One more thing: BBC World Service is re-broadcast on FM some places, so if the shortwave is noisy, you might try that.

Excellent point.

I've chosen to not interpret it as an "Armageddon" scenario, but as a local disaster happening on the island or the nearby mainland while you're there visiting, and you need to find out what's going on and if you need to stay or leave.

First, the VX-8R will not receive SSB. It will receive shortwave AM broadcasts, but remember that you need to attach a suitable antenna to it. There are other HT's out there which will do SSB.

Secondly, in my view your main needs will be to
a) Get news about the situation
b) Get in touch with local assets for rescue

For a, don't overlook FM reception - locals may be able to help translate for you, and messages may be translated in English - especially in areas where they have international visitors - while a good receiver for shortwave AM and SSB would also be good. Remember the antenna yeah.

For b, first consider cell phone. Battery backups on base stations may keep them up even for local communication even if power and networks are down. It might be good to have 2M and 70cm amateur radio, if the country you're going to is active on amateur radio. Remember - most emergency communications are local. A high powered HF station is not something you'd want to drag around, but if you're the only person on the island, then perhaps it's something you'll need - and you'll need other elaborate preparations. No point transmitting if nobody's there to listen and respond.

Some countries have public service (fire, police) and Red Cross communications above the 2M amateur band, and the marine VHF frequencies would also be in the HT's coverage, so if you emergency-freeband your radio you could potentially call for life-saving emergency aid on those frequencies. Never do it unless it's truly necessary, of course.

1: The M400 has too limited band coverage. The DE15 looks better, though it's not single sideband capable. Seeing as the BBC shortwave out of Thailand can be heard in the US, I suppose it should be quite possible to get it in Thailand itself.
Edit: See Thailand and Singapore BBC frequencies here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/schedules/frequencies/aspac.htm

2: There are some SSB broadcasts, such as the US armed forces radio broadcast out of Guam and Diego Garcia. Otherwise, you can listen to hams on SSB, and also marine SSB. Most other broadcasts are AM. If you can listen to SSB with a good antenna, you might be able to hear hams from the US and Europe.

3: Don't know

4: It might, if there are amateurs, public service radio users or maritime users who can hear you. Check the band plans for the country you're going to.

5: APRS will work without the internet, but of course only in the local area. Still, if you want to get an APRS message out of the area and into the rest of the world, you may digipeat it via the International Space Station, or another APRS digipeater in orbit. That sort of violates the "no sattelites" condition, but I'm choosing to intrepret that as "I'm in a steep valley without satellite coverage".
Edit: If you get in touch with a ham who has HF communications, (s)he might be able to pass messages across the world for you.
Edit 2: APRS can also be carried by HF, so you might look into that.

I suppose the scenario is if they have to hunker down due to weather, or fire, flooding, riots or congested traffic keeps them separated - and just deciding how they're going to meet up with each other, know how the situation is, and plan evacuation or sheltering.

The thread starter asked for a 7 mile range though. The NTS is great for getting a welfare message out of the state to a known address, but it could take a while.

KI4SDY seems a bit over-excited. He's on my ignore list for until he calms down a bit. No offense intended, KI4SDY.
Perhaps suitable relay points can be reached by road, so you can bring those who want to go 4x4'ing out in the outback while the rest set up a relay station. Perhaps CB can be the local communications between the club members, while amateur radio can provide the link between the local area and the outside. AFAIK, your technician license gives you 200 watts PEP on a part of the 10 meter band, for example. Could that be used to form a link out of the area?

I hope you hear back from the clubs, if not try the Emergency Coordinator.

Sounds like you might have gotten unlucky with that club. Some clubs are more active, while some clubs have sort of gone into hibernation/death. Try contacting the ARRL's Emergency Coordinator in your area, or the local ARES or RACES group, if one exists. That's more likely to have like-minded individuals.

Discussing radios and antennas used to be almost the only things hams were allowed to talk about with each other about on the air. While you're allowed to talk about politics and religion these days in some countries, it's still frowned upon. Amateur radio is a big hobby, so on some repeaters they might be talking a lot about mobile radios, while other places they like talking about digital modes or flying UAVs.

As long as it's within the rules, non-commercial use, you should be fine.

As for satellite phone, you can look into renting the phone rather than buying it. That might be an economical option. Just be aware that satellite coverage might be poor if you're in a steep valley. In those situations, you might want to look into mobile NVIS (Near Vertical Incidence Skywave).

We're talking about life and limb situations here, using the frequency to talk to the police in a real emergency. Not using their frequencies to say "Hay Jim-Bob, can you come pull me out of this ditch real quick?" Hypothetically, an incompetent police officer could be imagined to file charges even if you saved somebody's life, but I don't think it would ever make it into court. Likewise you could theoretically be sued for assault by some idiot after you cracked his ribs while performing CPR on him too, but it's not really a serious worry. Saving his life was more important, and in some jurisdictions you could be punished if you don't help using all means necessary.

What's more likely to cause prosecution or a lawsuit would be if your emergency situation was caused by gross negligence, or perhaps illegal activities. In other words, you might be punished not for how you got out of the life threatening situation but how you got yourself into it.

No other agency will prosecute you either if the situation was truly life threatening (and if they did, they'd lose in court), but yeah don't interrupt the police frequencies to report trivial issues. The sat phone example is tricky, because if you interrupt it to call in about one person in mortal danger, perhaps you could interfere with several other emergency calls affecting more people. At least try to listen before transmitting.
With more and more trunked and encrypted communications, this is becoming more of an academic issue.

Another thing, is that if you need to be rescued from a situation that you caused yourself, you might have to pay for the rescue effort. So insurance might be a good idea. It's a bit out of the scope of this thread, but if you're going on an expedition far in the outback, it's something to look into.

This is true. You can break in on police or military frequencies if need be, when there's life or limb on the line. You could also break in on satellite phone service, if you had the know-how.
In the past, you could even try using your amateur radio to transmit on the EPIRB frequencies of 121.5 and 406 MHz to get help; however, since there are so many false alarms from EPIRBS being incorrectly tested, or malfunctioning, a signal on 121.5 or 406 MHz will probably be ignored by the satellite as interference if it doesn't include the correct digital identifier.
Here in Norway, we have a safety radio system for forest workers and other outback people (Sikringsradio). In Alaska they have special emergency frequencies.
An EPIRB and a sat phone would indeed be ideal - but don't toss away your CB and amateur equipment either. Authorities may take some time to reach your location. In the mean time, you may reach people on CB and amateur frequencies/repeaters who are close by and can offer help.
As mentioned by K7RBW you could also set up relay positions in advance. You could perhaps partner with the local amateur radio club and treat it like a public service event. Perhaps they would appreciate the training.

You sure do. The camo makes sense if you stalk and shoot wildlife in it. Do you? Or is it only for camping? Still doesn't explain why you painted your radios army green though.

I wouldn't usually make an issue of it (modding and decorating your stuff is cool enough) but stones in glass houses, man. What does it look like to the public? As you said:

No you see, in a police operation hams are more like janitors, electricians or volunteer mountain climbers. You don't become a cop by being a ham or a janitor at the police station.
A cop isn't an idiot just because he hasn't been trained in how to install and tune an HF radio, install a fuse box, or knowing if a Grigri is appropriate to use on a particular belay. Modern society is based on specialization. A Nobel prize winner in a hurry could easily have make the mistake of inserting the power leads into the balanced antenna input of some radio and destroying the finals. I'm sure the result would be even more disastrous if you put an unfit ham to work climbing mountains, or let a non-trained mountain climber run around investigating crimes on flat terrain.

Disaster management involves many different specializations working together, hopefully in roles that have been well exercised in advance. It involves government agencies, volunteer organizations, utility companies, and the private sector in general. It doesn't work if each and every group throws a fit if somebody mentions the obvious fact that they have different skills and responsibilities.
Your stated points were that public officials only include hams to keep them out of the way and get votes, and that the only type of emergency communications ever needed are back-up cell towers. Haven't seen any proof of any of that from you. On the other hand the stories of public safety officials and volunteer organizations praising amateur radio for helping in particular cases are all over the place if you bother searching for them.

Meanwhile KI4SDY is talking to himself.

The US president still has the power to shut down certain radio communications in wartime, that's without suspending the constitution.

Phone traffic is easier to limit and track when you control the inside plant. On amateur radio there's no infrastructure except the beacons and repeaters.

Due to the physical properties of radio waves, you'd need several strategically placed listening stations to catch everything. Even if you did, you wouldn't have a 100% accurate fix on who sent and received the message - depending on the mode and frequency.

Amateur radio - except for emergency response and military use (RACES, MARS etc.) - is supposed by international agreement to be hobby traffic without economic use, so shutting down non-emergency and non-military amateur radio would save wartime monitoring and analysis resources without much negative impact to the war effort.

Not that I think such a scenario is likely in the near future anyway.

http://i.imgur.com/bPP2h.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/CUfdL.jpg
Apropos of that, any reactions when driving around in your camo painted car and using your army green-painted radios? Is it the faux army car owners vs. the faux police car owners?

Apart from on amateur radio forums, I hear nothing but positive remarks about amateur radio helping out.
Then what happens in the hours and days before that can be fully set up? Just make do without communications?

We're talking about war here, not just any emergency. The last time war was officially declared by the USA was WWII. So yes, amateur radio was shut down in war before. It doesn't have anything to do with party affiliation or handgun ownership. (Possibly automatic rifle ownership.)

The large volume of amateur transmissions is an opportunity for enemy messages to be hidden, and the frequencies might be needed for military use. Some of the radios and radio operators might also be needed. At least that's how it was back then. Amateurs did service as volunteer interceptors, or as instructors or radio operators in the field. Some of them fell in battle.

Thanks for very informative posts, WB6BYU.

Well, there's the issue of changing organizations and procedures. If I showed up to a disaster with the knowledge which was considered correct 10 years ago, I'd be showing up miles away from the correct staging area. I'd also be treating patients less effectively (especially arterial bleeding cases). This is why classes and drills have to be updated and refreshed - and why those who haven't trained in a while have to be de-rated or deleted from the call-up roster.

If you're sick of it, you've probably earned the right to take a break from that stuff, but you should then be prepared to learn from those who have more current training if you do get called out.

At least that's how it is over here - your situation might be different of course.

Thanks for the input WB6BYU. What do you make of the FCC's policy towards RACES? Is there simply no more need for new licenses because no new civil defense organizations will be formed in the future?
They could just drive around to amateurs' houses, as registered by the FCC, and take the radios, and then use radio direction finding to find violators. In such a situation, the gravity of the situation would probably have the country on a war footing anyway, and most would comply, I think.