Ham radios
One or twice the subject has come up but the FRS and the other channels are not a great idea. When out on the road in the middle of nowhere and the cells don't work and the CBs, now rare, and you don...
Forum Discussion
It won't hurt anything to add a ham VHF/UHF to your kit. It's just another backup to cell, CB, FRS, GMRS, whatever you have already. One may work, the other may not. Or both may not work. Or one may work sometimes and in the same place not work at a different time. You never know.
I run with a VHF/UHF mobile in the truck altho I very rarely get on it. If I have a general idea where I'll be traveling I'll load in the repeaters for those areas. I always monitor 146.520 which is the ham 2 meter simplex calling freq in the US. As with 146.520 and all repeaters maybe someone is listening, maybe not. Just because you don't hear someone talking doesn't mean they're not monitoring. Same as when people say they've been calling while traveling and no one is monitoring. Maybe they are. Just because you call doesn't mean they have to answer. A lot of people won't answer because they don't know you and don't care to strike up a conversation with someone just passing thru. People don't generally like carrying on a long winded conversation with someone they don't know just because it's on the radio. But if you throw out your call followed by you need assistance they are more likely to answer.
When we're camping I have my HF rig along. There are smaller mobile antennas that let you work HF while moving. It's not something I'm interested in doing so I don't mount one on my truck. When I set up in camp I throw up either a dipole or end fed. I have run a vertical but don't care for the performance I get compared to a simple dipole or end fed.
Last summer I set up my HF rig at the Arctic Circle. Strung an inverted V dipole with the peak at 15 ft and ends at 3 ft. 100 watts. Propagation on HF has been very poor the last couple of years and my set up was far from ideal. Still was able to work FL, CA, TX, and OH from the Arctic Circle on 20 meters. A few weeks later I set up the same configuration near Moose Pass, AK and couldn't make contact with anyone. At Moose Pass I was set up in a valley with mountains all around.
When you're preparing for an emergency never rely on just one method of anything. Everything from communications to water to food to navigation requires a backup to a backup to a backup.
I run with a VHF/UHF mobile in the truck altho I very rarely get on it. If I have a general idea where I'll be traveling I'll load in the repeaters for those areas. I always monitor 146.520 which is the ham 2 meter simplex calling freq in the US. As with 146.520 and all repeaters maybe someone is listening, maybe not. Just because you don't hear someone talking doesn't mean they're not monitoring. Same as when people say they've been calling while traveling and no one is monitoring. Maybe they are. Just because you call doesn't mean they have to answer. A lot of people won't answer because they don't know you and don't care to strike up a conversation with someone just passing thru. People don't generally like carrying on a long winded conversation with someone they don't know just because it's on the radio. But if you throw out your call followed by you need assistance they are more likely to answer.
When we're camping I have my HF rig along. There are smaller mobile antennas that let you work HF while moving. It's not something I'm interested in doing so I don't mount one on my truck. When I set up in camp I throw up either a dipole or end fed. I have run a vertical but don't care for the performance I get compared to a simple dipole or end fed.
Last summer I set up my HF rig at the Arctic Circle. Strung an inverted V dipole with the peak at 15 ft and ends at 3 ft. 100 watts. Propagation on HF has been very poor the last couple of years and my set up was far from ideal. Still was able to work FL, CA, TX, and OH from the Arctic Circle on 20 meters. A few weeks later I set up the same configuration near Moose Pass, AK and couldn't make contact with anyone. At Moose Pass I was set up in a valley with mountains all around.
When you're preparing for an emergency never rely on just one method of anything. Everything from communications to water to food to navigation requires a backup to a backup to a backup.
