Communications · Plan: who must reach whom, and how · comms-1

List what the household must be able to do without networks

Before buying any radio, write down the jobs comms must do in a long blackout: hear official warnings, talk across the estate, reach neighbours, reach family further away, and call for help. Each job needs a different tool.

How

List every person who must be reachable: household members, close neighbours, family outside the area, and the nearest people who can give medical or fire help.
For each, note the rough distance from the estate: on the land (under 1 km), neighbourhood (a few km), region (tens to hundreds of km), or far away.
Note who in the household can learn radio procedures and who could sit an amateur radio exam.
Note your country, because licence rules and alert systems differ by country.
Use this list to choose tools in the later steps: broadcast receivers for warnings, licence-free radios for the estate, amateur radio for region and beyond, and satellite devices for calling rescue.

Do these first

safety-1

Sources

Leveraging the PACE Plan into the Emergency Communications Ecosystem. CISA / SAFECOM and NCSWIC, accessed 2026-11
Family Communication Plan. FEMA / Ready.gov (hosted by New Jersey Office of Emergency Management), accessed 2026-11

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