Mapping Ham Repeaters for Emergency Communications Plans
If you find this information helpful, please consider using this Amazon affiliate link to purchase radios and accessories. A very small portion of the sale (1-4%) goes to supporting information and education on this site.
Everyone should have some form communications plan for when things go south. If you live close to any sort of large city, events like natural disasters, riots, and even terrorist attacks are unfortunate reality you must be prepared for. Radios can take many forms (line of sight, short-range, long-range, digital, analogue, etc.), but one reason I continue to rely on my dual-band analogue tech is the huge network of supporting operators and repeaters locally. Dual-band analogue radio is not private (quite the opposite), but it’s still one of the best options for local information relay and emergency response coordination.
Here’s one tool I use when helping friends and family members design their emergency communications plans. Levinecentral.com allows you to see local ham repeaters on Google maps, visualizing the relative distance between locations. While resources like Repeaterbook.com and Radioreference.com can give you local repeater information by distance, this tool is handy for finding a repeater at a midway point between two people (like your place of work and your home). It makes it incredibly easy to find a repeater in your area to connect you with friends and family in the next town over.
How to use Levincentral.com:
To get started, head over to Levinecentral.com and select your state (you can also search by zip here if you prefer), then select the 2M and 70cm bands:
From there, identify the best repeater to connect two locations:
Next, click on the location to view available repeaters on that site. Information like frequency, offset and any tones can be plugged into your radio if they’re not programmed already.
If you’ve recently purchased a radio file from me, this is a great way to turn an unfamiliar string of letters (the repeater call sign on the screen) into something more meaningful — a repeater you can become more familiar with in the real world and utilize when necessary.
The final step is to make a simple written record of the repeaters you will use in an emergency and keep it close to the radio. This gives anyone (like your wife, children, or other family members) the ability to pick up the radio at home and know where they can likely get in contact with you.
If you found this information helpful, please consider using this Amazon affiliate link to purchase radios and accessories. A very small portion of the sale (1-4%) goes to supporting information and education on this site.
