Communications For Survival And Self-reliance Review

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(More customer reviews)I purchased this book to learn more about communication options in the event of emergencies - local or worse, with events like Katrina and 9/11 in mind. I wanted to know how I could create a system that would enable me to protect my family should cell phones, land lines, and the like break down. From the author's other books, and the descriptions of this one, I feared it might lean toward the fanatical survivalist direction, but I'm happy to say that is primarily not the case, but see below. In fact, it is an excellent overview of a very wide range of communication options, including the obvious ones (cell phone), as well as the more arcane. The book is extremely well-written (despite several typos and other editing errors), and the author's obvious intelligence comes through in the clarity of the writing, and in the way he has anticipated questions and areas of confusion. Reading his text was a pleasure.
He covers the entire gamut of radio services, and exhaustively discusses the use and pros/cons of all kinds of equipment - scanners, cb radio, shortwave radios, ham radios, digital communication, morse code, etc. The coverage is not superficial - I had done a lot of reading on the internet, but there was quite a bit in the book that went beyond what I read elsewhere. It would take a fair amount of research to put all of this together on your own. Despite the breadth of the coverage, there is a surprising amount of practical detail - enough to really give you a sense of what it might take to use the various options, and when you would want to. Unlike many other overview books (like the Idiot's Guides series), this is not a book that becomes useless after one read - there is useful reference material here.
The reason I gave it 4 rather than 5 stars is that there is a rather long, detailed chapter on codes and ciphers, as well as a couple of appendices on operations codes, which I would guess is a reflection of the author's concern about Big Brother reading his email and listening in on his conversations. To me, this really goes beyond the objective as indicated in the title - a more appropriate title might have been Communications for Survival, Self-Reliance, and Privacy from the Feds and other Snoopers.
For someone focused on communications in the event that conventional infrastructure was broken or overwhelmed, this is totally irrelevant. In addition, the author clearly states that amateur radio is one of the most important means of communication for these purposes; however, as he points out earlier, using private codes/ciphers is illegal on this service. Although this material was interesting, the amount of space dedicated to it was out of proportion to the goal of the book, and could have been better used for additional practical information on the other topics.
I also felt that the appendix of questions for the Technician class amateur radio license was a waste of space - those questions are available in several other books and on the internet.
I also wish Chesbro had done more of a summary at the end - pulling together the various options, with perhaps a little more guidance on what he considers best solutions for different scenarios and budgets (a simplified good, better, best approach).
If there's a second edition, I hope the author will scale back the codes, remove the amateur radio licensing questions, add a summary and advice section, and beef up the other sections even more - perhaps going into more detail on hardware options, costs, pros and cons of different choices, exactly what you need to purchase for each approach, etc.
In summary, the material had an excellent balance of depth and breadth, and is very well thought out. This book is a great starting point to learn about the many options for emergency communications for the individual or family (especially radio). After reading this book, you will have a much clearer idea of where to go next to learn what you want to know. There doesn't seem to be anything else out there that puts this together in quite this way - most books on radio are focused more on Ham radio as a hobby or on participating in Emergency networks as public service (eg ARES, RACES) - rather than on personal emergency communications.
If you're a bit paranoid you'll appreciate the codes, ciphers, and other spy stuff - otherwise, you can ignore that material and still get a lot out of the book. I highly recommend it for anyone thinking about what they need to survive the next big disaster.

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Have you ever stopped to consider how you would communicate with loved ones in the event of a widespread infrastructure failure, natural disaster or man-made atrocity? In an increasingly uncertain world, the ability to have 100-percent control over your communications is crucial to maintaining personal security. In this book, communications specialist Michael Chesbro offers expert in-depth guidance on integrating a broad spectrum of independent, alternative communications methods - from the various licensed and unlicensed radio services to digital modes - into a highly effective communications network for survival and self-reliance. He also examines standard operating procedures, options for establishing both local and international contacts, different types of equipment, methods of sending messages securely and more.

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