Frequently Asked Questions

Real answer: It depends.

In the Susquehanna Valley, handheld radios will usually cover a few miles — sometimes more if you have decent elevation or a clearer line of sight. A proper home or vehicle setup with a better antenna can reach across town or to the next community, especially if we eventually add a local repeater.

But we’re not promising “10-mile range no matter what.” Hills, trees, buildings, and weather all affect it. That’s why the project focuses on layered communication — neighbors talking to neighbors, stronger stations bridging gaps, and experienced operators as backup. It’s not magic. It’s practical redundancy.

Absolutely not.

In fact, if the project starts feeling like a radio club, we’ve failed. Ham radio operators and experienced GMRS users are incredibly valuable as volunteers and mentors, but the public face of this effort is for regular families and churches who have zero interest in becoming technical experts.

We welcome the hobbyists — as long as they keep the focus on helping normal people, not dragging everyone into equipment debates and jargon.

Churches often become the heart of a community during disasters — shelter, meals, information, volunteer coordination. When cell service is overloaded or gone, a few simple radios can make a big difference in keeping your team connected and checking on people.

You don’t need to turn your congregation into radio operators. A couple of handheld radios for your response team and maybe a base station at the building can be enough to stay in touch with members and other churches. We’ll help you figure out what actually makes sense for your situation — no pressure, no sales pitch.

Less than you probably think.

• FCC GMRS license: $35 for 10 years (covers your whole immediate family)
• Decent starter handheld radios: $25–$60 each
• A basic home/vehicle setup: $150–$400 depending on how far you want to reach

You can start very small and add on later. This is not about buying expensive gear. It’s about having something useful when it actually matters.

Yes, for GMRS. It’s simple, no test required, and one license covers the whole family.

The cheap “bubble pack” walkie-talkies you see in stores are usually FRS and don’t require a license, but they’re limited in power and features. GMRS lets you use better equipment legally and get more reliable performance. We walk you through the whole process — it takes about 10 minutes online.

No. Apps still need cell service or internet. When those go down (and they do during major storms and outages here), the apps become expensive paperweights.

GMRS radios work independently. No towers, no monthly bill, no congestion from everyone trying to use the same network at once. They’re not a replacement for phones on a normal day — they’re the tool that still works when phones don’t.

They’re not radios in the way we mean it here.

Most of these devices (Rapid Radios being the most heavily marketed one) are basically push-to-talk cell phones. They run on cellular networks (LTE/4G/5G) — sometimes with multi-carrier redundancy — and often require an annual service fee after the first year.

When the cell towers are congested, damaged, or powered down (exactly the scenarios we care about after a major flood, ice storm, or widespread outage), these devices stop working. The marketing is deliberately misleading. They sell the dream of “nationwide emergency communication that works when everything else fails,” but in reality they fail with everything else because they depend on the same infrastructure.

True local communication capability needs to be independent of cell service. That’s why we focus on GMRS: it works when the towers are gone.

Great — use them. Many of them work on the same channels. Getting the GMRS license just unlocks the ability to use higher power and better antennas when you’re ready. You don’t have to throw anything away.

We’re keeping it low-pressure. Occasional check-ins, simple drills with families or church teams, maybe a community practice run once a month so people get comfortable. The goal isn’t to sound like professionals on the radio. It’s to make sure when something happens, people know who to call and how to keep it clear and calm.

No. Never.

This is about neighbor-to-neighbor and church-to-church communication when the normal systems are strained. It complements official responders — it doesn’t replace them. The more accurate local information flows, the less burden falls on 911 and emergency teams.

Use the contact form. Tell us whether you’re a family just starting, a church leader, or an experienced operator who wants to volunteer. We try out best to answer every message.