As unrest and bad weather spreads across the country, it’s time to refresh our communications plans and make sure they are up to date and reflect reality on the ground and a few lessons learned. There is some Tactical Wisdom about COMSEC:
It is the glory of God to conceal a matter;
to search out a matter is the glory of kings.
Proverbs 25:2
Let me start by addressing the elephant in the room: Signal. We teach in Brushbeater’s RTO & SIGINT courses and the Combat Studies Group’s Ground Rod One course that Signal is PRIVATE, but not SECURE. There are many cases of intelligence agencies and reporters gaining access to Signal chats, usually through poor security practice and bad messaging habits. Stop thinking it is secure.
On that note: DELETE YOUR MESSAGES. The number one way in which messages are read is through reading them on someone’s device. You don’t need texts from 3 days ago – go ahead and delete them. When using any app that lets you destroy both copies of a message, set them to self delete quickly. Turthfully, if the message needs to be secure, apps and the phone are NOT how I would send it.
Another question I get daily is “What about Rapid Radios?” or some variant. Listen, those are nothing more than push to talk cell phones. Sure, you can get national range, but ONLY IF the cell network in your area is up and uncluttered. I say uncluttered because during unrest, everyone is live streaming and sharing video, so there is limited bandwidth. This blocks calls, including “radio” ones.
For local communications (under 5 miles), some type of handheld UHF/VHF radio, like the Baofengs or similar, is what you need. In an urban area, UHF (300Mhz-3Ghz) is king. The higher frequency gives better obstacle penetration, but less range. In a rural setting, VHF (30-300Mhz) is the way to go. Out here in Montana, the police agencies all use VHF due to the long range (just beyond the horizon).
This is where some Ham Radio guy says get an amateur license because you get better bands. That might be true for long range (over 50 miles), but the truth is that inside of 5 miles the 2M amatuer band (144-148 Mhz) is no better than the license-free MURS bands (151-155 Mhz) and the 70cm band (440 Mhz) is no better than license-free FRS (462-468 Mhz). For over 50 miles though, an amateur license is a great idea.
For mid-range in rural/suburban area, CB is still a great option, despite what amateur radio guys will tell you. They’ll say “CB is dead”, which is a FEATURE, not a bug. That means that there are 40 open channels right on the line between HF and VHF. 10-25 miles with a good base station/vehicle mounted CB is not that uncommon. Handhelds generally get a mile or two, but we teach ways of boosting that a long way in the RTO course. Besides, in a period of unrest, CB radios will come out of garages, basements, and attics by people who want information.
Note: The new Radtel 950 Pro does UHF/VHF and CB. It will also receive all the way down to HF bands for information gathering. Picture below is an affiliate link.
You can extend your range by using repeaters, but this generally requires either an amateur license or a GMRS license. A repeater is higher powered radio with a better antenna that boosts the signal of the lower-powered handhelds. We use one here to give us a 10-mile bubble around the Camp that our handhelds can reach. Why is this important? Because my handheld might not reach a guy 10 miles from me, but the repeater signal will, enabling me and that guy to talk. For example, we have a local repeater 30 miles away. I can reach that with my Baofeng handhelds and talk to guys 30-40 miles FARTHER away. Yes, that means I’m talking 60-70 miles on my Baofeng AR5 and AR152 radios. The best part is that the license for these is pretty liberal, as a GMRS license covers your whole family, including cousins, aunts/uncles, parents/grandparents, etc. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a lot of cousins.
Develop a plan first for your family. Require everyone to carry a radio at all times. Have one channel that works for you that is family only. Here, it’s a direct GMRS channel. There is a 12 mile gap in cell phone coverage around the camp that radio can cover, so we carry radios daily. We also have a camp-wide radio channel that everyone on the property monitors all day because we are very remote and need to be able to call each other in case of injury or dangerous wildlife (happens way more than I’d like to admit – “There’s a bear by the waste ponds….”).
Next, have a common frequency for your mutual assistance group or whatever you call it (Search & Rescue is great, as it Neighborhood Watch). This is where a private repeater can help. You can enable yoru group to stay in touch over a long distance. We have one on a private business band (yes, licensed) which enables the use of encryption, although we rarely do encrypt (makes you more interesting to listeners than you want). The radio enable communications for 35-45 miles. For longer range, we use public repeaters but not for secure comms.
Have a few licensed amateurs in group to coordinate communications with other groups in the area and to monitor local radio traffic from others. SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) is a HUGE piece of preparedness and you shoudl have some graduates of Brushbeater’s SIGINT Course on your communications or security/intelligence team.
A note about SIGINT though: It’s very tempting to jam the oppositions communications when you’ve found them, or, in the case of Cam Higby getting into the ANTIFA Signal chat, reveal them, but DO NOT. There is exponentially more value in gathering intelligence by reading their mail than there is in the short term joy of jamming. There will come a time for that, and it’s just before you raid their compound.
In addition to having comms to make sure everyone is safe and to secure your retreat/home base, you need to consider how you will wage information warfare and get the message out. We are seeing both Iran and China block traditional communications, so having some amateur radio operators who can get the signal out will help. For a case study on this, head over to American Partisan and read about Operation Cuba Libre ran by Brushbeater. Having guys who can broadcast a signal a thousand miles or more is very helpful. Learn about improvised and clandestine antennas.
For radio courses, I recommend Brushbeater’s RTO, Advanced RTO, and SIGINT Courses. For communications security – Combat Studies Groups Ground Rod 1 and 2 can’t be beat. Radio Made Easy also offers good courses. I myself have a half-day Baofeng Basics Course and a 2-day Communications for Preparedness Course. Get trained and spend some trigger time with your gear.
Make a plan and write it down. Run tests. During periods of bad weather or unrest, run nightly check-ins, just like the Rhodesians did. TRAIN.
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