I am a new Ham, General studying for Extra. Only test passing knowledge, no hands on (building out a kit now). When SHTF comes, will everything be on 20 and 40 or do you see broader application?
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HAM Radio use without a license is legal in a emergency.
145.520 simplex is a frequency many HAMs monitor...
Here is a protocol for its use and it's secondary frequency's they follow currently.
The Wilderness Protocol” recommends that stations (fixed, portable or mobile) monitor the primary (and secondary if possible) frequency(s) every three hours starting at 7 AM local time, for five minutes (7:00-7:05 AM, 10:00-10:05 AM, etc.) Additionally, stations that have sufficient power resources should monitor for five minutes starting at the top of every hour, or even continuously.” The primary frequency is the National Simplex Calling Frequency…146.52 MHz. The secondary frequencies are 446.0, 223.5, 52.525 and 1294.5 MHz.
Most will be on 2mm ..make contact on simplex then chose a freq to move off to..where you go is determined by the hardware both are using.
Any HF bands will be used for longer distances - each band has its distances ranges following day and night, times of year, etc. vhf and uhf are mainly on for shorter line of sight distances. Yes there are repeaters but not all are necessarily going to be available when needed, and even if all were, think traffic jams. You are smart going for general and above, get some HF gear and put up some antennas.