Bonner County training teaches residents to use Baofeng radios, MURS/GMRS options for emergencies

Richard Gage, a Sagle resident and architect, led a public training in Bonner County focused on low‑cost handheld radios and alternative communications for emergencies.

The session, organized by county staff and offered both in person and on Zoom, demonstrated operation of Baofeng UV‑5R radios, explained how to use the Multi‑Use Radio Service (MURS) “channel 3” as a backup when cellular service fails, and described local programming and licensing options including GMRS and amateur (ham) radio training and testing.

The training aimed to give residents a practical, repeatable set of steps for contacting neighbors and local nets when phones or the power grid are down. “This is our first of hopefully many trainings that we're gonna have for the community,” said Ron, the county emergency manager who organized the event. Gage told the audience the inexpensive Baofeng handhelds can be a useful backup, saying, “Get 2 or 3 of them if you can because you want to be able to talk to somebody else. Right? Give 1 to your neighbors and your friends.”

Why it matters: County staff framed the class as resilience preparation. Attendees were shown how to program radios to receive and transmit on local emergency frequencies, how to reduce transmit power to comply with FCC limits for MURS/FRS/GMRS in specific modes, and how to join recurring nets for practice so radios will be effective in a real outage.

What was covered and key takeaways - Radio model and accessories: Gage demonstrated the Baofeng UV‑5R and recommended replacing the stock antenna with an upgraded Nagoya 771 or a roof/vehicle antenna…