I’m happy to announce that my next book is now available! If you have family, friends or anyone else you care about and want to be prepared to weather the next power outage or even a natural disaster, Personal Emergency Communications is a must-read.
Written for the layman (no radio interest or expertise required!), I’ll walk you through the technology, the equipment you’ll need, and how you can make your own realistic, simple emergency communication plan, far more advanced and useful than the insufficient “have an out-of-area-contact” plan you’ve probably heard before.
I wrote this book for my friends and family, and for anyone who *isn’t* interested in radios at all, but who is interested in taking care of loved ones when the chips are down. Have you have ever wondered “What will I do if my cell phone, land-line phone, and the Internet don’t work?” or “How will I call [insert important people here] to know they’re safe?” Or do you only wonder now, since I asked the question? 🙂 In any case, this book is for you!
Here are comments from Ward Silver, author of “Two-Way Radios and Scanners for Dummies” and “Ham Radio for Dummies”:
This is a very useful book for someone interested in communicating in a disaster or emergency but who has little or no experience with using radio equipment… I like the book’s approach of “you can do this” and how it emphasizes thinking about what you want to accomplish, having several backup plans, and the need to practice. Andrew manages to explain the basics of different radio technologies while keeping a lot of the technical details from obscuring the basic points. To be sure…to get the most out of your radio and communicate effectively you’ll need to learn some of the technology but not all at once right at the beginning. The sections on personal prep and “go kits” is welcome and can’t be repeated enough. Going though his provided templates will help anyone think about planning and their personal circumstances which is a good thing – not enough people do it and are then unprepared. He provides on-line resources that will help the reader learn more about whatever technology they wind up deciding to use. This keeps the book from becoming an encyclopedia and makes it easy to read all the way through instead of getting sidetracked by details.
Give it a read and be much better prepared for an emergency.
-Andrew
Just finished reading your “The Road Home”. Well done. I was looking for a book to get my grandkids and nephews interested in radio. To many of the prepper books would probably scare them more than teach them something. Just ordered your “Personal Emergency Communications” Hope it is good also. I know it will be.
Are you planning making “The Road Home” into a series? Robbie still has alot to learn. How to handle one of those handguns safetly. Maybe visit his uncle who traps and hunts. Maybe join in on a search and rescue team looking for a lost child were there is no cell phone coverage. Helps set up a cross band repeater to extend the range of there HT radios. Helps relay messages between searchers using amatuer radios and the local wardens and police. Learns how to use UTM coordinates to find teamembers locations on a topographical map. The list goes on.
Hi David — yes, as a matter of fact, I do! I’m working on the sequel now :-). I’ll be sending an announcement to my subscribers soon.
Thanks for the encouragement!
-Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I liked your Personal Emergency Communications book, but did you know that Amazon.com reviews of the eXRS radios report serious reliability and battery life problems? Also. the manufacturer apparently now has gone out of business.
John, no8v
Hi John – thanks for the feedback. Yes, I’ve seen reviews on the eXRS radios, and haven’t experienced any problems with them personally (and neither have several of my friends who got them too). As it turns out, if you look at radio review sites (a great one is the eHam site: http://www.eham.net/reviews/), you’ll find problems with even the best radios.
And I heard about eXRS going out of business. That was a bummer. The good news (kind of) is that Motorola makes radios that use the same spread-spectrum approach. The upside is that Motorola generally makes high-quality gear, but the downside is that they’re relatively expensive. One model I’ve seen is the Motorola DTR650. Maybe I’ll get a couple and write a review someday… And of course, I’ll update that section of Personal Emergency Communications when I write version 2!
Thanks,
Andrew