Tag Archives: communications

Starlink

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I’m not an Elon Musk fanboy but I don’t dislike him either…. I do respect him for coming up with some cool stuff and then having fun with it. The idea of a notebook-sized satellite dish to get you internet in literally any part of the world is something that was virtually unthinkable a decade or two ago.

For survivalists, one of the great headaches has always been finding a balance between living in the sticks, or even ‘off grid’, but still maintaining some type of communication with other humans…especially your fellow like-minded individuals. Most ‘bugout locations’ are short on things like powerlines and phone lines. The reliable standby has been ham radio, which has its ups and downs…there is no one perfect solution. I remember years ago that there were things like ‘packet radio’ and other radio/internet hybrids. Nowadays you just drop a Starlink on the ground in a clear area and start downloading porn. We’re living in the future.

My needs are quite simple. I’d like to have email and VoIP for voice communication. I’d also like to access Google Earth, get the news, and that sort of thing. Additionally, I’d like to have some internet-connected cameras for real-time viewing. While Starlink appears to be able to do that, the issue of powering the darn thing reliably over time is the new constraint. I need to have a battery system in place that would give me as much time as possible between  charges in case I need a few weeks to get up there. I suppose I could steal an RTG from the arctic somewhere but that seems like a lot of work.

I’ll be exploring solutions but before that I need numbers. So, after unpacking the box from FedEx, I have the Starlink setup in my yard running off a small lithium battery block. This particular power supply is Bluetoothed to my phone so I can track battery life as Starlink is out there doing its thing. Then, once I figure out average usage demands and whatnot I can start scaling a battery system. Yes, of course Im going to integrate some solar panels for charging…but I need some numbers so I can calculate needs and build in extra margins. In a perfect world I’d like to have enough panels up there to charge a battery that is capable of running the thing for a solid month.

And, as I am discovering, the internet is awash with all sorts of third-party items for this little piece of tech. Notably adaptors to let you run on Milwaukee and DeWalt power tool batteries. Thats rather convenient since I’ve got a bunch of them sitting around.

The subscription side of the StarLink equation got squared this week. You can put your subscription into a sleep mode when youre not going to be using it for a length of time and that drops your monthly sub to five or ten bucks. I went with their cheapest monthly plan which is about sixty bucks. I then dumped some money into a new brokerage account, bought a bunch of weekly dividend ETFs, set the brokerage to automatically move the dividends to a new checking account at the end of the month, and then StarLink bills the debit card attached to that account. Basically, a fire and forget arrangement.

My plan was to head up to the Beta Site this weekend and experiment with the StarLink but its raining pretty heavy and I really don’t feel like negotiating heavily rutted muddy roads. And…Im too lazy to go drag the SxS out of storage. So today will be spent on other Beta-Site-related projects. Most notably, I need to put together a secure container kit to put all the StarLink gear in for transit, I need to start calculating power needs, and another one or two projects I’ll post about in a few days.

 

Starlink?

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So, there’s a lot of things to think about and research in regards to the Beta Site. One of which is communications. There is no landline out there, cell signal is non-existent, the only electricity is what you bring or generate, and as wonderful as that sounds, I would like a modicum of connectivity to the world, particularly the internet, for those long winters of being snowed in.

So, there’s really only one off-the-shelf solution that doesn’t involve packet radio or that sort of thing – Starlink. I was wondering who here has some experience with it and can perhaps give some input on it’s practicality and utility..esp. in an environment where you’re on your own for power. (Meaning, running Starlink off of a battery system.)

My needs are simple – email, browsing news websites, blogging, and a bit of Spotify music. I’m not planning on streaming videos or any of the heavy-bandwidth activities. So, you off-grid types who maintain a connection to the internet…whats the scoop?

And, while on the subject of Starlink for secret squirrels, I pass along this entertaining and interesting video:

7000

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Minding my own business, not harming anyone, and I thought “Hmmm..I haven’t been on Facebook Marketplace for a while, let’s see what’s there.”

And then it just escalated quickly. End result:

Along with an antenna, various power cables to run off household, cig lighter, or battery terminals, spare fuses, lotsa docs, and a pelican case with cut foam to hold it all.

This thing is strictly a receiver and has some basic scanner functions. It picks up a rather wide swath of frequencies, including stuff my 7300 doesn’t pick up.

Price seemed reasonable. Heck, the Pelican case would have been a hundred bucks all on its own. The extras that it came with also made it a sweeter deal.

Now I just need to RTFM and learn the operations.

Article – Through Hurricanes Helene and Milton, Amateur Radio Triumphs When All Else Fails

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Amateur radio is definitely one of those things I’ve neglected over the years and need to dig into.

Like the tens of thousands of other North Carolina residents, the power to Witherspoon’s neighborhood was completely out. It was impossible to communicate with the house down the road, let alone anyone several miles away. Unable to send text messages or make phone calls, radio became the one form of communication left in rural North Carolina. After fixing what he could on his own property, Witherspoon, a lifelong amateur radio enthusiast, began distributing handheld radios to his neighbors.

No doubt being able to communicate with people outside the affected area is important, but being able to communicate with people within the affected area is absolutely critical. From what I’ve been reading, despite the disdain for them as the Hi-Points of radios, the Baofeng radios have been heavily represented in this episode.

I have some handheld radios that I keep on the charger, with spare batteries, specifically for contact with close-by people. If I’m roaming around the neighborhood checking on the situation it’s nice to know that the people back at the house can contact me, and vice versa, if something needs to be communicated.

One thing I’ve been absolutely dragging my feet on is getting the antennae set up for the Icom 7300 I picked up last year. I need to get off my butt, climb up on the roof, and get something up there. I probably should start investigating the local amateur radio scene and see if I can find that particular brand of boffin…the radio nerd who is also a survivalist…to help me get things set up.

In fact, really, I should probably do some sort of communications audit and see what exactly I have, and what I need, in regards to this sort of thing.

Article – No cellphone? No problem! The vintage radio enthusiasts prepping for disaster

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There’s an ancient fable that Glenn Morrison, a pony-tailed, 75-year-old who lives in the California desert, likes to tell to prove a point. As the lesson goes, one industrious ant readies for winter by stocking up on food and supplies, while an aimless grasshopper wastes time and doesn’t plan ahead. When the cold weather finally arrives, the ant is “fat and happy”, but the grasshopper starves.

In this telling, Morrison is the ant, and those who don’t brace themselves for future emergencies – they’re the grasshoppers.

 

Morrison is in the business of being prepared. He’s the president of the Desert Rats (or the Radio Amateur Transmitting Society), a club based in Palm Springs that’s dedicated to everything ham radio.

A nice article about the utility of amateur radio in a crisis and the people who appreciate that utility.

There’s the old saying that ‘knowledge is power’, and I’ve never disbelieved that. And, we are also familiar with the old expression that ‘forewarned is forearmed’, yes? When there’s a crisis it is often of tremendous importance to have as much information as possible about whats going on. You can get that information from ‘official’ sources, which is always a rather suspect idea.

So, yeah, having the ability to communicate with whomever you want, wherever you want, whenever you want, is something that is worth ensuring.

Remember, in some countries it is perfectly illegal for citizens to own radio communications equipment. Some countries it’s highly regulated. It doesn’t take much more than the stroke of a pen to suddenly turn your scanner or transceiver into a ‘clandestine radio station’ or ‘terrorist communication network’. It seems like it couldn’t happen here but the simple fact is, you dont know that it wont. So, while youre dropping coin for that new AR, don’t overlook spending a few bucks to make sure you know whats going on in the regions around you.

Icom musing

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So the Icom-7300 arrived the other day. It is, hands down, far more radio than I know what the heck to do with. First thing I noticed, though, was that the manual included with the thing was extremely lacking. Fortunately, the internet is a handy resource.

It appears that the 7300 ships with the ‘Basic’ manual…around 80 pages (https://static.dxengineering.com/global/images/instructions/ico-ic-7300_it.pdf) . What I wanted was the ‘Complete’ manual…which is around 180 pages   (https://www.icomjapan.com/support/manual/2271/).

Does a hundred pages make a difference? Oh yes. Keep in mind, my radio experience is virtually nil…but, like a good survivalist, I need to learn (and retain) the necessary skills to make full use of this tool.

I am, unfortunately, going to have to set up a small desk in a corner of the bunker and make a little listening station for it. This means having to, once again, re-arrange thigs and make some room. Truly, space is the final frontier. At the moment, all I want to do is listen. I am told that, since I am listening and not sending, pretty much any antenna would do the job. It is unfortunate that Ticom doesn’t live nearby since he’d be pretty much the last word on these matters.

Getting a ‘serious’ radio is something I’d been blowing off for, well, way too long. There were a bunch of reasons for this…none of them really good. The biggest was the expense. The bloody thing is not cheap at almost $1200. But I suppose thats the test of your convictions about the future: do you really believe that there are bad times coming that will be bad enough that you’ll need to have your own communications network? If the answer yes then you bite the bullet and spend what needs to be spent. Another excuse is simply that things like shortwave radios are low on my list of Uncertain Goods. To my way of thinking, which may or may not be correct, I foresee the availability of things like AK’s and 30-rd magazines being more threatened than the availability of radio equipment….thus, my priorities in terms of acquisition lean towards the things that I deem as being ‘threatened’ in terms of their availability to me. As a result, a very expensive radio took a backseat. And, finally, I’ve been doing the whole paranoid survivalist thing for over thirty years…but its only recently that my life has hit the point where I can afford (barely) such grand expenditures.

So, I’ll set up a small desk in the corner of the bunker, pick up a few support items, and start getting my brain up to speed on things. Part of me is looking forward to it and part of me really wonders where I’ll find the time. But…as I said…if you really think uberbad times are coming, well, then you make the time, mister.

Radio active

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I’d been wanting an Icom-7200 for a while…so long a while, in fact, that the 7200 has been discontinued. Sure I can find them used but I really hate buying a product that is used unless I am intimately familiar with how it works and how to check it out to make sure it works. This is why, normally, I have no problem with used guns…Im familiar enough with thundertoys that I can tell fairly readily if a used gun is good or if its someones problem child.

The Icom-7200 was supplanted by the Icom-7300. Ok, thats at least 100 better than the 7200, right? Let’s order one up.

It’ll be here later in the week. I already have a power supply and cable for it, but I need to figure out an antennae (a word I can never spell right on the first go) for it. At the moment, I’ve no interest in transmitting…but I have a keen interest in listening.

As was said in Alas Babylon, “But Sam Hazzard’s principal hobby was listening to shortwave radio. He was not a ham operator. He had no transmitter. He listened. He did not chatter. He monitored the military frequencies and the foreign broadcasts and, with his enormous background of military and political knowledge, he kept pace with the world outside Fort Repose. Sometimes, perhaps, he was a bit ahead of everyone.”

My interest is in listening…taking in whats out there, examining it, and using that information as necessary. Maybe down the line I’d have need to send rather than receive, but for now I simply want to listen. And, yes, I need to get the license to transmit but thats a project for later.

If anyone has suggestions (and links) on the subject, I’d be very interested.

Radio active

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I should mention that in addition to getting that Piece O’ Nowhere purchased this year, my only other thing I’ve been putting off is getting a decent radio. I wanted to get the Icom 7200 which seemed to, from reviews I’ve read, checked most of the boxes for what I need. Naturally, it is discontinued and the newer model, the 7300, is available. Although it is a radio that sends as well as receives, my main interest is listening. So, I need to add that, a good antennae, power sources, and a few other bells and whistles to my list.

My go-to for any communications questions has always been the fabulously informative and maddeningly evasive internet personality known as Ticom. Its not that he’s an expert on the subject (he clearly is), but that he’s an expert on the subject and also has the survivalist mindset…which means that when I ask a question he can give me an answer that might be different from the answer he’d give to someone who wasn’t planning for a descent into chaos and anarchy.

Unfortunately, Ticom seems to be a rather frequently moving target in terms of blogs and URLs. This is why, like Batman, the easiest way to contact him is to make your desire known and then he contacts you.

I think I asked him his opinion of the 7200/7300 at some point but I’ll have to see if I have that archived somewhere. I like to think he could look at the specs and just give me a shopping list of “Buy this power supply and this antennae”. Man, I wish it was that simple.

But, information is power and when the lights go out, the sirens are wailing in the distance, and you have no idea WTF is going on…being able to listen in on the outside world can be a pretty valuable resource. So, in a month or two, assuming I’m not dissuaded from it, I’ll start the ball rolling and pick up the radio in question and it’s ancillary equipment. Then I gotta convince myself to climb on the roof and stick an antennae up there. Not a job I relish.

Bag O’ Tricks – AM/FMradio

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Every so often I go through my Bag O’ Tricks and think about each item that’s there and whether it’s utility and likelihood of use warrants it’s inclusion.

One item that I keep that I never question is the classic palm sized little AM/FM battery radio. In an era where, literally, the entire collected knowledge of humanity is sitting in my pocket on an internet-enabled smartphone there is still a need for the simple ‘transistor radio’. (Although, to be fair, pocket radios have evolved tremendously.)

A reasonable question to ask would be “Zero, I have the internet in front of me, a smartphone in my pocket, there’s a TV in the breakroom, and my office plays XM radio all day. Why would I need a tinny little radio to hump around in my already overcrowded EDC bag?”

Electricity. Power goes out and your office loses its XM, internet, and TV. If its a widespread outage you lose your cellphone too. (Because although those cell towers are supposed to have back up generators and batteries.. well…they were meaning to get around to that preventative maintenance but got busy.) Or, if its a big enough emergency, the phone system will be way overloaded.

So what just happened? Why’d the power go out? How widespread? Is it the result of some bad actors? Is it just a squirrel immolating himself on a transformer? Don’t know, right? So…you reach into your bag, pull out your little AA-batt radio, and start roaming up and down the dial listening for news.

This isn’t theory, I’ve had that exact situation. I’ve been sitting at my desk, theres a snapping noise, and all the power in the building goes out. A small battery radio tells me a lot when I start dialing through the frequencies…if theyre all just static or quiet, then I know its a widespread outage. If they’re carrying on like nothing happened, then I know its pretty localized. Of course, in addition to a little AM/FM/SW radio I also carry the ICOM R6 (highly recommend) so I can keep tabs on the local cop/fire response.

The folks at CountyComm have an interesting little radio that seems ideal for the task. It’s not a $12.99 WalMart radio, but then again when the power is out and I’m wondering what all the sirens are about, I suspect I’ll be glad I spent the extra money on something like that.

And, of course, since this thing gets carried around in the Bag O’ Tricks it has to be compatible with the battery logistics for the other electronic devices (and spare batts) I carry. So…AA batts.

(l.) Icom R6…tiny enough for carrying around but has tons of features. (r.) Discontinued pocket AM/FM/SW AA-batt radio from CountyComm w/ earpiece. Always pack earphones…less battery usage using earphones. Both radios fir in the Pelican 1010 case.

Like the Icom R6, the AM/FM/SW radio sits in a little Pelican case to protect it from the rough and tumble life of being in a bag that gets thrown around a lot. Do not make the mistake of thinking that you can just wrap a radio in some bubble wrap and cardboard and it’ll be okay. False economy there. No one hands out awards to the person who made it through a crisis using the cheapest gear… spend the money.

And, as always, periodically inspect your gear! Check those batteries!

 

 

 

Link – Fire Station Orange Go-Kits

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Nice to see that someone, somewhere, at some level of bureacracy, had the presence of mind to greenlight this:

Each Portland Fire & Rescue fire station has an “orange go-kit”: a 55-watt Icom IC-2100H and a roof-mounted antenna. NET volunteers are permitted to use this equipment if they have a valid FCC amateur radio license. The kit CANNOT leave the fire station, and so cannot be checked out; but, a volunteer can visit a fire station and use the radio there.

I recall years ago when the LDS church was encouraging a similar plan amongst their membership.