Top 5 Off-Grid Communication Devices for Homesteading and Survival Prepping

6 min readFeb 24, 2019

Communication is vital for survival irrespective of whether you are out trekking, hunting, camping, riding, or just relaxing at home. At times the mobile network is weak and communication is hampered. Emergencies can occur at any time without warning. There might be a sudden medical emergency in the household, you may be living in a remote area, and there could be a power outage! And what about those living in the vicinity of the infamous San Andreas Fault? In a real emergency, having a superfast network is a matter of life and death!

Survival prepping is not restricted to just stocking sufficient food and medical supplies for emergencies. Having an efficient off-grid communication system which works under any conditions is also an important part of survival prepping. Here are some smart off-grid communication devices that work efficiently even when there is no power supply, mobile network, or Wi-Fi:

Beartooth Walkie-Talkie for group adventures

The Beartooth turns your dude smartphone (without network!) into a walkie-talkie within a 10-mile radius. This is very useful, especially if you are outdoors with friends. Once it has been paired with your mobile phone via Bluetooth, you can use the mobile phone to call your contacts, send messages, share your location, etc. The graphical offline maps of the Beartooth will send the location coordinates to your contacts in case of an emergency.

The Beartooth device is compatible with iOS and Android smartphones. With a backup battery of 3000mAh, the device can provide two complete charges to an iPhone’s standards battery. The Beartooth device works on a mesh network. So if you and your mates have similar devices within a 10-mile particular radius, the mesh will turn the entire circle of the area into a communications network without the help of a service provider or Wi-Fi.

goTenna Mesh — the all-purpose encrypted communicator

The goTennaMesh is another go-to device that can give you perfect communication even when there is no power, mobile network, or Wi-Fi. Once it is paired with your smartphone, it is a readymade walkie-talkie to get in touch with others who also have similarly paired phones. This device is just right for those who spend many hours of the day outdoors or are fond of fishing, hiking, camping, climbing, and other adventure sports.

The spate of natural disasters like the tornado in the Midwest, earthquake in Alaska, and other horrifying calamities in the past have increased the need for wireless communication services that do not need a dedicated mobile network for efficient operation. The goTenna Mesh off-grid communications device is just meant for natural disasters, riots, or other emergency situations but is also great for outdoor leisure activities.

The messages that pass through the mobile phone using this device are encrypted and they remain private. So the device is also suitable for tactical and covert deployment. The offline maps are a boon with their emergency beacon system. The communication range is within a 4-mile radius but doubles when there is a similarly synched phone in the area. The battery lasts for 24 hours.

Fogo Off-Grid adventure-special communicator

The Fogo is also a great off-grid communications device that works without the help of power supply, mobile networks, or Wi-Fi. It doubles as a walkie-talkie and can be synced with your mobile phone to call, message, check the location on the map, etc. which are necessary for a crisis situation. The device has a radial range of 16 miles in the best environments and 7 miles in adverse weather conditions or unsuitable terrain. But it has some special add-on features that give it an edge over the other two devices.

The standalone features of Fogo include an LED flashlight (1200 lumen) so you have a flashlight in your pocket! It eliminates the need to carry a separate heavy-duty flashlight when you are outdoors. The device also has other additional features like a 6800mAh backup battery, a fitness tracker, motion sensors, automatic light sensor, waterproof exterior, a Geocaching navigation system, a Bluetooth speaker, and even a signaling system (beacon) in case your vehicle crashes.

Obviously, the Fogo is designed for avid bikers but it can be used by anyone, whether in the wild outdoors or in urban areas. The only disadvantage of Fogo is that it is a peer-to-peer communications device and is not supported by a mesh networking system.

Gotoky Secure Off-Grid Communication Device

Another off-grid communicator that can be paired with a majority of the mobile phones is the Gotoky. This device works on a mesh network and can be used for communication via peer-to-peer voice and text messages, group-broadcast text and voice messages, real-time GPS location tracking, and more. The messages and signals that pass through this device are encrypted so they remain private within the group.

A special feature of the Gotoky communicator is that it has an SOS button for beaconing. Once you press this button, it instantly sends out a signal to all the other Gotoky users in the area and gives them your location and last known coordinates. Besides beaconing, the offline maps on this device have special features for emergencies like the world map, sharing location, location pinging, direction, distances between different users, event creation, route status of each user, and more. The Gotoky device has a messaging range of 10 miles in the outdoors and 2.5 miles in urban areas.

HAM Radio

An emergency can occur even when you are at home. If you are not an outdoors kind of person, then a portable mesh-style off-grid communication system is not necessary. The old-style HAM Radio will do very well. It will cost less than the newer gadgets and will serve the same purpose of instant communication during a crisis situation or natural disaster. It is not as popular as the other four devices because it has a few disadvantages although it is cheaper.

The HAM Radio is not user-friendly and requires a level of expertise to operate it quickly, which is what you would require in an emergency. It has to be connected to a dedicated power supply unit, which makes the whole contraption bulky. But it is one of the most inexpensive and tried-and-trusted methods of off-grid communication as far as survival prepping is concerned. This device is essential for:

Those who live alone,
Families who live in remote areas,
Senior Citizens whose relatives are living elsewhere and cannot be reached easily,
People living in regions that are prone to hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and other natural calamities,
Those living in areas where there are frequent incidences of civil unrest and violent attacks on innocent citizens.

you can read a beginner HAM Radio guide with basic HAM Radio communication tutorial here

Final verdict

The market is full of off-grid communication devices and it is difficult to choose the most suitable one. What these devices have in common is that they work without the standard power supply, mobile network service, or Wi-Fi connectivity and can be used for off-grid communication in emergencies. But each device listed above has some special features or uses that makes it most suitable in specific conditions.

For example, the facility of encrypted messaging makes the goTenna Mesh, Fogo, and the Gotoky just right during tactical operations of the armed forces. Whereas, the beacon signaling facility of the Gotoky and Fogo off-grid communicators would be most suitable for bikers and racers. The Beartooth is a popular communications tool for those involved different types of adventure sports in the remote outdoors. If you are at home most of the time, you do not need a mesh-network communicator. A HAM Radio with power backup installed at home would serve the purpose.

Originally published at thesurvivalprepping.com on February 24, 2019.