tt-radio - Skills and Equipment

The skills and equipment required to utilize Ham Radio after the Pole Shift vary greatly, depending upon the isolation of a survival community and the extent to which a community wishes to offer communications services within their own community, other local communities, and the rest of the surviving world.

Equipment	Advantages
CB Radio and Antenna	The ability to communicate with other communities within about 20 miles. Under "skip" conditions, the ability to learn something about what's happening outside their own community.
Short Wave Receiver	The ability to listen to surviving radio stations around the world. This would provide some news and possibility of some entertainment.
VHF/UHF Ham Radio Transceiver and Beam Antenna	The ability to communicate with other similarly equipped communities within about 20 miles. This range can be greatly extended should local communities erect one or more Repeaters. If also equipped with a computer and Terminal Node Controller (TNC / Packet), the ability to communicate digitally with these stations and access a common "Bulletin Board", providing a limited local Internet-like capability. If one of these other local communities is equipped with HF Ham Radio capabilities, the ability to send and receive formal messages to other survival sites all over the world via relay.
HF Ham Radio Transceiver with High Power Linear Amplifier, Tower, Beam Antenna, and TNC	The ability to communicate world-wide with other surviving communities.

Skill	Advantages
Basic radio operation	Provides the community with the ability to at least hear what is going on outside their individual community. Limited ability to "talk" with others outside their community.
Proficiency with VHF/UHF Packet	Provides the community with the ability to communicate digitally with a local "Bulletin Board", which will provide local community email and internet-like capabilities.
Proficiency with operation of a HF transceiver	Provides the community with the ability to communicate world-wide, and allows the community to provide this service to other local communities.
Proficiency with the various HF digital modes	Provides the community with world-wide digital communications, including large volume message traffic and access to large "Bulletin Board" facilities. This provides the greatest promise for achieving the closest thing to a world-wide internet.