Communications · Practise and live with it · comms-20

Set a daily listening and check-in routine

In a long blackout, a fixed schedule saves batteries and makes sure no one is missed. Short, scheduled windows beat leaving radios on all day.

How

Set fixed times to listen to broadcast news and alerts, for example morning and evening.
Set fixed check-in windows with neighbours and with the regional net, and keep radios on standby or off between them.
Use one standard message card. Print cards with the fields of the ICS 213 General Message form used by many emergency radio groups.
Card layout: To (name and position), From (name and position), Subject, Date, Time, Message, Approved by. On the back: Reply, and Replied by with name, position, date and time.
Keep the message itself short: who, where, what happened, what is needed. Plain language only on amateur bands.
Write down important messages in the logbook with time and source, and pass them to the household.
Keep calls brief and share only essential information, as Ready.gov and the US DOE advise.

Get Tech Ready (archived copy). Ready.gov, FEMA, accessed 2026-11
Keeping Mobile Devices Charged. US Department of Energy, accessed 2026-11
Two-way radios and battery life. Hytera Europe (manufacturer), accessed 2026-11
47 CFR 97.113: Prohibited transmissions. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, accessed 2026-11
ICS-213 General Message: data dictionary (fields of the FEMA ICS-213 form). ARRL National Traffic System, accessed 2026-11