Radio

Low-power FM (LPFM) stations broadcast at 10–100W, covering roughly 5–20 km. Unlike all other tools in this guide, LPFM is a one-to-many broadcast: a single transmitter reaches anyone with a car radio, pocket radio, or battery-powered FM receiver — no smartphone, no app, no account. This makes it uniquely valuable when the people you need to reach have lost power and internet but still have radios in their cars. Fire departments, community organizations, and local emergency management offices in several countries operate LPFM stations specifically for disaster communication. The Simsbury Fire District in Connecticut built WSIM(LP) on 103.5 MHz after a 2011 snowstorm caused 14-day power outages and cellular collapse. Radio Coraki 88.9FM in Australia rebuilt its resilience after the 2022 Northern Rivers floods using solar-powered transmitters and licensed walkie-talkie relays to maintain 24/7 broadcasts without grid power or internet.

The simplest and most universal transport. Every handheld radio speaks analog FM. No digital infrastructure required. Intelligible even at low signal levels.

Meshtastic turns commodity LoRa hardware into a self-healing text mesh. Messages hop node-to-node (default 3 hops). AES-256 encrypted private channels. Bluetooth to your phone via iOS/Android app. Longest documented link: 254 km mountain-to-mountain.

Open-source firmware for off-the-shelf WiFi hardware that creates a high-speed amateur radio mesh. Operates under Part 97 rules, allowing higher power and directional antennas for 30+ km links. Runs any IP-based service.

HF radio (3–30 MHz) uses ionospheric reflection to communicate globally without any infrastructure. The most resilient long-distance communication available — cannot be blocked geographically.