Overland Communication Question

[bajarat]

Question to gauge usefulness in my situation

- Not interested in Ham as a hobby
- Interested in 2m and 70 cm
- No interest in advancing beyond Tech license
- Travel will be with wife on mid level difficulty 4x4 touring roads in the western states, Canada, Yukon, Alaska, and Mexico/Central America
- Don't anticipate traveling with groups on rugged Jeep trails and needing trail conditions ahead of us. More interested in over landing the areas above
- Over landing will eventually take us to Europe / North Africa after we cut our teeth in North America/Central America
- For N Africa / Sahara travel with others. Is 2m widely used in this application?

Why am I interested?

Communication with others in remote areas where cell coverage is non existent
Will this only be achieved if there is a repeater network available?
Usefulness in under developed part of countries that totally lack cell coverage

--I do have SPOT tracking for emergencies that require immediate assistance

Will this be an aid for our travels?

Many thanks for replying!

 

[cnynrat]

As a general rule, I think you can only count on reliable communications over distances of 25-30 miles or so with 2m/70cm gear. There are situations where you can communicate over significantly longer distances (50-75 miles is not unheard of), but I don't think you can count on it. As such, you are pretty heavily dependent on repeaters in the UHF/VHF bands.

You need to look into whether there are repeaters in the places where you plan to travel. Generally speaking, I find repeaters are available in most of the western U.S. in the types of places we travel. As an example, south central Utah is probably one of the more remote places in the western U.S., and it's got pretty widepsread repeater coverage through a linked repeater network operated by the Sinbad Desert Amateur Radio Club. Even with that network you can still have difficulty based on the local geography.

This is the advantage of HF. With HF you can reach out over much longer distances.

Depending on your objectives, another alternative to consider would be to supplement 2m with something like In-Reach which has some text messaging capabilities.

 

[Tennmogger]

You posted the same question in the Ham Radio FAQ.

 

[bajarat]

Yes, you are correct.

I thought it might get more attention here instead of the FAQ section.

Hope a x-post won't bring any bad vibes my way.

 

[/dev/ram]

I've got a similar circumstance, although probably more N. and S. america. I understand the repeater issue, but would a better expo rig be something like a mobile unit stored in a waterproof case, deployed with some sort of antennae as needed? Or a hand-held with or without an external antennae? I keep thinking I want a ham setup, but is it really practical for the type of need described? If I don't practice it as a hobby, will I really be able to use it when I need it? It would seem that I don't want to talk with other hams per se, but make contact with the part of the world I'm used to communicating with - just outside of normal range. Not to say that an emergency use isn't in the mix too.

 

[gary in ohio]

What your wanting to do with ham radio is wrong. Ham radio is a hobby, your trying to use it as a communication service. Outside the US/canda you need to look at what it takes to license you and your radio in each countries. While many countries have agreements with the US that make you license valid, you will still need to notify authorities in various countries and pay a fee/bribe to get a local license. You need to know and follow the rules for each country, not all ham bands are the same. With only VHF/UHF radio your communication is going to be limited outside of NA and Europe.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Gary makes exactly the main point why ham would not be a good choice unless it was something you took on as a hobby. If you're a ham, jumping through the hoops is worthwhile because you enjoy the hobby and making contacts. If you're not into the hobby, it's just a PITA compared to a cell or satellite phone. But having the ability to operate HF in remote places, such as the outback in Oz, might be not only fun but also useful.

You can operate with reciprocal agreements in many other countries, but you need to get permissions for each country. That might be as simple as adding a /VE3 as our agreement with Canada. But mostly it requires extra work. In Europe you can get a CEPT certificate and in the Americas an IARP to operate throughout for the most part. Sometimes the IARP requires knowledge of Morse Code. For the majority of the rest of the world you have to get a permit, which is essentially a license for each country you wish to operate within.

http://www.arrl.org/reciprocal-permit

http://www.arrl.org/international-operating