alvarorb
Color Geek in Charge
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2003
- Threads
- 110
- Messages
- 1,847
- Location
- Sacramento, California
- Website
- www.instagram.com
Ham radio - For Emergencies- LIFE SAFETY
- Thread starter FJ40_owner
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
Kofoed
SILVER Star
If I remember correctly, in an emergency, the FCC Part 97 (amateur radio portion) allows you to use any amount of power, in any mode, on any freq to make contact.
That said, a "trick" is to mod the 440 band radios to tx out of band into the FRS freqs next door. You may need to narrow the FM deviation to communicate with the FRS radios. For demostration purposes only....
That said, a "trick" is to mod the 440 band radios to tx out of band into the FRS freqs next door. You may need to narrow the FM deviation to communicate with the FRS radios. For demostration purposes only....
OK, I did the mod. I'll make a separate post to show what was involved.
Done!
Done!
Last edited:
Here in Australia, we are very lucky as we have the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
The RFDS has a selection of HF frequencies that are monitored 24/7 and are called up by emergency selcall. The radios used to access this service are predominantly either Codan or Barrett HF units.
These units are quite sophisticated, when the emergency call button is activated, your details are transmitted to the RFDS. If you have a GPS connected to the HF, your position is also transmitted.
They can be used to make direct dial phone calls(using a telephone interconnect), or receive and send email (txt only)
These radios are not cheap, average price is around $3600 including antenna, but they are mil-spec radios, and lets face it, how much value do you put on your life?
For all the vast emptiness of Australia, utilising the RFDS and HF radio, the traveller is no more than 2 hours away from medical help wherever they are in Australia.
There are also other networks such as VKS737: The Australian HF Radio & Radio-Telephone Network ! This is the Australian National 4wd Radio network.
Also there is Radtel, HF Radio Network
Australia is very well set up when it comes to HF communications, with most of the emergency services available by direct selcall from your HF radio. Some networks have bases all over the country, so HF comms are very reliable.
Amateur or "ham" gear is not widely used by travellers here as it is not able to "wake up" any of the various base stations by using selcall. Ham gear is also not suited to rough travelling over corregated dirt roads or dusty environments.
Both Codan and Barrett have made available a upgrade to their radios to allow use of the amateur bands, which I believe is a much better solution for the hams on the road.
All that being said, in an emergency, any frequency that you can contact someone on is a good one to use. Fix the emergency first, then worry about legalities of frequencies.
.
The RFDS has a selection of HF frequencies that are monitored 24/7 and are called up by emergency selcall. The radios used to access this service are predominantly either Codan or Barrett HF units.
These units are quite sophisticated, when the emergency call button is activated, your details are transmitted to the RFDS. If you have a GPS connected to the HF, your position is also transmitted.
They can be used to make direct dial phone calls(using a telephone interconnect), or receive and send email (txt only)
These radios are not cheap, average price is around $3600 including antenna, but they are mil-spec radios, and lets face it, how much value do you put on your life?
For all the vast emptiness of Australia, utilising the RFDS and HF radio, the traveller is no more than 2 hours away from medical help wherever they are in Australia.
There are also other networks such as VKS737: The Australian HF Radio & Radio-Telephone Network ! This is the Australian National 4wd Radio network.
Also there is Radtel, HF Radio Network
Australia is very well set up when it comes to HF communications, with most of the emergency services available by direct selcall from your HF radio. Some networks have bases all over the country, so HF comms are very reliable.
Amateur or "ham" gear is not widely used by travellers here as it is not able to "wake up" any of the various base stations by using selcall. Ham gear is also not suited to rough travelling over corregated dirt roads or dusty environments.
Both Codan and Barrett have made available a upgrade to their radios to allow use of the amateur bands, which I believe is a much better solution for the hams on the road.
All that being said, in an emergency, any frequency that you can contact someone on is a good one to use. Fix the emergency first, then worry about legalities of frequencies.
.
Not trying to dig up an old subject, but I tend to agree with the OP - I only have one problem: How the heck do I remember all the freqs in my radio? I monitor the local freqs at home and pretty well know those, but when I travel I like to add in all the freqs for the area I'll be driving through. I monitor them as I go, but in an emergency I don't know that I would remember all of them. My IC-7000 allows me to add an alpha tag to each memory entry, but I would need to access the memory list to see the alpha tag - it doesn't display during scan, unfortunately. Certainly doable, just a drawback on the IC-7000 (maybe other rigs allow display of the alpha tag during scanning).
This may just be an issue with the IC-7000, but I had to set the offset and PL codes for each station just to be able to monitor them (a general scan of the band on FM didn't find them). The IC-7000 does allow full control of the offsets and PL codes for each memory station. I haven't had any reason to try transmitting, but I think they would hear me just fine.
I just wish someone made a weather-proof, compact, all-mode, all-band HT. I like the Yaesu vx-7 and upcomming vx-8, but they are FM only and don't cover the full spectrum.
This may just be an issue with the IC-7000, but I had to set the offset and PL codes for each station just to be able to monitor them (a general scan of the band on FM didn't find them). The IC-7000 does allow full control of the offsets and PL codes for each memory station. I haven't had any reason to try transmitting, but I think they would hear me just fine.
I just wish someone made a weather-proof, compact, all-mode, all-band HT. I like the Yaesu vx-7 and upcomming vx-8, but they are FM only and don't cover the full spectrum.
- Thread starter
- #26
Most rural public service freq's remain on VHF or UHF. There is no reason for them to be 800 MHz trunked.
The Vx-7 will listen in most any mode. wide, narrow fm, AM etc. It is easily modified...
In CA the rescue helo's are in one area of the band, USFS in another, CHP extender etc. Plus you can always go to an amateur repeater output freq and yell for help. Someone may well here you.
The ham band plan is pretty much the same everywhere. Use the output if you cannot raise the machine.
rusty_tlc
Dain Bramaged Member
This is a bad idea.
A very very very bad idea. I can almost grantee the PCB will be damaged and reversing the mod will be impossible without a background in PCB trace repair.
AFAIK the CAPS/MARS/Freeband mod for the VX7-R requires removal (de-soldering) of a jumper in the battery compartment.
The easiest way for a novice to remove a two terminal surface mount component is to use two soldering irons with fine tips to heat the leads and lift the part off the board.
- Thread starter
- #28
"This may just be an issue with the IC-7000, but I had to set the offset and PL codes for each station just to be able to monitor them"
I do not understand why you would need an offset or a PL to "Monitor" any audio signal that is not encrypted.
Many public service radios have PL decode that requires a tranmitted signal to PL encode to open the receiver. But if the PS radio is transmitting without encrytion and you cannot hear it the problem is on your end. Most likely you have PL Decode or CTCSS enabled.
I do not understand why you would need an offset or a PL to "Monitor" any audio signal that is not encrypted.
Many public service radios have PL decode that requires a tranmitted signal to PL encode to open the receiver. But if the PS radio is transmitting without encrytion and you cannot hear it the problem is on your end. Most likely you have PL Decode or CTCSS enabled.
I also thought this was odd - but maybe what you're saying is the same thing I'm saying. That is, if I just punch in 150.000 and start an upward scan through 160.000 (where I know there are many public service freqs.) I found very little even after hours of scanning in the FM mode. But when I switched the mode to FM-Tone (and chose one of the various tone-encrypted options) suddenly the airwave came alive with activity.
Again, this may just be an issue with the IC-7000 (or the way I have it setup). Obviously, it is not designed as a scanner as it is way too slow, but works for finding freqs in a given know range. It also has the nifty feature of being able to scan for the encoding tone if it is not know and then save it - which is a big help when traveling (especially without the ARRL repeater book).
