Analog Two-Way Survival Radios for Women and Children : Your Own World USA

To all my readers, I invite you to visit my new website for my book, Radio Free Earth: The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Survival Communications, at radiofreeearth.org.

I designed the site to help low-tech newbies learn about the kinds of survival radios available and how to use them before spending their hard-earned cash and wasting time on marketing promises and rabbit holes.

My new website, radiofreeearth.org, is designed for a broad audience, especially women and children. I want to reach out to women because the current world of two-way radios is male-dominated and caters to the military, government, commerce, and old hobbyist dudes who love to tweak their gear.

However, in a survival situation, women and children will have every bit the need to know how to use two-way radios as the guys, if not more.   When Duane W. Brayton and I authored Radio Free Earth, we did so with women and children in mind.

In this article, I want to explain a few more general concepts to Yowusa.com readers about why the Internet, Starlink, and digital two-way radios will be problematic during the coming pole shift and beyond. Then, we’ll examine why analog two-way radios are best for women’s and children’s survival.

Data Centers – The Digital Achilles’ heel

Internet, Starlink, and digital two-way radios each have unique concerns regarding their survivability, but all share the same Achilles’ heel: Data Centers, so let’s begin there.

Major internet data centers consume enormous amounts of energy, requiring power equivalent to tens of thousands of residential homes.  This energy consumption scale is truly staggering compared to typical household electricity usage.  So, what happens when the grid goes down?

Datacenter emergency generators can keep facilities operational for extended periods, with the duration primarily limited by fuel availability and maintenance requirements rather than the generators themselves.

Most commercial standby generators can run for up to 500 hours before requiring inspection or cooldown, which is 20 days and 20 hours on a 24/7 basis.

Assuming a data center has not been damaged or destroyed by a natural or artificial disaster, the fundamental limitation for most data centers is fuel storage capacity.  Diesel fuel storage tanks are typically sized to provide sufficient emergency run time during utility power outages, with 48 hours being a common standard for initial fuel capacity.   After that, the system shuts down if the fuel storage tanks cannot be refilled.

Principal Global Internet Weakness

Most people assume satellites carry most of the global internet traffic.   However, around 95% of international data transmissions and 99% of transcontinental data transmissions flow through these underwater fiber optic cables that crisscross the planet’s oceans.

These cables will be subject to many hazards.  They can be severed during a seismic event or broken when an enemy ship drags its anchor along the seabed.

Likewise, subsea cables require and use shore data connection facilities, essential components of the global submarine cable infrastructure.  These facilities serve as the critical interface between underwater cables and terrestrial networks.  Even if the cable survives, if the shore facility goes offline, the system fails nonetheless.

Principal Starlink Internet Weakness

Starlink handles traffic from users to data centers through a multi-hop satellite network architecture that routes data through ground stations before reaching terrestrial internet infrastructure and data centers.

The Starlink satellite system is highly survivable and designed for rapid replacement. Their concern will be the dust and debris in the Nemesis Cloud, which can impair their operation or cause them to deorbit and burn up. However, these satellites in low Earth orbit are not the principal weak link.  Rather, the ground stations service them on the ground.

Starlink data centers are critical infrastructure components for its satellite internet operations. They serve multiple essential functions in the network architecture, and the stations function as specialized data centers connecting the satellite constellation to terrestrial internet infrastructure.

These facilities connect to existing fiber-optic infrastructures and transmit data to the Starlink satellites in Low Earth Orbit.  SpaceX has filed applications with the FCC for at least 32 ground stations in the United States and has been expanding this infrastructure significantly.

These ground stations share a common threat concern with the cellular systems.  They are exposed to damage from several issues, such as sabotage, earthquakes, and objects flung at them by hypervelocity winds during the Nemesis pole shift.

Hypervelocity winds can occur in several natural contexts, and extreme weather events, such as tornadoes or downbursts, are of concern.  These are extremely high-speed air movements that significantly exceed typical atmospheric wind speeds.  In meteorological contexts, hypervelocity winds typically refer to wind speeds that exceed 200-300 mph (320-480 km/h), representing the most extreme end of the wind speed spectrum.

Consequently, while most Starlink satellites in low-earth orbit will likely survive the Nemesis flyby and pole shift, the ground stations and data centers will suffer significant damage.  While the system will endure in some fashion, we can expect broad service outages and performance issues during the worst times.

Principal Two-Way Digital Radio Weakness

Digital two-way radios’ versatility and efficiency make them increasingly popular among government agencies, corporations, and amateur radio communities.  However, their principal weakness, in terms of survival, can be easily boiled down to one word: complexity.

To illustrate the point, let’s compare an old Ford Mustang from the 1960s with a modern Ford Mustang.

With this image in mind, let’s say you’re driving through a scenic mountain range and have engine problems, so you pull over on the side of the road and lift the hood.  Which of the two would be easier to repair?

Remember that despite all their high-tech features, modern digital two-way radios are costly and can be challenging to repair. In some cases, replacing them is cheaper than fixing them.

So, setting all the marketing hype aside, why are they growing in popularity?  Manufacturers will point to all the nifty features like texting, but the principal reason for their adoption is that they are narrowband.  In other words, they can move more radio traffic than older analog two-way radios on the same bandwidth.

For example, a city with a large police department will have limited frequencies, which is fine for most. However, when that city doubles in size, the police coverage has to expand likewise, but its available bandwidth will not grow with it, which causes a lot of congestion issues. Hence, police departments are the first major civilian adopters of digital radios.

Here, they have an awful problem maintaining compatibility with other jurisdictions because, while the interoperability of analog two-way radios is the classic standard, with digital radios, it becomes a dicey mess of proprietary features that do not work well with others.

Therefore, despite these advantages, digital radios present challenges, including significantly higher costs, more complex programming requirements, and potential compatibility issues between manufacturers. All this is explained in more detail at radiofreeearth.org.

Why Analog Two-Way Radios Are Best for Women and Children

When you go to a HAM radio club today, you mostly find older men, some younger men, and a few women.  Some of these women are there because they are curious about what their husbands are doing, and the others have a genuine interest in it, and when they do, the men are happy to lay out the red carpet for them.

Men do this because women have played a significant and pioneering role in ham radio since the 1920s despite facing considerable challenges in a male-dominated field.  Their contributions span from technical innovation to community building, establishing a foundation that continues to influence amateur radio today.

Early female operators faced unique challenges and opportunities.  Because all early radio work was done in Morse code and operators were identified by short call signs, women could remain anonymous if desired.

To encourage their participation, the amateur radio community developed specific terminology to acknowledge female operators.  The term “YL” (Young Lady) was adopted by the American Radio Relay League in 1920 to refer to female amateur operators, in contrast to “OM” (Old Man) for males.  While potentially seeming antiquated today, this terminology represented a respectful and formal recognition of women’s participation in the hobby.

During World War II, women’s roles in radio expanded significantly.  For example, Eunice Randall volunteered for WERS (War Emergency Radio Service) and taught Morse code to aspiring amateurs, and this was a global program.   For instance, Florence Violet Mackenzie, Australia’s first female electrical engineer, founded the Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps and trained thousands of service personnel in her Sydney signal instruction school

Despite these early contributions, Ham Radio has continued to face issues of gender imbalance.  Current statistics show that women comprise only about 15% of licensed operators in the USA, with even fewer actively operating.

This disparity needs to change because women can and need to play a vital role during the Nemesis flyby and pole shift, and they can use HAM radios with satellites.  While the Starlink system will face severe challenges due to its dependence on ground stations and datacenters, there is already a solution.  It’s called OSCAR and is not available with Starlink satellites, but it works nonetheless.

OSCAR (Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio) satellites and the International Space Station (ISS) represent two distinct but interconnected aspects of amateur radio in space, each serving unique roles in advancing ham radio communications beyond Earth’s atmosphere.    All that is needed is a HAM radio, a homemade antenna, and a functional OSCAR-enabled satellite or space station, and you’re on the air.

The bottom line is that women’s role in ham radio since the 1920s demonstrates a pattern of technical competence, community building, and perseverance against gender barriers.  These early pioneers established precedents for female participation in technical fields and created pathways for future generations, even as the hobby continues to work toward greater gender balance today.

A Return to Morse Code

Included in our book, Radio Free Earth: The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Survival Communications, is the complete radio traffic log from the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912, in the early morning hours at approximately 2:20 a.m. ship’s time. The disaster occurred in the North Atlantic Ocean, roughly 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.

Shore stations and many ships at sea continuously communicated with the Titanic radio operator during this tragic event until the ship lost power.  Reading the Morse code messages is a human, heartbreaking experience.

The point is that after all of our digital communication marvels have been wrecked or gone offline for indeterminate periods during the Nemesis flyby and pole shift, the only thing that will still work to help connect with others both near and far will be analog HAM radios with Morse code.

Survival is why every young child today needs to learn Morse code.  While this may sound odd, children have a significant advantage over adults when learning Morse code, primarily due to neuroplasticity and how young brains process new information patterns.  However, adults can still successfully learn Morse code with proper methods and consistent practice.

Morse code is not only used for radio; it is a universal language that works in many other ways.  For example, an apartment block collapses during an earthquake, trapping young children in the rubble.  Even when their mouths are so dry from dust and dehydration that they cannot speak, they’ll still be able to bang on a drain pipe to let rescuers know they are alive.

But imagine this: A child proficient in Morse code can also give rescuers essential information about their location and condition, allowing them to respond more quickly and safely.

Ladies, Duane W. Brayton and I wrote Radio Free Earth: The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Survival Communications with families in mind.  It was a labor of love.  Please take the time to introduce yourself to the basic concepts at radiofreeearth.org.

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