Communications Portability

Much like having no potable water, having commu­ni­ca­tions assets that aren’t portable is not all that useful. Imagine if your cell phone were the size of your suitcase (or even as small as your laptop). Just how useful would that be?

Communication equip­ment for emergen­cies, disas­ter response, and human­i­tar­ian aid MUST be portable to be truly effec­tive (and water MUST be potable). You never know where the next disas­ter will strike (although we have a good idea of where the real dung will hit the fan when they do).

Pre-positioning commu­ni­ca­tions assets is a reason­able strat­egy (hope for help isn’t) when resource constraints aren’t a big concern — but when will that ever be the case? Consider portable commu­ni­ca­tions systems for those times you don’t want to think about. They can be easily kept ready and quickly trans­ported to wherever they are needed.

Be sure the portable systems you consider include capabil­i­ties for multi­ple people to coordi­nate locally (among each other on scene) as well as remotely (connect to help and resources out of the immedi­ate area) using voice, data, and video commu­ni­ca­tions tools… and DON’T FORGET ABOUT POWER!