Emergency Freqs and Records Safety

There are some emergency frequencies that have been agreed on internationally. It would be wise to program these into your HT radios and mobile VHF/UHF rigs. Check the manual for your radio. Some of them cover at least a portion of the HF bands. You will not usually hear anything of the HF bands on your HT/Mobile unless ONE of the following two conditions are met.

1. One of the HF stations is close by.
2. You have an outside antenna that you can connect to your radio.

I know that the second one works because I have noticed several HT/Mobile reviews where the radio tuned HF when connected to an outside antenna. It does not even have to be an HF antenna, just a long wire will work fine and you will get some stations using your outdoor HT/Mobile antenna.

If your radio can tune the HF bands, the following are some frequencies you might want to program into your radios.

14.265 - SATERN (Weather disasters)
14.300 - Maritime Mobile Service Net (This is one of three global "Center Of Activity" disaster frequencies set aside by the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU).

Others include:
7.045 and 3.720 Mhz (IARU Rgion 2 nets).
14.265 and 7.265 and 3.977 Mhz (SATERN Nets)

The International Radio Emergency Support Coalition (IRESC) is also active on EchoLink node 27817.

The idea here is not to communicate on the HF frequencies, you must have an HF radio and antenna to do that. The goal is to be able to monitor HF traffic for a wider perspective on the scope of the disaster and to learn about needs and resources in a wider area.

14.300, 18.160 and 21.360 MHZ are the three global Center of Activity (CoA) frequencies.

Of course, IRLP will be going strong in almost any disaster.
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Now, how to keep your records intact in an emergency and how to avoid identity theft. Unless your state requires it, do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead put "Photo ID Required" in the signature block. If your state rerquires them to be signed, then sign then and write "Photo ID Required" above your signature.

When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the "FOR" line. Just put the first 4 and last 4 digits. If your credit card account includes a member number, use that instead.

Put your work phone number on your checks instead of your home phone. Same for the address info. Best of all is a PO Box. NEVER have your SS# printed on your checks.

Place the contents of your wallet/purse on a photocopy machine and scan both sides. Now if there is a problem, you have the account numbers and the 800 numbers to call to report a theft of your card.

If your cards are stolen, file a police report. This proves to credit providers that you were diligent. Place a fraud alert on your cards and also file a fraud alert with the SS Administration.

Notify the 3 credit card agencies of the problem.

Equifax 1-800-525-6285
Experian 1-888-397-3742
Trans Union 1-800-680-7289

Social Security Fraud Line = 1-800-269-0271

That's all for today.

N7OZH
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