This is the front door to everything practical on this site. Two guide libraries, both written in English and Spanish, both aimed at the people who actually key up the microphone and the people who have to run the incident around them. Nothing here is a brochure and nothing here is behind a form.

Communications guides

A working library on public safety radio and communications: how the systems are built, where they fail, and what to do about it. Topics run from P25 and DMR system design through interoperability and patching, in building coverage, encryption and key management, dispatch and Next Generation 911, antennas and grounding, satellite and LTE options, and the everyday discipline that decides whether any of it works under load.

Browse the communications library

Emergency management guides

A companion library on emergency management: what the discipline actually is, NIMS and ICS explained without the acronym fog, the emergency operations center, writing an emergency operations plan, continuity of operations, mutual aid, damage assessment and disaster declarations, hazard mitigation, exercises, volunteers, grants, and the particular problem of doing all of it in a rural county.

Browse the emergency management library

Guias en espanol

Every guide in both libraries is published in Spanish as well, in neutral Latin American Spanish. These are full translations, not summaries.

Comunicaciones and Manejo de Emergencias

Where to start

If you are new to the radio side, start with what a system actually is before you start comparing brands. If you are new to the emergency management side, start with what the discipline is and how ICS is meant to work, then read the emergency operations plan material.

• New to public safety radio: begin with the guides on choosing a radio system and on how repeaters and trunking work.
• New to emergency management: begin with what emergency management actually is, then NIMS and ICS explained.
• Running a small or rural agency: the rural county guide and the shoestring budget guide were written for you.
• Responsible for a plan or an exercise: the emergency operations plan and exercise program guides are the practical path.

Authorities worth reading directly

I do not restate rules that change, and I do not publish requirements, deadlines, or dollar figures secondhand. For anything binding, go to the source that owns it:

• Your state emergency management agency, for state plans, declarations, and how mutual aid is coordinated where you are.
• FEMA, for the national programs, the incident management framework, and grant guidance.
• The FCC, for licensing, spectrum, and station rules.
• The National Weather Service, for warning products and how they are issued.
• Your own agency policy and your radio system administrator, for anything specific to your system, your talkgroups, and your keys.

Using this material

Everything here is free to read and free to share with your people. Use it in training, quote it in a briefing, hand it to a new member. If you find something wrong, or something that does not match how it works on your system, tell me and I will fix it. Field correction is how this stays honest.