Many new preppers focus on collecting radios, power banks and antennas, but neglect the human side of communication: plans, habits and message discipline. Major emergency-management bodies repeatedly stress that failures in planning and behaviour are more dangerous than gaps in equipment.
Below are seven common communication mistakes that show up in official guidance for families and communities, with a focus on how they apply to new preppers.
Common Communication Mistakes
1. No written family communication plan
Emergency agencies consistently emphasise one basic step: write down how your household will contact each other and where you will meet if separated.
FEMA’s Ready campaign provides specific family communication plan templates, including wallet cards with key phone numbers and an agreed out-of-area contact. The American Red Cross family disaster plan template also asks families to define meeting places inside and outside the neighbourhood and to record an emergency contact outside the local area.
Working theory: New preppers often assume that having radios or phones is enough, and skip the unglamorous task of writing who calls whom, in what order, and where everyone should go if devices fail. Without a simple, shared plan, even good equipment cannot prevent confusion.
2. Keeping everything in your head instead of on paper
FEMA’s communication-planning documents explicitly tell households to write down phone numbers and email addresses, rather than relying on phones that can be lost, damaged or discharged. Disaster-planning guides similarly stress printed plans and contact lists that can be used without power or connectivity.
Working theory: New preppers sometimes maintain complex contact trees and channel plans “in their head” or only inside a mobile phone. In an actual emergency, stressed family members may not remember details, may have no access to the phone, or may be trying to share information with neighbours who cannot see their digital notes. Printed plans, laminated cards and labels on radios are low-tech safeguards that turn a personal plan into a family resource.
3. Relying on a single channel or technology
Emergency-preparedness guidance repeatedly warns that mobile networks can become congested or fail. FEMA and the FCC advise using text messages, email and other low-bandwidth methods for non-emergency communication, because voice calls can overload networks and block life-threatening emergencies from getting through.
Working theory: New preppers often rely on one primary method (mobile phone, or one specific radio frequency) and have no agreed backup. If that primary channel fails, the entire communication plan collapses. A resilient approach layers methods: in-person meeting points, SMS, broadcast alerts, local radios and an out-of-area contact, with clear rules for when to move from one layer to the next.
4. Not practising drills or testing the plan
FEMA and multiple emergency-management sources identify “not practised beforehand” as a major reason plans fail. Family-focused resources, including FLASH and Ready.gov, explicitly tell households to review and practise their communication plans regularly, send practice messages and update details at least annually.
In the radio world, ARRL’s Simulated Emergency Test and other exercises exist specifically to test personal operating skills and readiness under simulated emergency conditions.
Working theory: New preppers often treat the plan as “done” once it is written, and radios as “ready” once they have been charged and programmed once. Without simple drills—such as a quarterly family check-in exercise or a timed “we’re separated, now what?” scenario—nobody knows whether the plan actually works under pressure.
5. No designated out-of-area contact or wider network
Several official family-planning templates, including FEMA/Ready.gov and Red Cross materials, recommend choosing an out-of-area contact who can act as an information hub if local communications are disrupted. Habitat for Humanity’s family communication guidance also stresses keeping a trusted contact updated on your location and condition during a disaster.
Working theory: New preppers may assume all communication will be “inside the group” and forget to involve at least one person outside the affected area. In practice, it is often easier for scattered family members to send brief messages to a single relative in a different region than to reach each other directly. Similarly, planning with neighbours and nearby friends is a recurring recommendation in official preparedness campaigns, but is frequently overlooked.
6. Poor message discipline: too long, unclear or inaccurate
Guidance on disaster communication from FEMA, the FCC and emergency-management bodies stresses concise, accurate and verified messages. The American Red Cross, for example, emphasises that emergency messages relayed for military families must contain factual, complete and verified descriptions of the situation.
Working theory: New preppers often undervalue message discipline. In a stressful event, people are tempted to send long, emotional updates or unverified rumours. On any channel—phone, SMS or radio—this wastes time, clogs networks and spreads confusion. A simple habit of short, structured messages (who, where, what is needed, what will happen next) is a behavioural skill, not a gear feature, but it directly affects outcomes.
7. Neglecting training, roles and responsibilities
Emergency-planning reviews repeatedly identify lack of training and unclear roles as core weaknesses: plans exist on paper, but people do not know what is expected of them during a real event. In the radio domain, ARRL’s emergency-communications materials emphasise ongoing training, exercises and defined roles within nets and response organisations.
Working theory: New preppers often assume that “everyone will just do their best” when something happens. A more robust approach defines, in advance, who checks on which relatives, who monitors official alerts, who maintains which devices, and who is authorised to make decisions about relocation or evacuation. Even in a small family, naming roles reduces duplication and hesitation.
Conclusion
Across government, non-profit and radio-training material, the same pattern appears: communication failures in emergencies usually arise from lack of planning, practise and discipline, not from missing hardware.
Working theory: For new preppers, the most effective early investments are not another handset or antenna, but a written family communication plan, regular low-stress drills and a few simple habits around message clarity and role assignment. Radios and other tools are important, but they only become real assets once the people using them have agreed how they will talk, what they will say and how they will coordinate when it matters.