We’re in the Helene impacted area and have many of the same issues and concerns as you. Thought we were reasonably well prepared. Found out we didn’t have enough cash on hand, not enough gasoline in reserve and no alternative comms once the cell towers went to SoS Only for 3 days. Nothing like a real world test to expose the weakest links. Great advice. Looking forward to part two.
I'm a licensed HAM myself. You are 100% correct on learning how to use it. Just buying a radio isn't useful if you don't know what frequencies are being used in your area, both simplex and duplex. Simplex is direct radio-to-radio communication. Duplex is when you transmit on one frequency that a local repeater is monitoring, it picks up that signal, and re-transmits it on a different frequency at much amplified power. i can easily hit a repeater over 20 miles from my house with a 5 watt handheld in my back yard, and talk with anyone within radio range of that repeater tower. The other thing you will quickly learn is that most repeaters have a net meeting at least once a week, where local HAMs will all meet on the frequency on a certain day and time for everybody to "check in" and discuss local goings-on. You need to be licensed with a callsign to transmit and talk with anyone under normal conditions, but anyone in the world is welcome to listen to any HAM frequency at any time. Listening to your local net will get you familiar with names and callsigns of your local emergency HAM network. And obviously in the event of an emergency, no license or call sign is required. An emergency call trumps any other communications, and the person that responds to you will relay your situation to the proper authorities to get you some help. Think of it like a 911 call with a radio. Also most modern home police-type scanners are programable to scan your local VHF/UHF HAM frequencies as well. A HAM radio can scan, but at a small fraction of the speed of an actual scanner. I have a scanner in my HAM shack right beside my radio. You can catch someone talking on the scanner, then tune your radio to that frequency to talk or listen. I'd recommend buying "The Ham Radio Prep Technician Class License Manual (2022 - 2026)" off of amazon or some place. It has all the information, practice tests, as well as the actual pool of questions that could be on your FCC test. The book will explain everything you need to know about getting your HAM license. A technician's class license will permit you to use all the local VHF/UHF frequencies and begin networking with your area HAMs. Even if you don't get around to testing for a while, this book will expand your knowledge of HAM communications by a lot.
an upgrade to consider is getting to know your neighbors better, when things become stressful is not the time to learn about new people. make those connections, have an idea who will be helpful and who will be needy.
If you do not have it already, one thing you might look into is getting a used propane gas dryer. They can usually be found very cheap on craigslist and can easily run off a 20lb propane bottle. For hot water, you could also look into a propane camp type water heater that can be run on a 20lb prpane bottle as well.
Definitely get the transfer switch with either a 30A or 50A generator connection. You can hook up the power bank to power it, or the gas generator. You can run the gas generator a couple of times a day and with it power the emergency house loads AND be recharging your power bank.
Yes, I got the 50A(10 unit) because I was not sure, if I would connect larger power draws. Just get the larger one and worry about the specific connection later. With the 50 amp unit the largest breaker is 30 amps, which one may need if they have an electric water heater.
Transfer switch - my preference is a generator input receptacle inside near the main panel and an interlock on the main breaker panel. The reason is that you may not be able to run the entire house, but you have much greater choice over what you do run. Being able to only choose 6, 8, 10 circuits over being able to select ANY circuit is a great advantage. You just turn off the breakers you do not want to power, like the dryer. Water heater - when my hot water heater died, I replaced it with a hybrid. In heat-pump-only mode, it draws a mere 600 watts, easily powered by battery backup. Yes, it takes longer to heat the water, but if you're conservative, you'll have hot showers. One more power source - get a standalone pure sine wave inverter and connect it to your car/truck battery for 120VAC. Depending on the size of your alternator, a 1000-2000 watt inverter can be used. Propane - have the gas company install a gas tap with quick disconnect on your large bottles, to be used to run cooking equipment and generators. You can still cook outside and no one need to come inside.
1 lb disposable bottles of propane are now running about $5 each at WM. They have gotten more expensive. Also some states are starting to ban them. That may change the equation in the decision to buy the refillable canisters.
Baofeng now has a type C rechargeable battery. Check with your local ham club to find out the local repeater frequency, you can monitor without a license.
Transfer switch, If you are going to buy a transfer switch, get the 10-breaker switch, not the 6-breaker switch. Why, because they can be the same cost in many instances. Also, what do you need? Get the base 10 breaker unit online, and you can buy the rest of your specific required parts at Home Depot/Lowes for a cheaper price then the combo transfer switch.
Your propane prices are quite different than in my region of the Midwest. A filled 20lb tank is $54 (not $40 like you said) and a 1lb canister is about $5 (not $2).
20lb bottle new/empty are about $50 where I am, but the cost to refill them is $15. And you'd be surprised how many people throw out a 20lb bottle simply because they don't know it can be refilled. You can find practically new ones well within date spec for nothing at the landfill. At worst case, take one of those bottles and turn it in at a Blue Rhino exchange for about $25 filled to 80%.
Neighbors are always a consideration - both good and bad. I have an efficient outdoor kitchen, setup with prepping in mind. I figured I'd allow neighbors to use my outdoor kitchen, if needed, to cook their food, if they shared food with me. I can keep the pizza oven going and share my sourdough starter and they can bake bread using their salt and flour. I don't want to be known as "the person with stuff" but "the person who helps." Solar is only great if you have sunshine - and, you can't depend on the sun. I'd look for a small dual or tri fuel generator that could use propane/gas and nat. gas, if you have access to that. Use that generator two hours a day to charge the battery setup. That way you're setting up a redundant system rather than individual, single-use items.
My concern with the ham radio is that I need something my kids can use. Being in earthquake country, my most likely disaster won't have any warning. My kids are teenagers and I'm divorced, so if they're at my house and I'm away, I need them to be able to pick the radio up, at most set it to a prearranged channel, and press a button to contact me. I was thinking of going with the cobra RX680 sets, throw one in each car kit, have a couple at home, and maybe give a couple to their mom in case they're with her. The path of damage in an earthquake isn't going to be as wide as it is in a hurricane. It may be a long path if the San Andreas fault completely unzips, but the severity of the damage should be less and less as you go perpendicular to the fault. A radio that transmits 30+ miles will probably get me in touch with someone outside the damage. Aside from radios, I was surprised to learn that satellite texting may be available to standard cell phones now. Before you spend too much time getting a CB license, you may want to look into it and see if that plus walkie talkies are sufficient for your plan. Also, as far as I know, you don't need a license to use the emergency CB band. I'm not going to discourage you from getting your license. I'm just talking about what you can do today.
Maybe you should get to know your neighbors because you might need them more than they need you. Just because you have preparations doesn’t mean you are the one who will be in the best position. You could very well be the one in the worst condition.
Have more cash, a couple thousand at least, power outages can last a long time and business only accepts cash. I have a rocket stove that burns eood, charcoal, debris. Wht gets used most is a 1500w pure sine wave inverter hooked up to car starter battery, start engine and use alternator sd generator, use it to run microwave, induction cooker, tv, eyc...
Depends on how you use it. The up-front cost of the refillable canisters is high comparatively, and if you put them away for an emergency or only use them once a year to go camping, no, not cost effective. You're better off stocking the throwaways. If you use them constantly, cooking outside, propane lights and torches, the cost of propane to refill is less than a dollar vs the cost of buying throwaways and would be a better deal. Personally, I'm not big on the refillables. The o-rings and seals can be expected to fail with repeated use. I keep a small store of throwaways but use a 20 lb bottle as my primary propane source.
Excellent! I have had a cash plan for years, wife sticks with plastic 🤯. I struggle with how I will deal with neighbors. I will recharge any of there electronics, but question letting power stations leave my house. I’m not sure about taking the lead on providing meals, I will donate much more than my share but sure would like the setup to be anywhere but my house. I stayed away from the whole house connection for my battery station, a normal house electrical system has so many parasite draws. This is a great series of videos.
We’re in the Helene impacted area and have many of the same issues and concerns as you. Thought we were reasonably well prepared. Found out we didn’t have enough cash on hand, not enough gasoline in reserve and no alternative comms once the cell towers went to SoS Only for 3 days. Nothing like a real world test to expose the weakest links. Great advice. Looking forward to part two.
I'm a licensed HAM myself. You are 100% correct on learning how to use it. Just buying a radio isn't useful if you don't know what frequencies are being used in your area, both simplex and duplex. Simplex is direct radio-to-radio communication. Duplex is when you transmit on one frequency that a local repeater is monitoring, it picks up that signal, and re-transmits it on a different frequency at much amplified power. i can easily hit a repeater over 20 miles from my house with a 5 watt handheld in my back yard, and talk with anyone within radio range of that repeater tower. The other thing you will quickly learn is that most repeaters have a net meeting at least once a week, where local HAMs will all meet on the frequency on a certain day and time for everybody to "check in" and discuss local goings-on. You need to be licensed with a callsign to transmit and talk with anyone under normal conditions, but anyone in the world is welcome to listen to any HAM frequency at any time. Listening to your local net will get you familiar with names and callsigns of your local emergency HAM network. And obviously in the event of an emergency, no license or call sign is required. An emergency call trumps any other communications, and the person that responds to you will relay your situation to the proper authorities to get you some help. Think of it like a 911 call with a radio.
Also most modern home police-type scanners are programable to scan your local VHF/UHF HAM frequencies as well. A HAM radio can scan, but at a small fraction of the speed of an actual scanner. I have a scanner in my HAM shack right beside my radio. You can catch someone talking on the scanner, then tune your radio to that frequency to talk or listen.
I'd recommend buying "The Ham Radio Prep Technician Class License Manual (2022 - 2026)" off of amazon or some place. It has all the information, practice tests, as well as the actual pool of questions that could be on your FCC test. The book will explain everything you need to know about getting your HAM license. A technician's class license will permit you to use all the local VHF/UHF frequencies and begin networking with your area HAMs. Even if you don't get around to testing for a while, this book will expand your knowledge of HAM communications by a lot.
an upgrade to consider is getting to know your neighbors better, when things become stressful is not the time to learn about new people. make those connections, have an idea who will be helpful and who will be needy.
Agreed. I need to weed out the "grasshoppers" from the "ants." But until stressed I find it hard to tell who would be a brother and not a taker.
If you do not have it already, one thing you might look into is getting a used propane gas dryer. They can usually be found very cheap on craigslist and can easily run off a 20lb propane bottle.
For hot water, you could also look into a propane camp type water heater that can be run on a 20lb prpane bottle as well.
Definitely get the transfer switch with either a 30A or 50A generator connection. You can hook up the power bank to power it, or the gas generator. You can run the gas generator a couple of times a day and with it power the emergency house loads AND be recharging your power bank.
Yes, I got the 50A(10 unit) because I was not sure, if I would connect larger power draws. Just get the larger one and worry about the specific connection later. With the 50 amp unit the largest breaker is 30 amps, which one may need if they have an electric water heater.
Transfer switch - my preference is a generator input receptacle inside near the main panel and an interlock on the main breaker panel. The reason is that you may not be able to run the entire house, but you have much greater choice over what you do run. Being able to only choose 6, 8, 10 circuits over being able to select ANY circuit is a great advantage. You just turn off the breakers you do not want to power, like the dryer.
Water heater - when my hot water heater died, I replaced it with a hybrid. In heat-pump-only mode, it draws a mere 600 watts, easily powered by battery backup. Yes, it takes longer to heat the water, but if you're conservative, you'll have hot showers.
One more power source - get a standalone pure sine wave inverter and connect it to your car/truck battery for 120VAC. Depending on the size of your alternator, a 1000-2000 watt inverter can be used.
Propane - have the gas company install a gas tap with quick disconnect on your large bottles, to be used to run cooking equipment and generators. You can still cook outside and no one need to come inside.
Generator input and interlock is definitely on my list after seeing a lot of Helene videos
1 lb disposable bottles of propane are now running about $5 each at WM. They have gotten more expensive. Also some states are starting to ban them. That may change the equation in the decision to buy the refillable canisters.
I had stuff too but not to be cut off from everything
Baofeng now has a type C rechargeable battery. Check with your local ham club to find out the local repeater frequency, you can monitor without a license.
Transfer switch, If you are going to buy a transfer switch, get the 10-breaker switch, not the 6-breaker switch. Why, because they can be the same cost in many instances. Also, what do you need? Get the base 10 breaker unit online, and you can buy the rest of your specific required parts at Home Depot/Lowes for a cheaper price then the combo transfer switch.
Your propane prices are quite different than in my region of the Midwest. A filled 20lb tank is $54 (not $40 like you said) and a 1lb canister is about $5 (not $2).
20lb bottle new/empty are about $50 where I am, but the cost to refill them is $15. And you'd be surprised how many people throw out a 20lb bottle simply because they don't know it can be refilled. You can find practically new ones well within date spec for nothing at the landfill. At worst case, take one of those bottles and turn it in at a Blue Rhino exchange for about $25 filled to 80%.
Neighbors are always a consideration - both good and bad. I have an efficient outdoor kitchen, setup with prepping in mind. I figured I'd allow neighbors to use my outdoor kitchen, if needed, to cook their food, if they shared food with me. I can keep the pizza oven going and share my sourdough starter and they can bake bread using their salt and flour. I don't want to be known as "the person with stuff" but "the person who helps." Solar is only great if you have sunshine - and, you can't depend on the sun. I'd look for a small dual or tri fuel generator that could use propane/gas and nat. gas, if you have access to that. Use that generator two hours a day to charge the battery setup. That way you're setting up a redundant system rather than individual, single-use items.
My concern with the ham radio is that I need something my kids can use. Being in earthquake country, my most likely disaster won't have any warning. My kids are teenagers and I'm divorced, so if they're at my house and I'm away, I need them to be able to pick the radio up, at most set it to a prearranged channel, and press a button to contact me. I was thinking of going with the cobra RX680 sets, throw one in each car kit, have a couple at home, and maybe give a couple to their mom in case they're with her. The path of damage in an earthquake isn't going to be as wide as it is in a hurricane. It may be a long path if the San Andreas fault completely unzips, but the severity of the damage should be less and less as you go perpendicular to the fault. A radio that transmits 30+ miles will probably get me in touch with someone outside the damage.
Aside from radios, I was surprised to learn that satellite texting may be available to standard cell phones now. Before you spend too much time getting a CB license, you may want to look into it and see if that plus walkie talkies are sufficient for your plan. Also, as far as I know, you don't need a license to use the emergency CB band. I'm not going to discourage you from getting your license. I'm just talking about what you can do today.
Maybe you should get to know your neighbors because you might need them more than they need you. Just because you have preparations doesn’t mean you are the one who will be in the best position. You could very well be the one in the worst condition.
Make sure you have plenty of small bills ($1, 5, 10)
Have more cash, a couple thousand at least, power outages can last a long time and business only accepts cash. I have a rocket stove that burns eood, charcoal, debris. Wht gets used most is a 1500w pure sine wave inverter hooked up to car starter battery, start engine and use alternator sd generator, use it to run microwave, induction cooker, tv, eyc...
Video about refilling normal 1lb coleman propane bottles from a 20 pd tank. ruclips.net/video/PAr-9UnM7gQ/видео.html
Here is a question, will the refillable propane save you money in the long run or not.
Depends on how you use it. The up-front cost of the refillable canisters is high comparatively, and if you put them away for an emergency or only use them once a year to go camping, no, not cost effective. You're better off stocking the throwaways. If you use them constantly, cooking outside, propane lights and torches, the cost of propane to refill is less than a dollar vs the cost of buying throwaways and would be a better deal.
Personally, I'm not big on the refillables. The o-rings and seals can be expected to fail with repeated use. I keep a small store of throwaways but use a 20 lb bottle as my primary propane source.
Excellent!
I have had a cash plan for years, wife sticks with plastic 🤯.
I struggle with how I will deal with neighbors. I will recharge any of there electronics, but question letting power stations leave my house.
I’m not sure about taking the lead on providing meals, I will donate much more than my share but sure would like the setup to be anywhere but my house.
I stayed away from the whole house connection for my battery station, a normal house electrical system has so many parasite draws.
This is a great series of videos.