they would probably be
shot for food before they made one round trip!!!
Back to the drawing board!!!
WOQ

In a SHTF scenarion, families would probably get together, so it would be between groups that communications would be needed and it would also be beneficial to keep an ear out as to what the officials were doing.

Yes, in some situations I am sure that there would be many drones out scouting for signals coming frrom places they were not supposed to. If the situation was a natural disaster, then finding another group who survived would be important and being detected by the authorities would be less so.

Any communication which relies on light is going to need height and accuracy to get the message across. So, a mountain or hill to transmit from and some kind of focused signal or aiming device to avoid detection.

I have a few ideas for you to think through. Each situation will be a little different.

Most people will go with what they are used to. That would be CB radio. There will be many operating and I doubt that the drones will be taking them all out. Some things to think about:-

Don't radio from your base, walk a mile or so away. Have a decent directional aerial that is wired a little away from where you will transmit from. A roll of a hundred metres of cable would be handy. Transmit from a foxhole.

Use some kind of coded burst transmission. That means recording the message prior to sending it.

Use a series of code words and phrases that make it sound that you are just a silly girlie or a country hick.

Do not stay on the radio for more than a few seconds at a time.

Do not go to meet people you do not know, they may want your stuff.

Change your transmission site frequently.

You could also set up a transmitter as a trap and watch from a distance to see if it gets taken out or raided.

Use your own version of morse code.

P

reply to post by qmantoo


Smoke signals, used in daisy chain fashion could be used to communicate over semi vast distances during the day and fire towers could be used after dark.

reply to post by andy06shake


Would work great but it does give your position away and it takes time. Heat seeking missiles can target a fire

P

reply to post by pheonix358


Lets face it buddy they can track your body heat anyway, so a signal fire is neither here nor there. I do agree said communication methods would indeed give away one's location all through 99% of the time i imagine that's the point.

You could also use the smoke signals/fire towers to draw your opponent to your desired choice of location then implement a raid or ambush, considering knowing the lay of the land is half the battle anyway.

some of this equipment goes out of the ham bands which you can go to an area and not be bothering anyone but in the ham bands you need a license which I have and the license is just a written test,when I took the test you had to know morse code and that was 25 years ago.
anyway the hf or short wave equipment talks around the world. the other vhf and uhf is only a couple of miles unless you talk through repeaters.


www.aesham.com...

reply to post by qmantoo
More info is needed for a good answer.

Truth is CB Radio might be the best choice (or HAM if you can handle the power usage). If you are talking about secure communications between point "A" and point "B" then look into the old telegraph system. They're easy to set up, using to use, and best of all secure.

Like I said though more information is really needed to give you an answer though. Each system has their draw-backs, shoot even the good old fashion human messenger has it's draw-backs. Knowing what you're planning makes planning easier.

You really raised a good point with this thread.

I get my news and information from TV, friends, some times the radio (when in the car) obviously the internet.

What WOULD i do without any of that, i think after a few days or weeks i would just not care, i mean how often do you REALLY hear anything vital? Seriously?

Ironically, despite how much i think i need it i dont think that i would care much if it was gone.

I bet its going to be more imortant to be silent than making a bunch of racket esablishing a new social network.
I might make a favorite rock to stash notes under with my spouse.

reply to post by qmantoo


Since everyone will be in the woods if they live nearby, there will be thousands of people in the woods. So something like that telephone call game, where you tell the person next to you, and they tell the person next to them, and so on. By the time your message gets to where you want it to go it will be perfectly understood.

Bears. With thousands of good neighbors and friends wandering the woods hiding, bears will be up and about and trying to find a resting place where somebody isn't already dug in or living behind a rock. As the bear passes attach a post-it to its fur. This wilderness " Bulletin Board" will be read as the bear travels from place to place, passing large encampments of allied humans who will then feed it and read the newest alerts from the other woodland people. Bear, buffalo, and coyote-strength post-its have been invented by Romy and Michelle for this purpose.

Singing. If the entire woods erupts in song it would be quite noisy, so take turns, like neighboring trees of cicadas in summer. Listen for the most important messages and then everyone can sing them in turn, thus moving the message throughout the forest until an answer is received. Never sing about your real location.

"You're it", the popular childrens sport, can be used, with the before-mentioned bear-strength post-its being attached to the "it". Eventually your message will get to the person you want it to when they finally become "it".

I hope these help.

reply to post by Dynamitrios


smoke and flashlights give your position away to everyone in a wide area though. Depending on your disaster scenario, you could attract unwanted attention from a number of different people.

Some of the ideas about what constitutes a SHTF situation seem waaaaay too extreme. I mean, many of them seem to be along the lines of everybody run for the hills, the man is gonna be out to get us all with drones and we all need to be armed and taking out anyone who comes within 10 miles of us.

To be honest, I think in any SHTF situation, whether man-made or natural, the government and it's agencies / military, are going to be far too busy trying to maintain government and it's structure rather than launching fleets of heavily armed drones or kill squads to hunt down and eliminate people who have left home and the towns / cities.
A more level headed approach might be a good wind-up radio receiver for any local / national broadcasts and, if you really want comms further afield, maybe a shortwave or amateur band transceiver. Yes, they need power, but if your location has a small generator, then use it sparingly rather than having it running 24x7 and it'll supply power directly, or charge batteries for offline times. I don't think the military will be wanting to spend it's time and resources triangulating every radio signal for a missile strike!

there are thousands of cryptic messages being communicated in code everyday in in every urban city & country side currently, one just need to know the language, look to graffiti artist and gang affiliations. urban gangs, everything from the hells angels, bloods & crips, to sinaloa mexican cartel already employ a sophisticated yet often primitive means of effectively communicating. post signs and tags. &foot runners for sensitive face to face communications. foot running doesn't necessarily mean only on foot, but that it is verbal communication from person to person like mentioned before. you would use radio or any electronic means to send false information only to decoy. one only need look to ancient civilization and adapt it. mixtapes with coded messages in raps and hip hop format have been an effective update of the paper scroll passed from person to person



www.historyworld.net...

I live in equake country, so my family and friends have a few pre-arranged meeting spots, out of town (depending on the disaster). We also, have equipped ourselves with CBs, and walkies, and have a prearranged channel that we know others in our group will be broadcasting from, and listening to. As well as a prearranged time to broadcast. Example: We will be on channel 10 and will be listening or broadcasting at 10 am and 10 pm. We also have a call word, that signals the other members of our tribe, without having to identify ourselves.

Each meeting place, has a plastic tub buried with the basics, plastic sheeting, solar blankets, quick meals, skillet, fishing equipment, arrow tips, bow string, solar lights, water purifier, solar charging equipment, a CB radio etc. We also have mirrors just in case we need really low-tech to communicate. (mostly for who ever is on look-out).
We wont have to give our location over the airway, because we have the positions numbered. So, when I say I am at position #3 everyone will know exactly where that is.
The problem for us, in using Ham equipment, is the power it takes, the knowledge it takes to use it, and the cost is prohibitive. At least CBs and walkies are inexpensive enough, for everyone to own, and also to stash in the woods.
You can find CBs at Garage Sales for next to nothing.

reply to post by Britguy


I totally agree,most people here believe they will be on the most wanted list,where the gov't will probably want you to just vanish! Unless you are hunting the gov't troops,or other criminal activities,they won't bother with you. That being said,IF they were hunting you,short range stuff will suffice,such as walkie talkies or CB,as the signal probably won't be enough to attract attention

Natural disasters means that folks are going to have to get out of cities (although that is where the first help will be given) but it also means that there are more people competing for supplied-by-agencies resources. Getting out of the cities means that you have more responsibility for your own survival and can use whatever natural resources you can make or find in the local area.

Any natural disaster which would cause us to take to the woods would also probably spit chemicals and radiation into the air which no-one will escape from - whether in cities or in the countryside. A huge natural disaster, I would say, will be virtually the end of everyone due to man's stupidity and technological advancement. Think Fukushima x 100 without anyone even trying to make it better.

Any man-made situation would not have the airbourne toxic stuff but may involve 'them' eventually looking for folks in the woods trying to round them up and take them back to controlled environments. THIS is the scenario where I think we may need to contact others out there who are also evading the round-up. Radios would be watched and monitored. Very directional lights with morse code may be the way to go as long as two people knew where to look for their next message.

What infra red reflective material is there? I think we would be searched for by IR or heat-seeking cameras that the police have on their helicopters at the moment and any material which would reflect IR would at least make us not so obvious or make us look like a bear or deer. Satellites probably have IR cameras on them already so this may be pretty much a waste of time to try and hide like that perhaps? Anyone know much about this?

reply to post by qmantoo


I saw a couple of youtube vids showing Solar Blankets don't show your heat, and makes for good camouflage.