Communicating via radios is not as easy as talking to your family or neighbors in small groups. We are used to the family gatherings where there are three or four conversations going on in the room and we are kind of aware of what's going on in more than one of them. With radios, we have to focus our communicating, talking one-at-a-time, and being concise and informative.
The subsections of this page are all recipes for specific communications challenges. "What to Do ..." is the baseline procedure to follow if you feel the ground shake, see or smell lots of smoke, or have been watching it rain for a few days and are concerned about flooding, downed trees, or hill-slides. "How to Care for an FRS Radio" tells you how to treat your FRS radio(s) and how to set them up. "How to Get a Ham License" tells you the steps you might take to upgrade from FRS radios to amateur (ham) radios which are more powerful and useful. "How to Run an FRS Net" tells you how to coordinate local communications in your neighborhood during an incident or drill. "How to Relay between an FRS Net and a Ham Net" tells you how to form a link between your neighborhood FRS net and your local amateur emergency communications net.