Blackout Kit

Download the map of your city now, on Wi-Fi. During a blackout it still works: streets, your GPS position, the nearest hospitals, pharmacies and police stations.

With or without internet

Radio

Talk like a walkie-talkie and send messages to your people. The radio picks the way by itself: through the mobile network when it works, through phones nearby when it does not.

How it picks the way

🌐
Mobile data or internet works: messages and voice messages to your group go through it and reach them anywhere, across the city or the world. Locked so only your group can read them.
📶
No internet: the radio switches to phones nearby on Wi-Fi. Each phone passes messages on to the next one.
🔁
One phone nearby still has internet: it carries everyone's group messages out, and brings the replies back.
✉️
Mobile signal but nothing loads: send it by SMS. Texts often get through when data does not.

My name on the radio

Internet

My groups

Phones nearby, no internet

Wi-Fi is not internet

Without internet, the radio uses Wi-Fi between phones. These are two different things:

📶
Wi-Fi is just a short-range radio link between devices nearby. A phone can create one by itself: its hotspot. It works during a blackout, with no box, no internet and no mobile signal.
🌐
Internet (and mobile data) is the connection to the rest of the world. During a blackout it is often down. The radio uses it when it is there, and works without it.

How to set it up

1
One person turns on their phone's hotspot (Settings → Personal Hotspot, or Connections → Mobile Hotspot). Mobile data can stay off.
2
The others connect to that Wi-Fi in their settings. Their phone will say “No internet connection”: that is normal. Choose stay connected if asked.
3
Everyone opens this tab and links phones with the buttons below. Then talk.

Range: about a building or a street. If an iPhone does not offer the hotspot option, let an Android phone or a battery-powered Wi-Fi router create the network.

No phone linked nearby

Talk

Talk to

Call mode

Tap once to open the mic, tap again to stop

Messages

“✓ received” shows when a message has arrived. ·

FM radio receiver

When everything is down, authorities speak on FM radio. A phone has no FM receiver a web page can use, but a small USB “RTL-SDR” stick (about €30) can: plug it into an Android phone with an OTG adapter, or a computer. Chrome or Edge only, not iPhone. No stick? A battery FM radio does the job.

MHz

Saved stations

Look up your local public radio frequency now and save it: you will not be able to search for it during a blackout.

Be ready

My 72-hour kit

What you need to get through three days on your own. Tick what you already have.

0 / 150%

Drinking water for 3 days

6 L

2 L per person per day, more for hygiene

People

1

Check it twice a year

Expiry dates of water, food and medicines, and change the batteries.

Flashlight

Light and SOS

The screen stays on while the light is open. Turn the brightness all the way up. Tap “Close” to come back.

Your phone's LED torch lights further than the screen, but drains the battery faster. The SOS signal can be seen from far away at night.

Family

Contacts and notes

The people to reach first, where to meet, and what to remember. Saved only on this phone.

No network

📻
Battery or crank FM radio: public and local radios broadcast official instructions. A car radio works too.
🎙
Radio: the Radio tab turns phones on the same Wi-Fi or hotspot into walkie-talkies, with messages relayed from phone to phone. It also plays FM radio with a USB receiver.

My contacts

Family meeting point Important notes

Saved only on this phone. Nothing is sent anywhere.