Reference
Resources
Curated links, books, communities, and tools for building your communication resilience knowledge and capabilities.
Resources
Curated resources for building communication resilience knowledge and capabilities.
Getting Licensed
Amateur Radio
- ARRL Ham Radio License Manual — the standard study guide
- HamStudy.org — free online practice exams
- ARRL Find a License Class — local exam sessions
GMRS
- FCC GMRS License — $35, covers whole family, no exam
Equipment
Starter Radios
- Baofeng UV-5R — $25, VHF/UHF, great for learning
- Yaesu FT-60R — $150, reliable, waterproof
- Icom IC-7300 — $1,200, excellent HF transceiver
Meshtastic Hardware
- LILYGO T-Beam — GPS + LoRa, popular choice
- RAK WisBlock — modular, good for fixed nodes
- Meshtastic.org — firmware and documentation
Satellite Messengers
- Garmin inReach Mini 2 — two-way messaging, SOS
- SPOT Gen4 — one-way, lower cost
- Zoleo — smartphone integration
Communities
- ARRL — American Radio Relay League
- ARES/RACES — Amateur Radio Emergency Service
- r/amateurradio — active community
- r/preppers — broader preparedness community
Books & Reading
- The ARRL Handbook — comprehensive radio reference
- Emergency Communication by Ed Hare — ARRL emergency comms guide
- When All Hell Breaks Loose by Cody Lundin — broader survival context
Software & Tools
- Winlink — email over radio, works without internet
- JS8Call — keyboard-to-keyboard HF messaging
- APRS.fi — real-time APRS position tracking
- Chirp — open-source radio programming software
- SDR# — software-defined radio for monitoring
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