EMERGENCY ACTION PLANNING > Blog > Communication > DISASTER COMMUNICATIONS PART IIIA TOOLS
DISASTER COMMUNICATIONS PART IIIA TOOLS
Disaster Communications Tools
This is predominantly a catalog of hardware options with information on the use of the devices. Verbiage has been taken straight from the manufacturers, service providers or retail website.
What you will not see are Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) and cell based Mobile Hotspots.
PLBs transmit on a single international frequency to alert search and rescue personnel and guide them to your rescue. That is all it does. They are intended for people well off the beaten path with no alternate form of communication for an emergency rescue.
More information on PLB’s: https://www.sarsat.noaa.gov/new.html
Mobile Hotspots are just that. A mobile hotspot. They operate on the same system that your cell phone works on. Though sometimes better than the cell phone. Because of this, if your cell services are down. The odd are really good that a mobile hotspot will also be unusable.
Tools will be reviewed in three parts:
Part A;
Cell Phones
Land Lines
Part B;
Satellite Phones
Satellite WIFI Hotspot
Two-Way Satellite Messengers
Part C;
Radio Services
Amateur (HAM) Radio
Why three parts? Because there is so much information I do not want you to become bored and miss something that may be valuable to you.
Disclosure: If you click on a link that takes you to a site selling the item. I may receive compensation if you purchase the item from that link. You are not being charged if I receive any compensation, it is already built into the sellers marketing budget.
Previous posts on Disaster Communication can be found here:
Part I: https://www.emergencyactionplanning.com/2019/08/07/disaster-communications/
Part II: https://www.emergencyactionplanning.com/2019/08/12/disaster-communications-part-ii/
Part IIa: https://www.emergencyactionplanning.com/2019/08/22/disaster-communication-part-iia/
Cell Phone
Almost everybody has one.
It has been proven that during times of extreme emergency, everyone wants to talk at the same time.
Cell towers/antennas will become over-saturated with call requests and you may not be able to get through.
If your cell towers/antennas are still powered up, SMS will be the best bet to make contact locally over voice-to-voice communication.
Voice calls may get through to out of town emergency contacts.
If the power has gone out in the area, your cell phone towers/antennas may have between four and 16 hours of battery power. Some may have backup generators with up to 24 hours of fuel.
This is not true for all cell towers/antennas.
Cell towers/antennas in your community may not have any alternate power capability.
LAND LINES
Traditional landlines operate under independent power. What that means is, if the power goes out in your neighborhood your landline telephone may still be operational.
If you have a landline telephone in your home or business, you do need to determine if it is an actual true landline.
Most landline telephones currently are actually VIOP (voice over Internet protocol) and they will go out with the power goes out along with your WIFI connection.
A quick way to determine if this is the case is to call your service provider and ask.
Summary:
Cell phones will only work as long as there is battery power and the local cell tower/antennas are being powered.
It is advisable to use SMS instead of voice in the local area.
Out of town voice calls to your emergency contact may get through but don’t count on it.
If your cell towers/antennas have alternate power sources, you may have between 4 and 24 hours of operational time.
Of note* There are four FCC registered Cell Towers and 399 antenna towers in the city I live in. As of this writing, none of the registered owners have responded to my request for information on alternate power supplies.
Land lines will only be effective in a power outage if it is a true landline and not actually a VIOP provided by your Internet provider.
If it is a VIOP, it will be unusable during a power outage.
In Disaster Communications IIIb we will review:
Satellite Phones
Satellite WIFI Hotspot
Two-Way Satellite Messengers
Till next time
“Be Safe”
P.S. Do you have information that you want to share?
Right down there is the place to do it.