There are some hard and fast rules about emergency communications. Let me list just some of them. Why just some of them? Come on! If you can predict what will happen in an emergency then you are a lot more omniscient than anyone I know. In any emergency there are no rules. They are just people who have planned better than others.

1. Emergency Communications have to work every time they are called on. No exceptions.
2. Emergency Communications have to be prepared in advance. No jury rigging on the spot. If you are then you need to evaluate your planning skills.
3. Emergency Communications have to be versatile in that they may need to do more than you originally expected of them.
4. Emergency Communications have to be plentiful. If they are so unique that you can only have 1 or 2 then that might not fill the need when you need more.
5. Emergency Communications have to be relatively simple to use. Not setup or configure but use. During an emergency you don’t want to be fiddling with configurations.
6. Emergency Communications have to be used on a regular non-emergency basis. Familiarity not only breeds contempt it breeds efficiency.
7. And last for this list, Emergency Communications have to fit you and your members needs.