Some other suggestions/info

1) Try to find your local ham club and see if they have regular meetings. Go and attend them. You will find all types in the club, and likely will find some that are involved with emergency operations management.

2) Your antenna is the most important part of your equipment. Get a good antenna that is designed for the frequency you want to listen to or use. Whatever set up you are looking to do, don't skimp on your antenna.

3) Height is important, the higher you can get your antenna, the better, especially if dealing with 2M and higher frequencies.

4) Get good co-ax cable to connect to your radio, a good antenna will not work if the signal can not make it to your radio.

5) The radio itself. If you are not going to get licensed, or licensed by next month, you can still get a radio to listen on the frequencies. But DO NOT transmit! You can program the radios to the local repeaters and simplex frequencies to hear traffic.

6) If you don't get licensed right away, you will most likely be welcomed by the local club and what you can do is offer to help in case there is an emergency. You can man a post as long as there is a licensed operator near you and you can use their call sign. Additionally, even if you are not on the radio itself, you might be able to help at a staging area and provide support that way.

GMRS is not HAM.

GMRS frequencies are included with the FRS frequencies in those little radios you buy at wally world. You are technically not supposed to use the GMRS frequencies without a license, but obviously everyone does.

The GMRS license does not require testing and can be applied for and purchased and will cover your family

"You may apply for a GMRS license if you are 18 years or older and not a representative of a foreign government. If you receive a license, any family member, regardless of age, can operate GMRS stations and units within the licensed system."

https://www.fcc.gov/general-mobile-radio-service-gmrs

This would be a good option to get your entire family access to communications. There may even be repeaters in your area, or you can build your own if you're ambitious. This is also a good option to get started since time may be limited.

There are radios that will cover the 2M and 70cm Ham frequencies and the GMRS frequencies. That would be a good place to start. You might consider a mobile radio and a few hand held radios. They are easy to find online.

Good luck to the future HamAnons!

>>2859842

Could you expand on this "reliance on the federally maintained repeater system".

What system is this? All the repeater systems in my area are run and serviced by the local club. I'm not aware of any federally maintained repeaters that are accessible to Hams, at least not in my area.

We have several repeater sites and they are linked to one another via a UHF link using yagi antennas, so the tower sites cover a 4 county area. You can additionally access the system by hopping onto the VHF link directly.

There is also a couple of DMR systems up on a couple of the towers and a D-star link which requires internet, but the area coverage is primarily analog VHF 2M linking the towers via UHF, and none of it is federally funded or maintained.

Where are these federally funded and maintained ham sites?

>>2859842

One other thing, a base station with a co-linear antenna up at 40-50ft using a standard 50w mobile radio on 2M can make contact with another base station 50 miles away, with a similar set up, with little problem.

The base station can reach a mobile station on 2M 25-30 miles away with little problem.

So, when you're discussing range limitations, what do you consider range limitations?