Amateur Radio is the way to go when other forms of communication are down. Cell phones? Most cell towers only have three days of backup power. Grid outage lasts longer? No phones. Remember, emergency situations are not a case of "IF", they are a case of "WHEN"
There is some amazing work being done with amateur radio for establishing networks of reliable communications - both voice and digital text - but it requires several different software packages to be used together and getting everything to work reliably can be a bit of a trick. Especially if there is an emergency and communications are needed now - you can't just Google or YouTube a video on setting up the software when everything is down...
Fortunately, KT1RUN (Gaston) has been putting together a framework that incorporates these various apps. He requires that you use a specific radio set (a common one in production for over ten years) and a specific set of hardware (simple and cheap) but the results are a thumb-drive that you plug in to your laptop, boot to the thumb-drive and you have instant and secure voice and digital communications. You can also install the packages on the laptop if physical security is not an issue.
Check out The Tech Prepper's video channel and his EmComm Tools website - good stuff...
For people interested in Ham Radio, the process of licensing has been greatly simplified over the years. There is no requirement to learn Morse Code and the test is very simple. The FCC publishes the test questions and the four answers to each question (only one is correct) so studying for the test is just a matter of rote memorization. Learning the theory is good but not needed for licensing.
I have been very happy with this website: QRZ/hamtest
You do have to register but that is for your benefit. As you take the test online, it will keep track of where you are good and where you need more study. The difficult questions will appear more often until you learn the answers. The service is free.
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