My one-page reference post covers the format for writing your plan down, but it skips the actual question people ask me most: which frequencies actually go on the card. Here is how I would fill in that blank.
Start With What Everyone Can Legally Use
FRS channels 1 through 22 need no license and work in any cheap blister-pack radio, which makes them the lowest common denominator for family members who will never get licensed. MURS, five VHF business band channels, also needs no license and has a legal power and antenna advantage over FRS if you own MURS-capable radios. Neither is a serious primary plan, but both belong on the card as a fallback everyone in the family can use without any training beyond push-to-talk.
Add GMRS Once You Have the License
A GMRS license covers your whole household under one callsign, which is exactly why I’ve written about it as the practical family layer. Put a simplex channel on the card as the default, and your local GMRS repeater pair as the extended-range option if you know one that is reliable. This is usually the workhorse tier for a family plan, better range than FRS, still simple enough for a non-technical family member to operate.
Ham Frequencies for the Licensed Members
For whoever in the family actually holds an amateur license, add the 2 meter national simplex calling frequency, 146.520 MHz, plus your go-to local repeater with its offset and tone. This tier is not for the whole family, it is the layer that gets used once GMRS range is not enough, and it only works if the licensed operators actually know it cold rather than looking it up when it matters.
Putting It All On the Card
This is exactly the PACE structure I laid out in the key parts of a SHTF communications plan: primary, alternate, contingency, emergency, mapped directly onto FRS, GMRS, and ham in that order of complexity. Write the actual channel numbers and frequencies down, not just the service name. Nobody is going to remember that GMRS repeater’s exact offset from memory during an actual emergency, and the whole point of the card is that they should not have to.