Radios & staying in touch

• FRS, CB and MURS: no license at all. Buy them and use them.
• GMRS: about $35 on the FCC's website, no test, good for 10 years, and it covers your immediate family. You get a call sign to say on the air.
• Ham (Technician): a 35-question multiple-choice test you can take locally or online, plus about a $35 FCC fee (exam sessions may add a small fee). Good for 10 years. Most people pass after a couple of weeks of free practice tests.
• Listening is always free. Anyone can listen to any of these channels without a license.

The Baofeng UV-5R is the cheap radio every prepper video recommends. It's a great radio, but two things trip people up:

• It's a ham radio. To talk on it legally, you need a ham license. The FCC has said radios like the UV-5R aren't certified for FRS or GMRS, so you can't use one as a family walkie-talkie on those channels.
• It's confusing out of the box. Tiny screen, two lines, menus with numbers. My dumb-start guide walks you through it.

Want the Baofeng feel without the test? Get a GMRS license and a GMRS-certified radio, like Baofeng's UV-5G. Same idea, legal for your whole family.

Radios don't help if everyone's on a different channel. Sit down once, fill out a plan together, and print a copy for every home and every radio. Grandma's house should have the same card yours does.

• Pick a main channel and a backup. Write down any privacy tone or code too. Everyone's radio has to match exactly.
• Agree on check-in times. Radios kill batteries if they're on all day. Use the 3-3-3 plan: every 3 hours (9, noon, 3, 6, 9), turn on, go to your channel (channel 3 if you haven't picked one), and listen for at least 3 minutes.
• Give everyone a radio name. "Base" for home, "Car" for Dad, a first name for each kid. Licensed users say their call sign too.
• Keep a few code words. Simple and private: "Pizza" means I'm safe and heading home. Anyone can listen to your channel.
• Keep radios charged with spare batteries, and practice a check-in from different rooms, then different streets.

These are common customs, not FCC rules. Your family's own channel always comes first. A Baofeng can listen to all of these except CB.

Before an emergency, find out what actually works where you live. Spend an afternoon testing it with your family.

• Cell towers need power. Most have batteries or generators that last hours to a few days. After that, service gets spotty. Texts get through when calls won't.
• Test your radios on purpose. Leave one at home and drive or walk with the other. Note where it cuts out. Mark dead zones and good high spots on a paper map.
• Look up repeaters near you. RepeaterBook.com lists ham repeaters and myGMRS.com lists GMRS repeaters. A repeater on a tower can stretch a handheld to 20 miles or more.
• In town: buildings block signals. Talk from an upper floor, a balcony or outside. There are usually many repeaters and a local ham club that runs practice nets.

If you have few or no towers, plan as if your phone won't work at all.

• Put an antenna up high. A GMRS or ham base station with an antenna on the roof or a mast reaches far more than any handheld.
• Learn HF ham radio. With a General license, HF bounces off the sky and reaches hundreds to thousands of miles, no towers needed.
• Carry a satellite messenger. Devices like the Garmin inReach (and newer phones with satellite SOS) text and call for help anywhere with a view of the sky.
• Keep an AM and shortwave radio for news. AM stations reach far, especially at night.
• Check NOAA coverage. Weather radio stations can be weak in remote areas. Know your nearest station's frequency.
• For tech-friendly families: small Meshtastic devices send texts phone-to-phone over a few miles with no towers and no license.

Sometimes you'll get to a meeting spot and nobody's there, and there's no way to reach them. That's when a pen and paper are the best prep you own.

• Pack note supplies in every go-bag, car and your home kit: a small notepad (all-weather if you can), pens, a permanent marker and a roll of painter's or duct tape. Sticky notes fall off in rain and heat.
• Write the basics: date and time, who's writing, where you went, and when you'll be back or check again.
• Leave it in your agreed spot, out of sight: inside the shed door, under a certain rock, in the mailbox. Never tape a note to the front door saying the house is empty.
• Agree on note spots ahead of time and write them on your family radio plan.

• Do a weekly radio check on the same day you charge everything.
• Listen to a local ham net. Many clubs welcome beginners, and someone there will gladly help you program your radio.
• Make it a game with the kids: hide-and-seek with radios, or a check-in from the car on the way home.
• Add a radio check to your lights-out practice nights.