Off Road Communications

• Our various 4x4 and Overland adventures often take us to areas that have no cell phone coverage. I’m not talking about poor service, or just in a canyon that is blocking signal… we are talking miles, tens of miles, outside of even the weakest cell signal.

• When we are not out exploring alone, vehicle to vehicle communication makes for a more engaged group, and can also be very entertaining. It is also a safety issue when in groups. Without communication, parts of the group can get split off or lost.

Why Amateur Radio

In order to look at why I chose to add Amateur Radio to our available communications, we need to consider the other options. As I already stated, Cell phones are not reliable in many of the areas we explore. Lets take a look at some of the other ‘radio’ options:

CB Radio

The off road community has relied on Citizens Ban (CB) radios for a long time, but these radios are limited in power and range. If the group gets too spread out, communications can easily be lost. In typical off road conditions (dense trees and/or very hilly terrain), range is usually limited to a mile or so, if you are lucky. In the US, CB radio is condidered ‘high frequency’ at about 27Mhz. these radio waves are absorbed by trees, buildings, and the like. Many other countries (Austrailia, for example) have Citizens Band radio in the ‘Ultra High Frequency’ (UHF) range at about 440MHz. These higher frequency radio waves can more easily penetrate buildings and other objects and offer a small improvement to range.

FRS/GMRS

In the US, we do have some UHF radios available to the general public. These radios fall into two basic categories Family Radio Service (FRS) or General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS). The radios are essentially the same, and many ‘combo’ radios can be found which operate on both FRS and GMRS. The main differences in FRS and GMRS are the power allowed, and the fact that GMRS (which allows more power) requires a license with the FCC. There is no test for this license, but it does cost about $85.

Maximum allowable FRS power has recently been increased to 2W (it was previously limited to 0.5W) and are not allowed to have removable antennas (so you are stuck with the tiny antenna the radio comes with). GMRS radios can use up to 50W, and can also use external antennas. GMRS radios with this much transmit power are hard to come by (I’m talking about legitimate FCC approved Part 95A, not radios intended for Amateur Radio use, but programmed to operate on GMRS frequencies, which is illegal).

Amateur Radio

So that brings us back to Amateur Radio. With the most basic license (Technician Class), you are able to operate on all amateur bands above 50MHz along with some voice and CW (morse code) on certain frequencies below 50MHz – although we are primarily interested in the VHF and UHF frequencies for our purposes.

The radios available to licensed operators in the VHF/UHF bands are plentiful, and as a licensed operator, you can technically run up to 1500 Watts! (although this is not usually needed, or recommended). Most mobile (vehicle mounted) radios are capable of 50W, which is usually more than enough when combined with a quality antenna mounted high on the vehicle.

Repeaters

One of the main advantages to Amateur Radio VHF and UHF is the availability of ‘repeaters’. Repeaters do exactly what they say. They ‘repeat’ your transmission. This is great, because it can act as a relay and greatly increase your range! The real advantage of using repeaters though, comes from their location.

Repeaters are typically located on mountain tops. When combined with higher output power (usually around 100 Watts) and very efficient antennas, this gives them incredible range. Repeaters can pretty much reach as far as the eye can see. One of my local repeaters in located on a mountaintop at 8000’ and can reach as far south as Mexico; over 115 miles away with reliability. This repeater covers most of southern California…

What that means is that for a large portion of the area we regularly explore, all I have to be able to do is reach this repeater. Its highly efficient antenna is also very efficient at listening, so my 50W mobile radio has a good chance of reaching the repeater any place we are able to hear it.

This is one of literally hundreds of repeaters in southern California. There will be times when this repeaters is not accessible (due to distance, terrain, etc…), but chances are there is another repeater that I can reach. Outside of southern California, there are places where the number of repeaters is lower, but there are still usually several repeaters that you should be able to reach.

With the use of repeaters, along with higher power available for direct vehicle to vehicle communications, Amateur radio is a viable, and vital part of our communications strategy. We try not to rely on any single method for any crucial aspect of our exploring (‘Two is one, One is none’ approach). Communications is no exception. Of course we have our cell phones, and they are usually the primary communication method. We also have a CB radio mounted in the truck and still use it to communicate with other off roaders who have not yet ‘upgraded’ to Amateur Radio. We also have a Personal Satellite Communicator (DeLorme InReach). All of these methods and devices have their advantages and disadvantages. When taken as a complete package, I feel we are pretty well connected.

I will cover our specific communications setup in a later post this week.

Steem On!