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Amateur Radio In the Backcountry?
bartle writes "I spend a lot of time hiking in the Colorado Rockies. Cell phone reception is very unreliable and I'm curious if carrying a small amateur radio would make any sense at all. I don't want to add too much weight to my pack; from what I gather, a radio weighing a pound would give me at most 5 to 10 watts of transmitting power. I have no idea if this is enough to be effective in a mountainous region, and I'm hoping some experienced Slashdot hams could give me a clue. I'm only interested in acquiring a radio and license if it is a lot more effective and reliable than the cell phone I already carry. Otherwise I'll just wait for Globalstar to bring back their duplex service and buy a next-generation SPOT messaging device. (I know some Slashdotters will want to suggest a modern SPOT or Personal Locator Beacon; these are suitable for the worst kinds of emergencies, but I'll point out that reliable communication can help prevent small crises from becoming big ones.) Are small amateur radios effective in the field, or are vehicle rigs really the only way to go? Or am I better off just waiting for satellite?"
Most frequently you're going to be talking to a repeater, so it depends somewhat on where you are in relation to the repeater. Having said that 5-10 watts is a lot of power compared to a cell phone.
KA0ZRW - now in WA
and don't work well in the mountains unless you and the other guy are both within line of sight of each other. Repeaters can help work around the LoS problem but there probably aren't many in the area you are considering.
jacking up your power can only help so much. it's not like the higher power blasts through the mountains. Higher antennas can help, but if you're already in mountains, you are probably outgunned in the height department.
Some form of satellite is probably going to be your best bet. Or some lower frequency (LF/HF) that will cover variable ground terrain better.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
You might try to find a local ham radio club and ask what their experiences in the area are, and specifically where you're going to be hiking.
Inmarsat. It works in the mountains of Afganistan.
...no.
There's no amateur radio transceiver that weighs in at less than a pound that would give you the kind of power or reliability you're looking for. Also, unless you're willing to put in the effort to obtain at least a general class amateur radio license, you'd pretty much be limited to the VHF/UHF segments of the amateur bands, which are not good in mountainous terrain unless you are certain you'd be in range of one or more repeaters during your trips. If you were willing to learn Morse code, you would have access to a small portion of the 40 meter band with an entry-level (technician) ticket but then you'd have to carry some sort of long wire antenna and be able to get it up into a couple of trees if you want a realistic hope of making any sort contact.
I'd say that either use a vehicle mounted amateur radio rig that can put out 100W or so--there are several neat little units available, but they don't come cheap, around $1000--or just enjoy the outdoors without worrying about communication. Hell, I packed into the Sierra Nevada for years without a cell phone (they hadn't even been invented at the time) or any other sort of link to the outside world. I liked it that way.
73,
de KJ6BSO sk
This ain't rocket surgery.
They're here now, although they are a little expensive.
9/11 Eyewitnesses to Explosive WTC Demolition 1 of 2
I'm involved in wilderness search and rescue in remote areas of Arizona. We have no cell coverage in most of the areas we work in, and only have sheriff's radio repeater coverage in about 50%. Amateur radio repeaters cover most of the rest. My commercial VHF radio is programmed with all the regional ham repeaters in addition to the sheriff's frequencies and every other wilderness public safety frequency used in the region. If I'm going into certain areas with especially bad coverage, I'll also carry a quad-band handheld (VX-7R) and an external 25W VHF amplifier. No matter what gear you have, location matters most. It is often necessary to climb the nearest ridge to make contact with a repeater, since valleys are usually completely dead spots. The only effective way to communicate from a deep, narrow valley is with HF, or at least 6M with over 100W of power. We use low-band VHF at 120W between vehicles and do fine in very rough terrain. So yes, carry radio gear. Know your area's repeaters well, though, and be prepared to seek higher ground in order to communicate. A SPOT locator is a very good idea in addition, though, and serves a completely different purpose from other communications gear.
I am a geek attorney, but not your geek attorney unless you've already retained me. This is not legal advice.
So what he needs is a 27MHz Citizen's Band radio? Besides rednecks and freaks, who still uses CB?
Truck drivers. Oh, wait...
(Disclaimer: I am a truck driver, so I'm allowed to make that joke without being modded troll/flamebait.)
This ain't rocket surgery.
Uh, actually, one of the primary reasons that the FCC originally and still allows amateur radio the really impressive set of bands and technologies that they are allowed is that they ARE there for emergency communications.
What do you think Field Day is all about?
Yes, a ham radio can get you much better range and ability to contact the nearest town without much weight. Much better than a cellphone. Cellphones are line of sight around the 2ghz range, they stink without a repeater nearby. Don't bother with a handheld HF rig, unless you know morse code you're not going to get any skywave propogation via phone at 5w. Pick up a 2m monoband handheld transceiver and a portable 2m yagi to go with it. You'll be able to reach an easy 50 miles with FM voice modes and hit the repeater in the nearest big town. This assumes that there is not a mountain in the way, of course.. You're not going to be able to get radio THROUGH a mountain. Ideally you're up on the side of a mountain. I understand that you'll be worried about weight, but it seems to me that being able to contact civilization is pretty important if you run into real trouble. I can recommend this portable 2m yagi: http://www.arrowantennas.com/arrowii/146-3ii.html and really any 2m monoband HT will do you well, don't pay for the bells and whistles. The old HTX-202's work great (if you don't mind paying a pound or 2 for your radio). With regard to getting a technician class amateur radio license, the code requirement is long gone and it should be pretty trivial for most slashdotters to obtain a ham radio license nowadays. One last thought: AO-51. There are low-earth orbit amateur radio satellites that can be worked with handheld transceivers and a good dual-band yagi. The passes are short (15 minutes) and the process takes some practice, but you could definitely get out a distress call that way, no matter what the terrain is.
Each processor would proceed sequentially as if it had been better for them not to rise against Saul.
If you move forward with this, one option is to setup your car as a repeater. You can park your car at the trailhead and turn on the repeater in your car. Then the idea is to hopefully hit your car from your handheld, then your car can hit a repeater. In addition to the additional radio in the car that supports Cross-Band repeating, you will need to add a battery or two to your car, and a fresh one in the trunk.
Like others have all pointed out, the handheld frequencies are all generally line of site. This could mean that in a real emergency, you may need to climb to the top of the nearest peak to actually have line of site to anyone. Then once on the top of the peak you may find that your cell phone works as well!
Amateur radios work great in the backcountry in communicating with your own party in a different campsite or at a base camp while you continue on up to a summit.
The SPOTs as you have already researched works pretty well. I especially like the non-911 "Help" button, which just sends a predefined message to someone. I think this is a great feature, as you may need someone you know to start hiking up to you to help you out, but may not need a full Search and Rescue.
When building our local EmComm van I specked in a CB. The rest of the hams thought I was crazy. I said, "Who do you think will be delivering supplies, maybe a trucker?" They then thought it was a wonderful idea.
The goal isn't to insure that all communications are by ham radio, the goal is to communicate.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
Most importantly though, don't rely on technology to get you out of a jam. Avy beacons fail, GPSs die, radios don't reach people on the other end. They are all wonderful, life saving tools but odds are you won't need any of that stuff. Read the Wilderness First Responder medical book, read Freedom of the Hills, etc. Go prepared. A vast majority of the time, you'll be able to get yourself and other people help without 'calling' anyone.
--Let's hack root on 127.0.0.1 --panZ
As I understand, you need the radio for a purely utilitarian purpose - to talk to specific people. You are not a ham yourself (not yet, at least) and likely the people you want to talk to are not hams either (otherwise you'd ask them, not Slashdot.) This means none of you can legally (or effectively) use ham radio. This can be corrected; ham license exams are not complicated, I took three on the same day, from no license to extra, but I have radio background and I'm not new to ham radio (I was first licensed around 1980, I think.) A man from the street will have lots of problems with higher level exams unless he understands things like the theory of linear circuits, complex impedance, and such.
You certainly can go ahead and get a ham radio license for yourself, if that is interesting to you in any way (there is more than one way to enjoy ham radio.) But you probably can't tell your friends, parents, or whoever is on the other end, to go and get a license - that's probably beyond most people's abilities, just like it is for me to learn classical dance :-) People are all different.
However if you only want communication then getting a ham radio and license doesn't make much sense. If I want to fly from SF to Paris I don't want to study for a pilot license; I buy a ticket, and a professional pilot will do all the flying for me. It is cheaper, simpler, safer, and lets me do things that I want to do - not what I have to do.
Technically, ham radio in emergency is the absolute best way to make a contact with another ham. Even satellites are not as reliable. Ham radio depends primarily on equipment that you (and the other guy) have. No need for expensive satellites that may or may not be in the sky or otherwise operational. There are many ham bands, and you can always find a band that works at the time of need. HF bands will work for short range communication pretty much at any time (using the ground wave.) In mountains NVIS makes sense. V/UHF is not likely to work there because distances are large, terrain - rough, and repeaters would be scarce. To be well prepared for an emergency you need to have an HF rig, and if you can do CW (at any speed) it's even better.
An experienced ham would probably take a small transceiver with him into mountains; either HF or HF+VHF. He wouldn't need much of an antenna - any long wire would do fine at his elevation. In good conditions he'd be able to communicate with the whole USA with mere 5W; in bad conditions he'd be able to contact a local ham to report an emergency (and he'd have his GPS coordinates.)
A new ham most likely won't be able to fully utilize the spectrum that he has access to (depends on his license.) He'd bring a UHF HT with him, and he wouldn't be able to hear anything. Also repeaters are tricky sometimes, they require PL tones and you need to know them in advance to elicit a response from a silent repeater. So you must come prepared.
In your situation it would be safer for you if you rely upon commercial methods of communication. They are better supported and they require hardly any experience. If you need the radio only to report an emergency then you can get a beacon for that. If you want to talk to your friends from the top of a mountain then you need a satellite phone (and lots of money to pay for it.)
They fail because of the lack of coverage, the charge in the battery or the fact that no one else will be able to figure it out (if you are the one hurt).
Some simple precautions go a long way: the buddy system, first aid kit, topo map and compass, planning your route, extra food and water, notify friends of your departure and return. These do not cost as much and will do a lot more.
I used to carry a 2 meter rig when I went backpacking with the scouts. I found there was no coverage - except near cities.
The back country is a great place. But, it is terribly unforgiving for any lack of preparedness.
You really need to get off your high horse.
The guy has a license - so that means he passed the same test as you did. He thinks it might be a reasonable safety option - and he's trying to verify that opinion. If he winds up using it for an emergency, then he well within the basis and purpose of the service. If he doesn't use to do anything else but talk to some buddies while he's hiking - he STILL is within reasonable and normal usage.
So PLEASE drop out of lecture mode.
Have you compiled your kernel today??
FWIW I live in Colorado.
Most responders seem to assume some sort of VHF but, as a few people point out, that's not really a great idea because there are big gaps in repeater coverage in the mountains.
However, 5W (or less) on HF CW would be ample for emergency communications, and you wouldn't have to worry about whether there's a repeater nearby. There are lots of designs for lightweight QRP (i.e., low power) single-frequency (or limited-frequency) rigs that would be suitable. I'd probably go for one that transmitted on 40m, just because there's more CW activity there, so you're more likely to be heard quickly than on, say, 80m.
I don't hike in the mountains, but if I did I would definitely carry such a rig with me. It only needs to save your life once.
So glad to see some people thinking about that. I hate how often the ham community shuns CB and the mere mention of it. Yes, it certainly has it's own problems, but nearly EVERY truck and a good amount of touring motorcycles are equipped with CB. Considering how many charity bike rides that ARS covers that make use of motorcycles, this also seems overlooked. I've never thought of it from the delivery, but I'll certainly keep that in mind in the future.
How do you know he didn't - Cause if you knew my call - you wouldn't make that same assumption about me.
Happens that I had to pay to take the test(s) at the FCC in person (including code at 20wpm). So I DID likely take the same tests as you. Get over yourself.
Further - I've held certain positions within the amateur community that causes me to have practical experience with getting FCC to do something about violations of 97.113 (and have had those people sited.) He is WELL within the basis and purpose as currently stated.
Let the guy enjoy his hobby - as I would suggest you do too. (and try to not be such a license bigot) After all - the thing that binds all of us together within the hobby is the love of the radio art.
Have you compiled your kernel today??
Original poster indicated that his primary area of focus is coverage in the Colorado mountains. I do not have specific first-hand knowledge of the coverage area for amateur VHF/UHF in Colorado, but this repeater map could be a good reference, though it is dated 2006. It's authors indicate that a 2009 version is for sale in print.
A preliminary skimming indicates coverage in several mountain cities. I'm no radio engineer, but I would imagine that the Estes Park repeater would probably do him pretty good in Rocky Mountain National Park -- at least in the highlands...
In addition to the above, there's a decent coverage map for Colorado Connection here, but some of the repeaters (especially Durango) are missing from the map. Colorado Connection is one of the larger repeater systems in the state, consisting of almost twenty linked repeaters.
I'd still recommend a SPOT or similar system though; you never know where trouble might strike.
I've got a ham station, and it includes an AM/LSB/USB base CB radio (top center in that image) and associated dedicated antenna. If the goal is being able to communicate in an emergency (and that is one of my goals as a ham), ignoring one of the most widespread tools out there is not the best idea.
It's also not fair to just say "rednecks and freaks"; there are a lot of folks in this area, ranchers and so forth, not "rednecks" by any definition other than perhaps suntan, who use CB as a practical (and free) means to keep in touch. I know some that are a good deal more sophisticated in both outlook and education than some of the characters I've run into here on slashdot.
For that matter, ham radio is no exclusive preserve of reason, manners, and intelligence, either. So let's keep the "redneck" comments down to a dull roar, shall we?
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
a QRP (low power) rig on 40 meters can work hundreds or thousands of miles
When I got my ham radio license, the instructor told the class a funny story.
There was this old guy out hiking, and the old guy carried a 40 meter Morse code radio. The guy hurt his leg and could not continue. Some hikers came along and offered help; the old guy told them "pitch my tent, help me inside, and throw this antenna wire up into the trees." That's all he wanted, and after they did that, they walked away (they never followed up with anyone).
So the old guy started tapping out his emergency report. One old ham operator, hundreds of miles away, was monitoring the 40 meter band and got the report. And in fact you had to be hundreds of miles away to get it; the report wasn't possible to pick up close by. So the ham operator in another state got on the phone to the Snohomish County Search and Rescue, to tell them what was going on.
Our instructor works for the Search and Rescue department, and he disbelieved the initial report. "Did you say the 40 meter band?!?" When S&R got to the park, they couldn't pick up the signal; they had to use cell phones to talk to the guy in another state to communicate with the guy who needed help.
So, the moral of the story is: if you want to whistle up help, maybe a 40 meter rig isn't the best way to go.
Personally, I'd carry a 406 MHz personal locator beacon.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
In addition to the above, there's a decent coverage map for Colorado Connection [colcon.org] here [colcon.org], but some of the repeaters (especially Durango) are missing from the map.
It's been a long time since I was there, but at the time, the Durango area (and northeast to the Vallecito Reservoir) had solid coverage in the 144 MHz (2 meter) band. There was a solar-powered repeater operated by a local club on top of a mountain, broadcasting at 100 watts.
I had an interesting discussion with one of the club members about the perils of maintenance -- the road to the site was only open in the summer. The repeater went down for some reason (lightning strike?) before the road opened one spring, and they had to hire a helicopter to fly someone to the site to repair it.
I'd still recommend a SPOT or similar system though; you never know where trouble might strike.
I'll second this. SPOT transmitter/locators are really inexpensive, and will provide a much more precise location if you need help. You can also use it to send a simple "I'm OK" status message periodically, and later use it to plot your locations from which you sent the message.
"Don't do it." FUCK you, chief. Who are you to discourage a potential future Ham based on what YOU say the Amateur service is "for?" People become Hams for all sorts of reasons. The FCC specifies what we may NOT do on amateur bands, and gives reasons for establishing them in the first place, but EVERY use permissible is entirely valid and should be encouraged to further the hobby.
So this guy starts out with a backpack HF rig to make sure he has a way to get messages out of the wild, and then what? You should know how this goes if you've been in the hobby as long as you say you have. You start out with a specific purpose, and then one thing or another starts interesting you, and before you know it you're watching the waterfall for PSK31 on HF and trying to DX with Zimbabwe a couple months later.
I became a Ham BECAUSE of the service's emergency provisions. I watched a plane fly into the North Tower of the WTC and kill my cousin and her coworkers in Cantor-Fitzgerald, and then heard about ARES and RACES volunteers stitching Manhattan's emergency services together so they could communicate in the wake of having their repeaters turned to ash. I heard those stories and said "I want to be on that team. THAT'S how I'm going to contribute." So I got a license, and got elmered by some of the guys who volunteered on Wall Street, and eventually started learning about how huge the hobby is and how much you can do with it. I found out about MARS and Skywarn and EchoLink and IRLP, and all the incredible things you can do with just a little dual-band HT, and I was hooked. Now my friends and I talk on a number of the local repeaters in town (I've since moved) on a regular basis.
But according to you, I never should have started, because emergency services are not the "primary purpose" of the Amateur Service. Kill yourself. I can't stand curmudgeonly old fucks like you who think if you didn't start on CW on 10m you're somehow illegitimate. Get over yourself.
+++ATH0
Speaking of repeaters, a really good option is to have a good mobile dual band rig in your car, capable of what's called crossband repeating. Basically the idea is you transmit from your HT (handheld) on one band (like 70cm), which is received by the rig in your car and retransmitted on another band (like 2m) preset to the input frequency of a local repeater. If the local repeater has autopatch (most do) then you can make phone calls, or in an emergency just call for help to any of the people listening to that repeater. Also many repeaters are networked, so you can communicate across many hundreds or thousands of miles if you wanted to get in touch with a specific person (like a buddy that listens in for you while you're on hikes).
Both the wattage and antenna gain of a mobile (car-mounted) rig are orders of magnitude better than any HT rig (due to FCC regulation of wattage allowed for handheld transcievers, antenna size, and even vehicle groundplane), so you could reliably work repeaters dozens of miles away in that scenario.
Oh, on another note, many HTs are now multiple band (my Yaesu handheld transmits on 4 bands!), and thus the OEM will include an antenna that is only mediocre across all the bands the HT supports. For best performance you should use an antenna specifically tuned for the band you are going to use. I used 70cm for your HT in my example above, because antennas for that band are nice and short which is good for portability. Then you can have a high gain 2m on your car that can really reach out and touch repeaters far away.
Better known as 318230.