High Sierra Topix

Thanks, Shawn. very helpful. So my GMRS radio should be able to use certain channels to maybe hit a repeater if i'm in the appropriate proximity?

russ

Well, sort of. If you have a GMRS radio already, you likely know that the GMRS repeaters are mostly private and/or a paid for affair. I have heard that there are some freebie GMRS repeaters but don't know what kind of "baggage" they come with.

While I haven't checked to be sure, I think the number of available ham repeaters would far exceed the number of available GMRS repeaters (hams are nerds and will put a radio wherever possible).

Given these circumstances, I would think the opportunity to actually communicate when needed would be seriously restricted to a few if any.

You can see where this is leading Russ, getting a ham license is pretty easy these days and cost about 10 bucks.

I have a Yaesu VX8DR that I keep on hand in case of emergencies.
When I happen to summit a peak I turn it on 2m calling freq. Since most of the places I reach are in the back country my tiny 5 watts FM transmission doesn't reach very far.
I have yet to have a contact.

Hey AIS,

With the big uptick in SOTA stations, I've heard many high Sierra comms on .52 from my place in Paso Robles. Sadly not many folks listen to .52 much anymore, but if you're above 10k or so your signal is definitely going the distance.

Check out this listing as an example:
https://www.sota.org.uk/Association/W6/SN

Hi!

What I am pretty surprised that you could hear it from so far away, but from 14,000ft It makes sense that it would reach the angle would just be REALLY shallow. and if you were hearing communications instead of CW dits and dahs I have to assume they were using standard HTs... so around 5-8 watts.

Frankly I've been a bit surprised myself. My home is at about 1,000' ASL and I routinely hear those SOTA folks from here from relatively low peaks (again 10K or so). I can routinely hear the 146.730 Mammoth mountain repeater here as well, which far exceeds what I thought was possible given my humble station.

But yes, most of the SOTA guys/gals I've spoken with are using HT's, sometimes they do use a small ground plane or other external antenna though.