Hormuz Traffic Falls to a 3-Week Low. Check Your Fuel Plan.

I brought up ham radio at a family dinner and watched everyone's eyes glaze over. Fair enough. Most people don't want to take a licensing exam, learn Morse code, or build antennas. Good news: there are radio options that require no license, no exam, and about five minutes of learning. This week is for the 95% of readers who want radio communication without the hobby.

Radio Communication Without the Ham Exam

We covered ham radio basics earlier and mesh networks in Issue 40. But the simplest radio option for most families is the one sitting on a shelf at every electronics store: FRS, GMRS, and CB radios.

FRS (Family Radio Service) is the zero-barrier option. No license. No registration. Buy, charge, talk. FRS radios operate on 22 channels with a maximum power of 2 watts. Realistic range is 1 to 2 miles in most environments (ignore the "35-mile range" claims on the packaging, that's mountaintop-to-mountaintop in perfect conditions). For family communication within a neighborhood, during a hike, or at a large event, FRS works.

GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) is the step up. It requires an FCC license ($35, no exam, valid for 10 years, covers your entire family). GMRS radios can transmit at up to 50 watts and access repeaters that extend range dramatically, sometimes 20 to 50 miles through a repeater network. If you want reliable communication beyond your immediate neighborhood, GMRS is the practical choice.

CB (Citizens Band) radio is the classic. No license required. 40 channels, 4 watts maximum, AM modulation. Range is typically 3 to 5 miles for handheld units, further with vehicle-mounted antennas. CB is still used by truckers, rural communities, and off-road groups. In a major disruption, CB channel 9 is the designated emergency channel monitored by many operators.

For most families, a pair of FRS radios is the right starting point. Pick a family channel and a backup channel. Establish a check-in schedule ("we check channel 7 at the top of every hour"). Practice using them so the kids know how to operate them.

If you want more range or reliability, get a GMRS license and upgrade. The Midland MXT series of mobile GMRS radios can be vehicle-mounted or used as a base station at home, and they access repeaters that extend your communication reach significantly.

The bottom line: you don't need to become a radio hobbyist. You need a communication tool that works when cell towers don't. Any of these options fills that role for under $100.

If you bought FRS radios (Issue 40), test their range in your neighborhood.

Walk to the nearest intersection, the nearest store, and your designated meeting point. Can you communicate clearly from each? Know your radio's actual range in your actual environment.

Seven Critical Flaws Patched in Widely Used Home Security Gear

Ubiquiti released fixes this week for seven critical vulnerabilities across its UniFi ecosystem, the hardware behind a large share of home and small-business security cameras, routers, and access-control systems. The worst, CVE-2026-50746, scores a perfect 10.0 on the severity scale and lets an attacker on the network run commands on the device with no login required. Threat-intelligence firm Censys counts more than 100,000 UniFi OS devices reachable from the open internet, nearly half of them in the U.S. If your cameras, router, or door locks run UniFi, update the firmware now rather than waiting for a scheduled check.

Source: BleepingComputer

Joel Lambert's SERE background gave him a deep appreciation for redundancy under pressure. In A Navy SEAL's Bug-In Guide, he walks through how to keep communicating when the grid and cell networks go down, alongside broader home security and self-sufficiency planning.

Lambert's civilian recommendation: establish a communication cascade. Primary: cell phone. Secondary: text message (works on weaker signals). Tertiary: FRS/GMRS radio. Fallback: physical meeting point at a predetermined time. Each level is simpler and more robust than the one above it. The physical meeting point is the most reliable, because it requires no technology at all. Have one. Make sure everyone knows it.

A Navy SEAL's Bug-In Guide, about $37 for the paperback.

Strait of Hormuz Vessel Traffic Falls to Near-Wartime Lows

Commodity-vessel crossings through the Strait of Hormuz fell to just 14 on Wednesday, down from a three-week average of 34 a day and a June 24 peak of 59, as the U.S. struck Iran for a second consecutive night and the ceasefire showed fresh strain. Brent crude rose more than 5 percent to roughly $78 a barrel on the news. The strait carries about one-fifth of the world's oil, so a slowdown here tends to reach the pump and store shelves within weeks rather than months. This chokepoint has tightened and loosened repeatedly over the past several months. Keep your fuel plan current and watch pump prices over the coming weeks.

Source: ZeroHedge, CNBC

Midland GXT1000VP4 GMRS Radio (Pair)

These are 50-channel GMRS radios with 36-mile range claims. Real-world range in our suburban testing: about 3 to 5 miles between handhelds, which is still excellent and far better than FRS. With a GMRS repeater, we've communicated clearly at 15 miles.

Features worth using: NOAA weather alerts (built-in), the SOS siren, and the privacy codes that prevent casual eavesdropping. Battery life is solid, about 12 hours of active use on rechargeable NiMH batteries. They also accept AAs as backup.

These require the $35 FCC GMRS license. The application is online, no exam, approved in days. One license covers your whole family. That's the only barrier, and it's low. About $80 for the pair.

Budget alternative: Motorola Talkabout T100 FRS radios ($20 for a pair). No license needed. Shorter range (about 1 mile realistically), but dead simple and cheap. Good enough for household communication.

Overrated: Long-range claims on radio packaging. "36-mile range" means flat terrain, line of sight, no buildings, perfect conditions. Your actual range will be 10% to 30% of that claim. Test your radios in your environment and know the real numbers.

Underrated: GMRS repeaters. Many communities have free-to-use GMRS repeaters that extend your range dramatically. Search "GMRS repeaters near me" to find local infrastructure that your $80 radio can access.

MyGMRS.com — GMRS repeater directory. Find repeaters in your area.

FCC GMRS License Application — $35, no exam, 10-year license.

Grokipedia: Citizens Band Radio — Background on CB radio history and usage.

RadioReference.com — Database of radio frequencies including emergency, government, and public safety.

Knot tying and cordage. The five knots that handle 90% of practical tasks, from securing loads to building shelters.

PS: My kids now call our FRS radios "the emergency phones." They practice with them in the backyard. When the game is communication, the training happens without anyone calling it training.