Situation: Mobile Repeater Operation During Disaster

[WRZM243]

Situation:  A disaster has occurred where you live and you have no way of knowing how far reaching it exists.  You must leave in your vehicle and the only source of communication is GMRS communication for purposes of this situation.  You have a mobile GMRS radio, a portable GMRS radio and a mobile GMRS repeater with you.  The mobile repeater can only work on what you have pre-programmed into it via a computer and can not be changed for purposes of this situation.  Keeping this in mind prior to this disaster you have already programmed the eight GMRS repeater channels, so what pl tones, if any would you have already had pre-programmed for those channels for the best chances of communications?

"No way you're going to get MY toilet paper... Nice try.."  Nice response from Randy... I must have "struck" something I am unaware of?

Edited February 28 by WRZM243
Clarification

[SteveShannon]

20 hours ago, WRZM243 said:

Situation:  A disaster has occurred where you live and you have no way of knowing how far reaching it exists.  You must leave in your vehicle and the only source of communication is GMRS communication for purposes of this situation.  You have a mobile GMRS radio, a portable GMRS radio and a mobile GMRS repeater with you.  The mobile repeater can only work on what you have pre-programmed into it via a computer and can not be changed for purposes of this situation.  Keeping this in mind prior to this disaster you have already programmed the eight GMRS repeater channels, so what pl tones, if any would you have already had pre-programmed for those channels for the best chances of communications?

"No way you're going to get MY toilet paper... Nice try.."  Nice response from Randy... I must have "struck" something I am unaware of?

You probably doomed yourself and your loved ones by placing an artificial and unrealistic constraint on your communications when you adopted the constraint that “the only source of communications is GMRS”.

Like the others, I don’t understand why you’re packing around a repeater.  

What your scenario is missing is realistic planning.  Instead of deliberately constraining yourself to GMRS you should ask what communications could help you in such a disaster.  You should have a plan set up in advance that include near and distance communications, at least the ability to listen to outside communications to discover the nature and size of the disaster. You should at the very least be prepared to receive news via broadcast and shortwave radio.  That means knowing where to tune and when. A huge step up from that would be the ability to respond on a variety of frequencies.

Ideally, the communications gear you choose uses very low power while listening and capable of listening across a very wide range of frequencies. An example of a poor choice would be my FTDX10 ham radio transceiver.  Yeah, it’s 100 watts output, but when receiving it uses amps.  A better choice would be the Icom IC-705.  Its receiver is plenty good and capable of receiving most frequencies from broadcast AM up to 470 MHz and all modes, so capable of receiving GMRS and its current consumption is only a fraction of that of my full size transceiver.  With the right antenna you can listen to stations that are thousands of miles away.  I don’t know if a MARS/CAP mod on the IC-705 allows it to transmit on the GMRS channels in an emergency, but honestly, GMRS is very limited as a true emergency band.  Don’t get me wrong, having a bunch of people who have GMRS radios is infinitely better than tin cans and a piece of wire, but its reach is vastly more limited than other bands used by people who know exactly where to tune in an emergency.

At least as important as the radio is the need to have a good antenna(s).  Again, simply having an antenna isn’t enough.  You must know its strengths and its limitations and how to get the most out of it.  Many people think it’s silly, but those hams who take their wire antennas and throw them over a tree for Parks on the Air know exactly how to reach someone five hundred miles away with 10 watts of RF.

 

 

[OffRoaderX]

 No way you're going to get MY toilet paper... Nice try..

[WRXP381]

In this case I’d leave the repeater in the truck   For these purposes it seams like a useless brick.  

[WRHS218]

I would not bother with the repeater. Anyone that can hit your repeater, even if there were no tones or they knew the tones, would also be able to hit your mobile radio. I would turn on the vehicle's AM/FM radio to hopefully get information and use the mobile or handheld to scan the frequencies it can receive.

[gortex2]

As said forget the repeater. Just use simplex. IF you are going to use it when you get someplace else using the travel tone would be prudent. 

[WSAQ406]

I'm taking my HT down the driveway closing my gate. carrying all the other stuff sounds to heavy.

I would shelter in place where all my toys are...

WASQ406

[nokones]

Transmit (encode) with the Travel Tone and set your receiver for CSQ, and operate simplex from your vehicle and save the portable radio batteries as long as you can.

Scrap the repeater idea. The repeater more than likely will require AC power which may not be available or if your repeater is DC operated than you will still need AC to charge the battery. Too much power consumption and battery up keep to worry about.

Of course this is in case if the fan can't operate due to the public power system being off-line for a long period of time.