This can be a true statement a good part of the time especially during normal times of peace and tranquility, unfortunately those good times tend to be interrupted from time to time and there is almost not a thing we can do about it, or is there.
Many of us in this day and age can not go more than 20 minutes without looking at the piece of electronic equipment in our front pocket, yes our cell phones. These devices have become an inseparably part of out every day carry and we have become almost a slave to them and I know when mine does not work it turns into a minor inconvenience in normal times, now imagine if you really needed it for say an emergency?
I have touched on various forms of communications in previous posts and I believe that many people under rate how important they can be in that emergency situation where normal forms of infrastructural communications are not available. Infrastructural forms of communications fall into the category of your cell phone and your land line, we all know that storms can take out cell towers or power lines that connect the system and make some form of hard line connection at some point, yes even cell phones at some point go all Alexander Graham Bell on us and turn into either copper of fiber optic lines during there journey to their destination so therefore a failure can happen. Another disruption that we have all experienced at some point in our lives it the "ALL CIRCUITS ARE BUSY AT THIS TIME"
The bottom line here is to have some sort of an emergency backup in place to be able to communicate, knowledge is power to borrow the phrase from Mr.Sir Francis Bacon.
Knowledge of what is going on in an emergency situation is of vital importance, it will allow you to make the best possible decision in an event, it can also in a way give a calming effect because you know what is happening and where, it removes the unknown or doubt, again knowledge is power and it is an advantage that you should take at every opportunity.
The product that I would like to introduce today Is one that I have and use and I am very glad that I have come across it and I will be adding more of them to my inventory here shortly. The above and below product that you see it the BAOFENG UV_5R 2 way radio, this radio is a dual band that covers UHF 400-480MHz VHF 136-174MHz or as some of you might recognize this as part of the HAM radio band as well as the FRS, GMRS and the MURS band, this one radio will cover them all.
To take full advantage to this radio one should obtain their Ham radio license as they have become far easier to obtain in the past few years especially since they have dropped the code requirement (Morse Code) from the technician class. Tests are of multiple choice and with a small amount of study ( online options ) for free it makes this a very attractive form of communications. I will note that you can still obtain this radio without having a license and use it for a passive scanner which will still give you a wealth of information and the ability to legally use it ( transmit ) on non ham channels that fall into the above mentioned FRS, GMRS and MURS channels, You can listen in on the ham and emergency weather alert channels but you are again forbidden to legally transmit on these ham channels without your license but in a life or death situation no one will throw you in jail.
My only wish with this radio is that it were made in the US but like so many other thing it is not but that is for another post both past and future. What attracted me to this radio it the coverage it can provide as well as it's front keyboard that allows you to program it yourself although there is a computer cable you can buy that will allow you to program it through your computer if you wish. The best feature though has to be the cost of the radio, an almost unheard cost of around $50
I would put this piece of gear into any collection, it is light enough to carry anywhere and versatile enough to cover many of the bands you may need so check it out and give it some consideration, there are many accessories that go along with this radio as well, I rate it a top buy for sure.
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