I just ordered a small 2m band radio for the truck. I was wondering if anyone had compiled a shortlist of handy frequencies for off-roaders/campers specific to the south island. Forestry, fire, weather, emergency, etc.
I'm not sure about the forestry channels but you should definitely shortcut all of the frs and gmrs channels as lots of us use those and I've found that they're pretty common in the bush.
I was just out the other day with a guy who had one of the preprogrammed vhf/uhf units and we couldn't figure it out. The programming looks like a bit of a convoluted process so I would test to make sure you can actually access those channels at home before you go out. My thinking is you may need to manually program each one before hand and label them.
I use these ones. I have a few more to add to it.
Those who use FRS etc should also note that its a good idea to have logging company frequencies when traveling in active areas so that you can hear the location of trucks and get the hell out of their way.
These frequencies are all active and are used on my Icom radio.
I just got a Retevis RT5 VHF/UHF radio for Christmas and have been playing with it quite a bit. It's actually a pretty good cheap radio and if you can still find the rev.1 units, you get a little extra bandwidth and transmit power since they neglected to put the band and power caps on that model, which makes them technically illegal here since they are capable of transmitting on restricted frequencies. If you avoid those, you should be fine to use them though, like anyone is going to know the difference. I have been told that the "official" BC 4x4 channel is 146.460mHz simplex. I have yet to hear a single peep on that frequency yet but I have it permanently programmed in as a priority channel just in case someone actually uses it. I also have all the Marine VHF frequencies, all the resource road control and loading frequencies, including all the FRS/GMRS and MURS channels as well, and I scan them often while off road. Sometimes when I'm out in the boonies I do hear some traffic on GMRS channels but everything else is usually pretty quiet while I've been scanning. It seems most people just use the cheap walkie talkies to com car-car. CB is dead and even the repeaters here are eerily quiet unless it's a bunch of digital noise coming over it. VHF only seems to be used commercially still.
I myself still use CB, I don't need a ton of range as I'm only trying to communicate with the guys I'm rolling with and I never have to worry about dead batteries or letting someone borrow a radio that doesn't have one and then never getting it back. I've got 2 radios that don't belong to me.
Personally I like my CB better than any hand held I've used to date.
What make of radio dual band or just 2 meters if just 2 meters it won't pic up any ( FRS ) (GMRS ) different band .........LOOK here for your VHF stuff http://www.bcarcc.org/vanisland.pdf and here http://www.scanbc.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page .....And as much as i dislike CB there cheap to buy they work well in the bush should get 10 miles of range so there great truck to truck and when condition are good they can cover 1000s of miles ...Get your self a programing Cable for your radio then down load this program http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home use it to program your radio all vhf and uhf radios are far easier to program this way ......
Thanks for the links! I'm going to have to sift through that stuff and see what I want to add to my saved channels. The radio is a Baofeng UV-5R and I got a programming cable and used Chirp to load all the channels people suggested. I actually got a pair of them and was able to try them out a bit this weekend while camping. We were able to get to about 5km away and still have passable communications on UHF despite the geographic disadvantages of our base camp, so I'm pretty happy with that. I tried scanning the VHF frequencies listed above for a while but the only ones I caught traffic on were the weather channels. We were surrounded on 3 sides by 150ish foot rock walls though, so not the best place for radio reception. I got a mag mount 19 inch antenna to use but wasn't able to try it as the adapter hasn't shown up yet. As they are out of the box though they're more than adequate for talking between vehicles out on a trail run or keeping in touch while hiking about near camp.
I'd like to get a decent mobile unit one day for the extra power if needed. For now I use a uv-82hp, but also have a uv5r. For the costs decent units for my intended uses.
Baofeng UV-5R ah yes there is thousands of them around so dual band not sure if it will do cross band repeating that is one way of extending your range the mag mount will help a lot but get ripped off in the bush ............I uses a tyt 7800 dual band it dues cross-band repeating @ 75 watts so all the hand held in my grope of friend basically uses my radio like a repeater if i ever get off my ass i a going to put in my amp so around 250 watts output get for simplex or cross band repeating
hey just got a uv-5r+ for my bday, figuring out the programming, do you need to have a repeater programmed in? can you just listen on frequencies like ladd 1 and other van island 4x4 without a repeater programmed in?
Did you get the programming cable with it?
They're a bitch to load up without it.
I have the Retevis RT5 which is basically the same thing as the Baofeng UV-5R.
The loading software has a spread sheet layout with all the different options for programming each channel laid out.
Yep got the cable, got everything pretty much. Can you talk on the LADD channels and FRS / GMRS channels without connecting to a repeater? Just trying to see how this all works. For example if im not using a repeater, but was on highway on LADD 1, can i still listen or talk without repeater? I know you need a HAM for transmitting on the channels, im not saying im going to transmit, just seeing if i "could"
Like Lauchlin said, you need to be licensed to legally transmit on commercial frequencies and use repeaters, excepting cases of emergency.
Repeaters are just that, a relay station, usually on top of a mountain, that is able to receive a signal addressed to it and retransmit that signal to another mountain top within range or to another ground station, effectively creating a network to extend radio communications over larger areas that would normally not be able to reach each other.
You can program in LADD or any other frequencies in your band range and monitor them all you like but if they are private or restricted use channels you can not just transmit on them. You can only technically legally transmit on allocated public use frequencies for radio can tune like FRS/GMRS on the UHF band as long as it's under 5W on GMRS and under 2W on FRS channels I believe. 146.460 mHz is designated as the official 4WD Association of BC VHF channel but I don't think it is used much on the Island. I have only ever heard a series of accidental keyups on it in a year of monitoring it on the road and the trail. It is useful for car to car radio in a group since you know you aren't going to be messing up someone else's channel. I am thinking about getting my amateur radio license this year and learning more about repeaters and stuff like that myself. I used to be an electronics tech so the hardware part isn't going to be as hard for me to figure out as filling in all the learning gaps and the proper way to operate everything.
most of the vhf bands are not on a repeater the lad are not 146.460 is not on a repeater FRS/GMRS not on a repeater there simplex which just means form radio to radio
cool good to know thanks for all the info brent and rob :) ive been monitoring LADD 1 for fun once in awhile and i do hear alot of construction guys, especially around bear mtn / millstream area where im at. Ive never heard anything local on CB though haha, has anyone heard anything, ever?
I've connected with truck drivers as far as Seattle...not a lot of local traffic though.
I'm typically around 2500meters when I get Seattle traffic.
I've also noticed with the guys running CB in the bush that most are running short antenna just to be able to communicate with the group their in instead of 4-5' whips which will get better range.
since switching to my shorty I only ever hear the guys I'm with. I kept breaking my long fiberglass whips.
Thanks, I figured 16 but 5 is also one I will listen to.
I leave my radio on 10 99% of the time since that's what all the Victoria people including my girlfriend use.
I'm putting a 108 inch (not 102) whip on the side of my runner so range will not be an issue. Also gonna put a little firestik off the hood channel with an antenna switch to change between them for long distance in the clear and clearance in the bush.
I've talked to north Seattle from Clover Point. You don't need to be high but it sure helps LOL. Talked to a fishing boat 40 miles offshore of California halfway between LA and San Francisco on Tuesday.
I've talked skip to Louisiana, Chicago, Mojave Desert, Sacramento, Las Vegas to name a few. From the top of Mt. Tolmie in Victoria. Thats with a K40 antenna magnet mounted to the roof.
Goldstream Heights is the best spot to go for reception on the south island. Just find a vacant lot and drive in.
If anyone wants to chat locally channels used around here are:
10 - Victoria and Westshore There are about a dozen regular CB users around here. My GF is DoubleDelta and I am LongJohn.
6 - Port Angeles and Sequim Catbox, Wagon Master and Mongoose are the ones I talk to the most. Mt Tolmie or Goldstream Heights are the best places to talk.
8 - North Puget Sound dont talk to them too often but I have in the past from Clover Point
20 - Haven't figured out where those guys are yet. They never talk back :(
CB is pretty much dead we are going into a low sunspot cycle will kill 11 meters basically no more skip but still good in the bush or around town... SS whip will improve your ability to receive and transmit so will a amp say 100 watts there cheap ......Here is a shot of 11 meter or CB at 5.14 Its dead
Yes the skip is not the best now but its still there from time to time.
I'm a ham too. I also enjoy the charms of CB. Here's a shot of my girl and myself talking from a few minutes ago. She's mobile and I'm on our base station.
Ya its going to get worse before it gets better 20 meters been good last few week end made a few contact England and Russia ...What are you using for a SDR i use a FDM-DUO by ELAD with a pre amp out to a AL 80 B up to my 80 meter Delta loop @ about 65 feet this is my Station pic of my Duo are not up there yet .......https://www.qrz.com/db/VE7SHM
I'm not sure about the forestry channels but you should definitely shortcut all of the frs and gmrs channels as lots of us use those and I've found that they're pretty common in the bush.
Ahh cool thanks. From the bit of reading I did I figured the FRS stuff would just be hard coded in (ie pick a channel between 1 and 14, period).
I was just out the other day with a guy who had one of the preprogrammed vhf/uhf units and we couldn't figure it out. The programming looks like a bit of a convoluted process so I would test to make sure you can actually access those channels at home before you go out. My thinking is you may need to manually program each one before hand and label them.
I use these ones. I have a few more to add to it.
Those who use FRS etc should also note that its a good idea to have logging company frequencies when traveling in active areas so that you can hear the location of trucks and get the hell out of their way.
These frequencies are all active and are used on my Icom radio.
Awesome, thanks!
I just got a Retevis RT5 VHF/UHF radio for Christmas and have been playing with it quite a bit. It's actually a pretty good cheap radio and if you can still find the rev.1 units, you get a little extra bandwidth and transmit power since they neglected to put the band and power caps on that model, which makes them technically illegal here since they are capable of transmitting on restricted frequencies. If you avoid those, you should be fine to use them though, like anyone is going to know the difference. I have been told that the "official" BC 4x4 channel is 146.460mHz simplex. I have yet to hear a single peep on that frequency yet but I have it permanently programmed in as a priority channel just in case someone actually uses it. I also have all the Marine VHF frequencies, all the resource road control and loading frequencies, including all the FRS/GMRS and MURS channels as well, and I scan them often while off road. Sometimes when I'm out in the boonies I do hear some traffic on GMRS channels but everything else is usually pretty quiet while I've been scanning. It seems most people just use the cheap walkie talkies to com car-car. CB is dead and even the repeaters here are eerily quiet unless it's a bunch of digital noise coming over it. VHF only seems to be used commercially still.
I myself still use CB, I don't need a ton of range as I'm only trying to communicate with the guys I'm rolling with and I never have to worry about dead batteries or letting someone borrow a radio that doesn't have one and then never getting it back. I've got 2 radios that don't belong to me.
Personally I like my CB better than any hand held I've used to date.
What make of radio dual band or just 2 meters if just 2 meters it won't pic up any ( FRS ) (GMRS ) different band .........LOOK here for your VHF stuff http://www.bcarcc.org/vanisland.pdf and here http://www.scanbc.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page .....And as much as i dislike CB there cheap to buy they work well in the bush should get 10 miles of range so there great truck to truck and when condition are good they can cover 1000s of miles ...Get your self a programing Cable for your radio then down load this program http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home use it to program your radio all vhf and uhf radios are far easier to program this way ......
Thanks for the links! I'm going to have to sift through that stuff and see what I want to add to my saved channels. The radio is a Baofeng UV-5R and I got a programming cable and used Chirp to load all the channels people suggested. I actually got a pair of them and was able to try them out a bit this weekend while camping. We were able to get to about 5km away and still have passable communications on UHF despite the geographic disadvantages of our base camp, so I'm pretty happy with that. I tried scanning the VHF frequencies listed above for a while but the only ones I caught traffic on were the weather channels. We were surrounded on 3 sides by 150ish foot rock walls though, so not the best place for radio reception. I got a mag mount 19 inch antenna to use but wasn't able to try it as the adapter hasn't shown up yet. As they are out of the box though they're more than adequate for talking between vehicles out on a trail run or keeping in touch while hiking about near camp.
I'd like to get a decent mobile unit one day for the extra power if needed. For now I use a uv-82hp, but also have a uv5r. For the costs decent units for my intended uses.
Baofeng UV-5R ah yes there is thousands of them around so dual band not sure if it will do cross band repeating that is one way of extending your range the mag mount will help a lot but get ripped off in the bush ............I uses a tyt 7800 dual band it dues cross-band repeating @ 75 watts so all the hand held in my grope of friend basically uses my radio like a repeater if i ever get off my ass i a going to put in my amp so around 250 watts output get for simplex or cross band repeating
I have been pushing the QYT KT-8900d lately cheap dual band 25 watts very small nice display
hey just got a uv-5r+ for my bday, figuring out the programming, do you need to have a repeater programmed in? can you just listen on frequencies like ladd 1 and other van island 4x4 without a repeater programmed in?
you needed a ham ticket to use repeaters .................Loaded in all the Ladds and 146.4600 4X4 channel
Did you get the programming cable with it?
They're a bitch to load up without it.
I have the Retevis RT5 which is basically the same thing as the Baofeng UV-5R.
The loading software has a spread sheet layout with all the different options for programming each channel laid out.
Yep got the cable, got everything pretty much. Can you talk on the LADD channels and FRS / GMRS channels without connecting to a repeater? Just trying to see how this all works. For example if im not using a repeater, but was on highway on LADD 1, can i still listen or talk without repeater? I know you need a HAM for transmitting on the channels, im not saying im going to transmit, just seeing if i "could"
Like Lauchlin said, you need to be licensed to legally transmit on commercial frequencies and use repeaters, excepting cases of emergency.
Repeaters are just that, a relay station, usually on top of a mountain, that is able to receive a signal addressed to it and retransmit that signal to another mountain top within range or to another ground station, effectively creating a network to extend radio communications over larger areas that would normally not be able to reach each other.
You can program in LADD or any other frequencies in your band range and monitor them all you like but if they are private or restricted use channels you can not just transmit on them. You can only technically legally transmit on allocated public use frequencies for radio can tune like FRS/GMRS on the UHF band as long as it's under 5W on GMRS and under 2W on FRS channels I believe. 146.460 mHz is designated as the official 4WD Association of BC VHF channel but I don't think it is used much on the Island. I have only ever heard a series of accidental keyups on it in a year of monitoring it on the road and the trail. It is useful for car to car radio in a group since you know you aren't going to be messing up someone else's channel. I am thinking about getting my amateur radio license this year and learning more about repeaters and stuff like that myself. I used to be an electronics tech so the hardware part isn't going to be as hard for me to figure out as filling in all the learning gaps and the proper way to operate everything.
most of the vhf bands are not on a repeater the lad are not 146.460 is not on a repeater FRS/GMRS not on a repeater there simplex which just means form radio to radio
What CB Channels do people use? I've got a CB and Ham radio but haven't put the ham rig in the truck yet.
Myself and the guys that I run with either use 5 or 16
5 I have the best reception and 16 because 4x4=16
cool good to know thanks for all the info brent and rob :) ive been monitoring LADD 1 for fun once in awhile and i do hear alot of construction guys, especially around bear mtn / millstream area where im at. Ive never heard anything local on CB though haha, has anyone heard anything, ever?
I've connected with truck drivers as far as Seattle...not a lot of local traffic though.
I'm typically around 2500meters when I get Seattle traffic.
I've also noticed with the guys running CB in the bush that most are running short antenna just to be able to communicate with the group their in instead of 4-5' whips which will get better range.
since switching to my shorty I only ever hear the guys I'm with. I kept breaking my long fiberglass whips.
Thanks, I figured 16 but 5 is also one I will listen to.
I leave my radio on 10 99% of the time since that's what all the Victoria people including my girlfriend use.
I'm putting a 108 inch (not 102) whip on the side of my runner so range will not be an issue. Also gonna put a little firestik off the hood channel with an antenna switch to change between them for long distance in the clear and clearance in the bush.
I've talked to north Seattle from Clover Point. You don't need to be high but it sure helps LOL. Talked to a fishing boat 40 miles offshore of California halfway between LA and San Francisco on Tuesday.
I've talked skip to Louisiana, Chicago, Mojave Desert, Sacramento, Las Vegas to name a few. From the top of Mt. Tolmie in Victoria. Thats with a K40 antenna magnet mounted to the roof.
Goldstream Heights is the best spot to go for reception on the south island. Just find a vacant lot and drive in.
If anyone wants to chat locally channels used around here are:
10 - Victoria and Westshore There are about a dozen regular CB users around here. My GF is DoubleDelta and I am LongJohn.
6 - Port Angeles and Sequim Catbox, Wagon Master and Mongoose are the ones I talk to the most. Mt Tolmie or Goldstream Heights are the best places to talk.
8 - North Puget Sound dont talk to them too often but I have in the past from Clover Point
20 - Haven't figured out where those guys are yet. They never talk back :(
CB is pretty much dead we are going into a low sunspot cycle will kill 11 meters basically no more skip but still good in the bush or around town... SS whip will improve your ability to receive and transmit so will a amp say 100 watts there cheap ......Here is a shot of 11 meter or CB at 5.14 Its dead
Yes the skip is not the best now but its still there from time to time.
I'm a ham too. I also enjoy the charms of CB. Here's a shot of my girl and myself talking from a few minutes ago. She's mobile and I'm on our base station.
Ya its going to get worse before it gets better 20 meters been good last few week end made a few contact England and Russia ...What are you using for a SDR i use a FDM-DUO by ELAD with a pre amp out to a AL 80 B up to my 80 meter Delta loop @ about 65 feet this is my Station pic of my Duo are not up there yet .......https://www.qrz.com/db/VE7SHM
VE7SHM