Emergency preparedness · Amateur radio · Field systems
Fallback Engineering
Practical systems for when normal stops working.
Fallback Engineering documents emergency preparedness, amateur radio, resilient technology, and the lessons learned while putting all of it to work. No apocalypse theater. No gear worship. Just systems that can be understood, tested, repaired, and improved.
Written and maintained by Eric Howell — KM7GHS, aka Grey Operator.
What Fallback Engineering is
This is a public field manual for ordinary disruptions: power failures, extreme weather, communications problems, vehicle trouble, equipment failures, evacuation, and the thousand smaller problems that become serious when nobody planned for them.
The goal is not to prepare for the end of the world. The goal is to keep an inconvenient day from becoming a dangerous one—and to make the systems we depend on easier to understand when they stop cooperating.
Preparedness
Water, food, power, communications, transportation, documents, pets, and the procedures that turn individual supplies into a working household system.
Radio & Communications
Amateur radio, APRS, repeaters, digital voice, field communications, vehicle installations, antennas, operating practice, and the reality behind the coverage map.
Systems & Field Testing
Build notes, measurements, software, power systems, mobile equipment, failed experiments, useful fixes, and the conclusions that survive contact with the real world.
Active projects
Project pages are living documents. They contain the maintained version of the system: current equipment, procedures, known problems, next steps, and the conclusions we are willing to stand behind today.
Status: Building
The 72-Hour Plan
A practical household system for the first three days of a power outage, evacuation, communications failure, vehicle problem, extreme-weather event, or other disruption.
It covers water, food, power, lighting, medical needs, communications, temperature, sanitation, transportation, documents, money, pets, and recovery.
Status: Operational + Building
Ham Radio
A maintained guide to the KM7GHS station, local and linked communications, mobile radio, APRS, digital systems, operating practices, field procedures, and ongoing experiments.
The project documents what the equipment does, how the systems fit together, what currently works, and what is still generating suspicious noises in the Jeep.
Latest Field Notes
Field Notes are dated reports from the workbench, vehicle, radio, server room, campsite, and field. They show what was attempted, what happened, what failed, and what changed afterward.
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Programming the BAOFENG AR-5RM with CHIRP on Ubuntu Linux
A tested Ubuntu 26.04 LTS workflow for installing CHIRP 20260410, connecting the BAOFENG AR-5RM by USB, preserving a radio image, reviewing basic settings, and uploading verified changes.
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Sizing, Storing, and Treating Emergency Water for the 72-Hour Plan
How much emergency water should a household store—and what happens when it runs low? This field note covers 72-hour and 14-day targets, safe storage, rotation, treatment, and resupply decisions.
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Configuring Pi-Star YSF2DMR for the Yaesu FT5DR and BrandMeister
A tested setup for using a Yaesu FT5DR with Pi-Star YSF2DMR and BrandMeister, including DMR ID registration, hotspot security, talkgroup selection, five-digit FT5DR entry, and the current radio-control limitation.
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Understanding Pi-Star as a Digital Voice Gateway
A practical overview of Pi-Star: what a node is, how a hotspot bridges an RF radio to digital voice networks, and where modes such as YSF, DMR, D-Star, NXDN, P25, and cross-mode links fit.
How to use this site
1. Start with a project
Project pages contain the maintained information: current system design, procedures, equipment, known problems, and next actions.
2. Read the Field Notes
Field Notes provide the dated evidence behind the project: installations, tests, measurements, failures, trips, contacts, and changes.
3. Build your own system
Use the checklists, procedures, reference material, and hard-earned mistakes as a starting point—then test everything against your own needs.
About the operator
Eric Howell is a broadcast engineer, automation engineer, amateur-radio operator, and lifelong builder of systems. He publishes as KM7GHS, aka Grey Operator, documenting what works, what fails, and what changes after the equipment leaves the workbench.
The work is based in Arizona, where heat, distance, rough roads, electrical noise, and the occasional deeply uncooperative computer provide a steady supply of useful test conditions.
Build the fallback before you need it.
Start with one system, make it work, document it, test it, and improve it.