Resource library

Matching resources

• Practitioner or communityToolFree

  Organic Maps (opens in a new tab)

  Organic Maps

  Offline maps and turn-by-turn routing with no account and no tracking. Download your state before you need it, which is the whole point and the step everyone forgets.

• Practitioner or communityToolFree

  Meshtastic (opens in a new tab)

  Meshtastic

  Open source LoRa mesh messaging on cheap hardware, no licence needed. Range claims vary wildly with terrain, so test yours before you plan around it.

• Practitioner or communityDataFree

  RepeaterBook (opens in a new tab)

  RepeaterBook

  Directory of amateur and GMRS repeaters by location, with tones and offsets. Print the page for your county and put it in the radio bag, because you will not have internet when you need it.

• Practitioner or communityTrainingFree

  HamStudy.org (opens in a new tab)

  HamStudy

  Free practice exams built on the real question pools, with a study tracker. Combined with a local exam session, most people get a Technician licence in two or three weeks of evenings.

• Practitioner or communityToolFree

  Winlink Global Radio Email (opens in a new tab)

  Winlink

  Email over radio when the internet is gone, used heavily in real disaster response. It requires a licence and some setup patience, and it is the closest thing to normal messaging without infrastructure.

• Practitioner or communityToolFree

  Battery University (opens in a new tab)

  Cadex Electronics

  Plain explanations of how lithium, lead acid and other chemistries age, charge and fail. Read the storage-state article before you put a battery bank away for a year.

• Practitioner or communityCommunityFree

  r/preppers (opens in a new tab)

  Reddit

  The largest general preparedness forum, and more practical than its reputation suggests. Sort by top of the month rather than reading the front page, which skews toward news reaction.

• Practitioner or communityCommunityFree

  r/amateurradio (opens in a new tab)

  Reddit

  Active and welcoming to beginners, provided you have read the rules first. Good place to sanity check a first radio purchase before you spend money on the wrong band.

• Practitioner or communityCommunityFree

  r/meshtastic (opens in a new tab)

  Reddit

  Where regional mesh networks get organised and where honest range reports show up. Search your metro area name before assuming there is no local mesh.

• Practitioner or communityCommunityFree

  r/gmrs (opens in a new tab)

  Reddit

  Licence questions, repeater etiquette and radio recommendations for family use. The most useful forum for people who want radio without an exam.

• Practitioner or communityCommunityFree

  QRZ forums (opens in a new tab)

  QRZ

  Long-running amateur radio discussion with deep archives. Search before posting: most antenna questions have been answered at length, more than once, by people who measured.

• Practitioner or communityCommunityFree

  r/Canning (opens in a new tab)

  Reddit

  Unusually well moderated on safety, and firm about tested recipes only. That strictness is the reason to use it rather than a general cooking forum for preservation questions.

• Practitioner or communityCommunityFree

  r/solar (opens in a new tab)

  Reddit

  Installers and owners arguing about quotes, panels and inverters. Useful for reality-checking a backup power quote, and for learning which questions to ask a salesperson.

• Practitioner or communityTrainingFreeOurs

  CallSignReady (opens in a new tab)

  CallSignReady

  A free study game for the United States amateur radio Technician exam, built on the current question pool. One of our own projects. HamStudy is the established alternative and it is also free.

• Practitioner or communityTrainingFreeOurs

  Ditdah (opens in a new tab)

  Ditdah

  Learn the Morse alphabet with sound and picture mnemonics, one letter at a time. One of our own projects, adapted from Ace Centre's open source Morse Learn.