mrshish

For anyone in Colorado there is a free ham class specifically for off-roading coming up. Looks like it could be pretty good, anyone else going?

Backcountry Comms | Talk to your world

Jeepstin12

I signed up. Been looking at various coms set ups and a little perplexed. I recently saw a thread where someone was saying HAM radios are illegal. As usual, you need to sift though the sand box to pull out the little lying turds.

Thanks for this post! I'm going and hopefully learning something good about the HAM.

genesbro

A ham radio is only illegal if you don't have a ham license. Real easy to get the tech ticket which lets you run vhf or uhf plus 10m rig in the Jeep. All you have to do is study the free question pool and take the test for about 15 bucks and boom you are good to go.

MB_Pathfinder

I think I know which post you're talking about. The poster said that VHF frequencies were illegal to use. I'm not sure where he got his information, but most HF, VHF, and UHF bands are perfectly legal to use as long as your license class grants you access to the band (and a basic Technician class license grants you access to most of the VHF and UHF bands that you'd use on the trail. The 0.7 and 2 meter bands are typically the most active (at least as repeaters go here in the Houston area). CBs operate on the 11 meter band (no ham radio currently available covers that band) and then at 10 meters you're starting to transition into the HF range which relies more on atmospheric bounce than line-of-sight like the VHF and UHF bands.

In my rig, I have a both a CB and a Kenwood dual band radio - the CB is there for trail rides with groups like Jeep Jamboree that now require CBs in all participating jeeps, and I hardly ever have it turned on. As for which radio is best for you, I recommend going with a dual band radio capable of cross banding. VHF and UHF frequencies can use the same antenna (my little 18" shorty can hit repeaters 50 miles away), but HF frequencies require different antenna lengths to work so you're looking adding at least an antenna tuner to your rig. Yaesu makes a quad band radio and Diamond makes an antenna designed specifically for that radio but it's 50" long so you'd need to take it off and on whenever you park in a garage without enough clearance. Mobile HF is a lot more difficult to do well than higher frequencies. Plus, since it relies on atmospheric bounce, its minimum range is usually around 500 miles or so, which is great if you're stuck in a disaster zone and need to call out for rescue, but not so useful when you just want to talk to your buddy in the jeep behind you on the trail.

For reviews on radios, I've found that eHam.net has the most useful reviews. You might also want to check out the 4x4Ham.com forum.

Jeepstin12

Thank you for the clarification! This is all new to me. I usually just build a fire and send smoke signals.

Jeepstin12

Unfortunately I will be stuck in Cali and not able to make it to this event. How do I retract my reservation? Anybody know?