Reliable communication in the mountains

[jkline6766]

Since developing a serious heart problem, my wife isists on being in contact with me... I know its illegal, but I wired up my boat radio in the house and then bought a hand held vhf marine unit for ememrgencies.. Cell phones dont work here, the little hand held radios that are sold for this arent reliable. There is no one on the marine Vhf radio frequencies this far inland,away from the water. These units sell for about 100 dollars each and are very reliable even in woods. Now, of course, this is illegal and Im not suggesting that anyone break the law...

[Speckmisser]

jk,

Are you sure this is illegal? I know a lot of truck and taxi operations use VHF.

I believe the licensing requirement for recreational users was also lifted several years ago. I have a pair of FRS radios now, but am seriously considering getting a pair of VHFs as replacements (better range, higher quality, lower price).

Something else you may consider is the personal locator beacon, which will become available for non-marine use in July. It's just like the EPIRB that commercial vessels are required to carry. If anything happens, you can activate this thing to send a locator signal from anywhere in the world. Not sure what the prices are going to be, but you can bet it'll become a valuable piece of equipment for solo hunters.

[steve-o]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but using a marine radio on land is VERY illegal. There are people who volunteer for the FCC as "official observers", who scan the bands listening for illegal operations. If they find someone, they use direction-finding technics to locate the source.

Marine radios can only be used on a boat. Even if a ship's captain ties up at a dock, he can't deboard and run across the street to a store and radio back to the ship.

Here's a quote from a marine radio site:

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>
Question: I live far from the ocean. Now that portable VHF marine radios are inexpensive and unlicensed, and have 68 channels, can I use them for communicating with my buddies while hunting or similar purposes off the water? A recent outdoors magazine recommended I consider doing so.

Answer: No! Although the FCC does not require boaters with these radios have a license, users not following FCC rules on the use of these radios are still subject to severe fines. Although you may not be near the ocean, you may be near an inland waterway, or propagation anomalies may cause your transmission to be heard in a waterway. If this occurs, depending upon the channel on which you are transmitting, you could interfere with a search and rescue case, or help cause a collision between passing ships. The FCC recently established a family radio service for the purposes you describe. Consider using it instead.[/b]

Also, there are restrictions on FRS and GMRS radios. The FCC states that FRS radios can only be used for recreation. They cannot be used to conduct business on. GMRS radios can only be used for business communications. GMRS cannot be used for recreation. So there&#39;s a specific type of radio for each activity.

[vermonsta]

Jk do what you have to do man . It sounds like your not abusing the frequencys. It might be illegal but your life is more important than a rule. But if your a real stickler check out the no code 2-meter ham license they have real good range and depending where you are there usually are repeaters you can get on to increase your range. Or if your not too far away you can use gmrs they can be used recreationaly. here&#39;s the gmrs link get the info straight from the horses mouth.

http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/personal/.../generalmobile/ (http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/personal/generalmobile/)

Good luck what ever way you go !

[Marty]

Well, it is illegal to use Marine banded radios for ship-shore, or shore-shore. Ship-shore comm&#39;s can be made through a personal operator, or an automated operator system.
Carriers will forgive SOS calls only. All other forms of unlicensed communication are subject to penalty.