Let's Start Talking

[00:00:27] Hello and welcome back into the Prep Comms Podcast. My name is Caleb Nelson, your host here for

[00:00:33] the show. I'm an amateur radio operator and I have been for well over a decade now. And

[00:00:38] my amateur radio call sign is Kilo 4 Charlie Delta November or K4 CDN. Just so happens

[00:00:45] that the Charlie Delta November is the initials of my birth name. So Caleb David Nelson, Charlie Delta

[00:00:53] November. I picked that call. It's a vanity call sign and we'll talk about that at some point

[00:00:59] in the future. But I picked that call sign just out of haste to change my original call sign which

[00:01:05] was Kilo Kilo 4 Bravo Romeo Mike. I was not happy with that call sign. Looking back, I mean I

[00:01:13] don't know that it was a terrible call actually. And now that I prepared a study for my extra,

[00:01:19] I'm studying for my extra exam and have the opportunity to change my call again,

[00:01:23] which you can do at any time. I don't think I'm going to. I think I'm just stuck being Charlie

[00:01:29] Delta November so it's okay. It's real easy to say for me after having had it for 10 years,

[00:01:36] but either way that's a little history about me and amateur radio call signs. And this episode

[00:01:43] it's not going to be about amateur radio, but we are going to kind of shift into the momentum of

[00:01:50] talking in regards to communications for preppers and not just listening. But I want to before we

[00:01:56] get there, I want to make this point to encourage you if you haven't listened to the first 11 or

[00:02:04] 10 episodes, whatever it is, I want you to go back and give it a listen because you need to

[00:02:09] know how to listen, especially if you're a prepper and you're trying to figure communication

[00:02:12] stuff out. One of the things you may not realize that and I talk about this in all the previous

[00:02:19] programs is that you really need to know how to listen and what to use to listen depending on

[00:02:25] what you want to hear. And I know that sounds kind of silly and belaboring the point, but

[00:02:31] the reality is it's great to be able to talk to your buddy down the street. You know,

[00:02:35] it's great to keep up with your kids when they're out in the yard and I'm not against that at all,

[00:02:40] most especially for someone in preparedness and in a situation that they've been preparing for.

[00:02:47] But I think you'll find that in most cases listening to what's going on around you is

[00:02:54] equally and I'm going to say even more important than knowing your ability to talk to somebody

[00:02:59] at that moment unless it's a life or limb situation. Most of the time listening is

[00:03:03] going to be all you need to be doing and that's why I spent such a long time talking about

[00:03:09] listening devices and what to use to listen and why you would want to listen in that regard and why

[00:03:13] you'd want to listen over here to this frequency or why you don't utilize this tool to listen to

[00:03:18] this band or something. There was a great reason behind that and it's funny, but

[00:03:25] so many of you have asked when are you going to teach us how to talk? Well,

[00:03:28] I'm not here to teach you how to talk. Okay, I'm going to try to help you make some good

[00:03:33] decisions on what to use to talk to some folks and that's all going to depend on your situation

[00:03:39] and what you're trying to do, your end goal. And that's kind of what we're going to talk about

[00:03:44] in this particular episode. What is your end goal? I mean, you get on Facebook,

[00:03:50] I get messages on Instagram, people are wanting to talk to their brother in Georgia from

[00:03:55] central Pennsylvania. That's not impossible by the way, but it's not a walkie talkie from Amazon.

[00:04:01] That's not going to fix it. There was a question on Facebook the other day, you know,

[00:04:06] like how can I talk to my daughter? She's in California and I'm in Idaho. How do I talk to

[00:04:13] her if the internet quit working or the phone stopped ringing? That's doable. That's very

[00:04:19] realistic, but it's not going to be free, meaning it's not going to be free for money and

[00:04:24] it's not going to be free from time and it's not going to be free from effort. And that's one

[00:04:29] of the things that I think a lot of folks in the preparedness sphere, in this realm of preparedness,

[00:04:36] I think a lot of folks don't realize that to do these sorts of things, you have to put something

[00:04:41] in more than just 20 bucks, more than just a $30 receiver, more than just a $200 shortwave radio

[00:04:51] to listen to. If you're going to want to talk to somebody, here's my rule of thumb.

[00:04:57] You're going to have to, the person you're trying to talk to is going to want to talk to you as bad

[00:05:03] as you want to talk to them and they're going to have to be willing to make the same investment

[00:05:07] to talk to you as you are to talk to them. Let me give you a for instance, let's say you

[00:05:14] and your daughter are about, I don't know, 180 miles separate from each other, but you're

[00:05:19] worried about talking to your daughter in case of a collapse or an EMP or a hurricane or tornado.

[00:05:27] I don't know, just pick some situation and you want to talk to your daughter 180 miles away.

[00:05:33] Well, sorry, those walkie talkies you see that'll talk from here to Alaska.

[00:05:40] I wouldn't put my faith in those other than to maybe hold a piece of paper on a windy day.

[00:05:46] You need to have the capabilities to talk over high frequency, which is also like

[00:05:51] the shortwave radio we've spoken about talking on those frequencies.

[00:05:55] And that in the United States of America would require you to become an amateur radio operator

[00:06:00] at general class and it would also require your daughter to do the same thing.

[00:06:05] And she would have to have equipment that would be able to talk to your equipment and vice

[00:06:10] versa. And that's a big turn off for a lot of people. The first turn off in regards to

[00:06:15] amateur radio is having to take a test. And we'll talk about testing later, but the questions

[00:06:22] still remain. How far can I talk and what is it going to cause me? I hear that all the time

[00:06:29] and I have found that people really don't want to spend a lot and most people are not

[00:06:35] interested in the time that it would take to make that happen. Now, I'm not even talking about the

[00:06:40] time that it would take to get your amateur radio license. I'm talking about the time it

[00:06:45] would take for you to get your handy talkie from Amazon, make sure your programming is correct,

[00:06:50] make sure your buddy's programming is correct and then hand him his

[00:06:53] and you have yours and you guys see how far you can talk. Most people don't even do that.

[00:06:57] Most people just order something. They automatically assume that it's pre-programmed to do

[00:07:02] whatever they want it to do and some of them are, but the majority of them are not. And then

[00:07:06] they just throw them in a bag or put them in an EMP box or something and just wait for the world

[00:07:10] to collapse where they'll use it with complete knowledge at that point. And guys, that's a very,

[00:07:17] very stubborn spot to be starting from. And again, that was one of the reasons I started

[00:07:22] this program. There were so many questions that were being asked and a lot of the answers

[00:07:27] that folks were receiving were good answers. Others were just off the wall and crazy,

[00:07:31] but the thing is in regards to communication you have to invest yourself. I don't know,

[00:07:38] are you a shooter? Do you enjoy sports shooting or clay shooting or maybe deer hunting or bird

[00:07:44] hunting? You don't just go to Cabela's and buy a shotgun and never clean it, never rack

[00:07:50] the slide, never do anything with it and then prepare to go out on the first day of

[00:07:55] dove season and come home with a limit. I mean, that's not necessarily realistic. If you're a

[00:08:01] target shooter, you don't go down to the local sporting goods store and buy a .22 Plinker,

[00:08:07] put it up in the closet and then expect to come out and win an award at your local gun club

[00:08:15] next year without having ever shot the rifle. And it's really no different than that or maybe

[00:08:21] you do dehydrating food and you buy the Excalibur and you just take a tomato and slice it to a

[00:08:29] million pieces and throw it on the tray and put it in the Excalibur and turn it on. And you've

[00:08:34] not even adjusted the settings or understood how any of that works. You just think, well,

[00:08:39] I've got it. That's all I need. I just have to have it. And it's an American thing. I mean,

[00:08:43] honestly, it's a first world Americanized problem we have as a society. And that is

[00:08:50] we don't have to pop popcorn anymore. I'm old enough to remember, yes, I'm that old

[00:08:55] Jiffy Pop on the stovetop. It took a while. Now it's two minutes and 12 seconds in the

[00:09:00] microwave. You have a nice fluffy bag of popcorn that took two minutes versus 20.

[00:09:06] I don't know that it's just as good, but maybe it was better back as a kid because we had to

[00:09:10] wait so long for it. But anyway, I digress. The deal is communications is like everything

[00:09:17] else. It's just like a sport. It's just like a trade. It's just like a hobby. The more you do it,

[00:09:24] the more you practice, the more you give it, the better you're going to be. And folks are like,

[00:09:28] I'm not trying to be a radio operator. That's okay. You may not have to carry that or

[00:09:34] you may not be in that position, but someone near you needs to be that guy or that gal.

[00:09:40] And that's again what this program is for to help those folks get their stuff lined up.

[00:09:45] Now you can listen along and learn a lot and you may find that you're interested in this stuff

[00:09:50] after all. But again, you're going to have to prepare yourself now. And that doesn't mean buying

[00:09:57] things. I can tell you what to buy. I can give you a list if you tell me where you live and

[00:10:02] how much money you have to spend and who you want to speak to and how far away they are.

[00:10:05] I can give you a dollar for dollar list. I can create a whole package for you

[00:10:10] that would be a turnkey product. And I mean, if that's you and that's what you want to

[00:10:14] do and that's all the effort you want to put into it, hit me up. I'll fix you up. We'll come

[00:10:19] up with something. We'll do one-to-one and we'll get you figured out. But if you really want to

[00:10:24] know why and how and what and make the good decisions on your own and gain some knowledge

[00:10:29] in the process, stick around. I mean, neither way is wrong. One way it's just going to cost

[00:10:36] you more money than time. The other way may cost you more time than money. What do you want

[00:10:40] to spend? So communications again is not hard. But listening, I'm telling you the good Lord gave

[00:10:46] us two ears, one mouth. We should listen twice as much as we speak and that goes for life in

[00:10:51] general, especially in marriage, especially with children for them to listen to us at work.

[00:10:58] All these different ways it shows itself up and even in emergency communications.

[00:11:03] So we've had Hurricane come through not too long ago. We've had another one that was

[00:11:09] tempted to come in and has gone off the other way now, but there's a lot of talk, a lot of chatter.

[00:11:15] There's ways to listen to that stuff going on there. What about storm chasers? The only one

[00:11:22] that really needs to be talking on the air when there is a tornado on the ground is the guy who

[00:11:28] can see it. It's one thing for the guy to be able to track it in his car and he's following it

[00:11:35] and he's giving coordinates and direction and travel and et cetera. Me over here listening

[00:11:40] to that, I don't need to call and say, hey man, have you seen any flying cows? Does Helen Hunt

[00:11:46] still have her tank top on? Is it a red dodge? I mean, I don't need to ask him those questions.

[00:11:52] I need to be listening so that I can understand where the storm is and how to make plans

[00:11:57] and preparations and moves if I need to do that in regards to my family or my own personal safety.

[00:12:02] And that's kind of a poor example, but really that's how simple that is. It is really that simple.

[00:12:07] The guy who sees the tornado, who's tracking with the tornado needs to be the one talking at that time

[00:12:13] and nobody else. Everyone else needs to be listening because of the storm or the event

[00:12:18] or the issue or the problem so they can understand what they need to do to take care

[00:12:24] of themselves and everybody likes to talk. I mean, I'm a podcaster. I've been podcasting

[00:12:28] over 10 years. I was in radio for 10 years before that. I'm not a very good talker. I just talk a

[00:12:36] lot and here's the deal. Sometimes I have to be quiet. Sometimes my wife tells me to be quiet

[00:12:41] and that's just how it is sometimes. And radio for comms and preparedness is no different.

[00:12:49] Sometimes you just need to listen. So I think I've beaten that one to death,

[00:12:53] but it's the truth. It's so hard it seems to get people to grasp that because everyone thinks they

[00:13:00] can just buy their solution and it will do everything that they need done and that may or

[00:13:07] may not be the case. So that noise there. So yeah, everybody wants to buy a solution.

[00:13:15] Everybody wants to have a handheld solution that they can charge with a cell phone charger and put

[00:13:21] it in an EMP bag and get it out when the stuff gets in the fan and talk to their mom 600 miles away

[00:13:28] and it's not going to happen. It's not going to work guys. It's not going to work that way.

[00:13:33] And that's why again, I've spoken so much about listening. Now I do want to start talking

[00:13:38] about talking because I think it's very important that you understand the realities

[00:13:43] of what that actually entails. And one of the things that it entails is physics and physics was

[00:13:49] nothing that I was ever able to really get my head around as a student. I was never a great

[00:13:54] student, especially in regard to things like physics. But I have learned over the time as

[00:14:00] a radio operator that there are some laws that supersede other laws years ago. If you

[00:14:06] would have told a man you could take, you know, couple hundred thousand pounds of aluminum

[00:14:10] and turn it into a machine that could fly around the world at 300 miles an hour, they'd

[00:14:14] laugh at you. You know, they'd probably put you in a building somewhere with some, you know,

[00:14:21] pillows on the wall or something. But nowadays, it's nothing for us to go to the jet port,

[00:14:25] get in an airplane and fly from here to wherever you wanted to go and not even think about it.

[00:14:29] Because the law of lift supersedes the law of gravity. Gravity was what mankind knew for so long

[00:14:36] and then they discovered the law of lift and it supersedes the law of gravity. Well, physics has

[00:14:42] laws and a lot of those cannot be overcome just because we want them to. They can't be beaten

[00:14:47] just because we want it to work in our favor. So we have to utilize the tools at hand to make

[00:14:54] the laws work for us. We can work against them all day long, trust me. And there's plenty of

[00:15:00] accessories out there that will help you work against them, which in turn works it back

[00:15:04] against you. But there's also a lot of great stuff out there that you can utilize in your favor

[00:15:09] that will make your communications goals and completing those goals a lot better for you and

[00:15:16] those around you. Now, here we're going to start right here. There's so many ways that a prepper

[00:15:22] can get into communications. You know, I mean, you can buy the little blister pack radios at

[00:15:28] Walmart 24 bucks, put some AA batteries in, hand them to you kids, talk all over the

[00:15:32] neighborhood, you're good. You can order some stuff on Amazon from $20 to $48 to $68 to $120

[00:15:40] apiece just depending on what you want to spend for what you get. Some of those radios you have

[00:15:45] to have license for and it really that's pretty simple. We just now pay for it. And others,

[00:15:49] others you don't have to have license for them. Some of those radios beyond that,

[00:15:53] you can put in a backpack, you can tow them around, you can put them in your car,

[00:15:57] you can put them in your building or your shack or your bedroom or your office.

[00:16:01] You can connect them to little bitty antennas, you can connect them to huge antennas on towers.

[00:16:05] I mean, it's really kind of endless and the only limits again are who do you want to talk to

[00:16:12] and what do you want to spend? Even as an amateur radio operator, it really comes back

[00:16:16] down to that. Who am I trying to talk to and what I want to spend? So we're going to be

[00:16:21] getting into that sort of thing. We're going to talk about CB radios, FRS, GMRS, MURS, all

[00:16:26] these acronyms and oh man, we're going to have some fun with some of this stuff.

[00:16:32] But I just wanted to kind of come in here and say, hey, thank you for your patience in

[00:16:35] getting ready to talk about things, talk because we needed to have a foundation of listening.

[00:16:41] And now as we get ready to give forward, get ready because this is where we're going

[00:16:46] to begin to introduce to you the things that you have at your hand that you're ready

[00:16:51] to be able to utilize to communicate in case of an emergency. Now we'll get to the point where

[00:16:56] there's some things that are beyond my level of expertise and we're going to bring what we're

[00:17:01] bringing folks in to address that, but we're going to start again at the very bottom.

[00:17:06] And the very bottom to me is CB radio. Yeah, CB radio back in the day, Breaker 1-9,

[00:17:14] 10-4 Good Buddy. It's one of my favorite topics. It's really one of the things

[00:17:18] that got me into communications. And just because I'm starting here does not mean that

[00:17:24] I think it's the best answer to a prepper's needs for comms, just because I have a free e-book

[00:17:30] that the link will be in the show notes for you to get. Just because of that,

[00:17:35] I don't think that CB is the best thing, but you know what? A lot of folks have CB

[00:17:40] radios laying around from back in the day. They're stupid cheap. You can buy them at

[00:17:44] a pawn shop. You can buy them even brand new for less than $100, very easily. Some good ones. And

[00:17:49] we'll be talking about those. There's some big changes that have been made in CB radio over the

[00:17:54] last couple of years, which I believe have enhanced the service. So just kind of like

[00:18:00] we started at the very bottom with an AM FM radio. We're going to start the very bottom

[00:18:05] in what I believe is one of the most necessary tools, but at the same time it may not be

[00:18:12] exactly what you and your family need. So we're going to talk about CB radios,

[00:18:16] begin talking about CB radios next time here on the Prep Comps podcast just to wet your appetite.

[00:18:23] But hey, again, check the show notes. I've got a free e-book, a PDF. I'd love to share it with you.

[00:18:28] You just follow the link, sign up. It'll come right to your email box. You can read it.

[00:18:32] It's about 100 pages long. And it's all about how CB radios can enhance a prepper's

[00:18:38] communications preparedness. And again, it's not that doesn't mean that the CB is going to be the

[00:18:42] end all be all this. The only thing you got to use and don't have to think about anything else.

[00:18:46] It's quite the opposite, but it's a great tool to have in the toolbox. And we're going to talk

[00:18:50] about it the next time here on Prep Comps podcast. Hey, don't forget Carla night yet. We still

[00:18:55] have the hub city mercantile. We're still selling the British Birkfield water filter systems.

[00:19:00] We'd love to put these in your hand. We've got the stainless steel that go on the top

[00:19:05] of the counter. We have under sink filters that go in with a little baby spigot in the sink.

[00:19:10] So you can have filtered water at any time that you have pressure as well as a whole house system

[00:19:15] that we use as well underneath our house. It works great. So you have that type of filtered

[00:19:19] water in your house at every spigot, even clean toilet water. I don't suggest that by the way.

[00:19:26] But anyway, it's a hub city mercantile show sponsor and it's us. We're real people and

[00:19:30] we sell real stuff and it's awesome. And it's the granddaddy of all water filter systems.

[00:19:36] Thank you to love them if you had one. So check it out. It'll be in the show notes.

[00:19:40] I'm Caleb Nelson, Kilo for Charlie Delta November. Thank you for your time.

[00:19:44] Really enjoyed being here with you and can't wait to see you next time on the Prep Comps podcast.

[00:19:48] God bless 73 y'all.