Overlanding+Ham=Resurgence?

[NC Old Man Overland]

I am new to Overlanding. My opinion is that Overlanding and amateur radio go hand in hand, it is a perfect fit. With Overlanding becoming more main stream, my hope is for a resurgence in amateur radio. I am a retired military guy and listen to several podcast. Two of which - Fieldcraft Survival and Last Line of Defense have several episodes on Overlanding, both guys are big into comms and do a good job getting amateur radio out to the public.

I do have a question, when you are on trips, are you monitoring 146.460? I have 146.520 in my memory bank, I am pretty sure I have only used in once or twice in the past 37 years of being licensed.

 

[Huezee]

Overlanding/4x4 has led me to become interested in amateur radio. Unfortunately, after a month of studying my exam was cancelled. Monitoring the local repeaters while waiting for now.

 

[NC Old Man Overland]

Cancelled because of the virus craze? If so, that is unfortunate.

 

[Huezee]

Cancelled because of the virus craze? If so, that is unfortunate.

Honestly, I agree with the VEC's in cancelling the exam. I live in upstate New York and the virus is already spreading like wildfire. My best friend is a critical care doctor in Denver and he is pleading with people to take this situation seriously.

 

[Ubiety]

I am new to Overlanding. My opinion is that Overlanding and amateur radio go hand in hand, it is a perfect fit. With Overlanding becoming more main stream, my hope is for a resurgence in amateur radio. I am a retired military guy and listen to several podcast. Two of which - Fieldcraft Survival and Last Line of Defense have several episodes on Overlanding, both guys are big into comms and do a good job getting amateur radio out to the public.

I do have a question, when you are on trips, are you monitoring 146.460? I have 146.520 in my memory bank, I am pretty sure I have only used in once or twice in the past 37 years of being licensed.

Interesting question that leads to a conundrum (for me anyways). Given the ease of Amazon+Baofeng I'm seeing a lot of folks buying the radios with no intention of ever being licensed - they are just walkie talkies, right? IMO this has helped amateur radio by getting folks interested but...

I have started monitoring 146.460 on the mobile and HT. Heard some static the other day ;)

 

[Overland True North]

I got my radio. Got my License. Got my vanity call sign already (N1DON) and haven't been able to make contact with ONE person thus far!!!

 

[Prerunner1982]

Around town I have the local repeater and 146.520. There is typically a small group of guys that hang out on 146.520.
If I am on a trip with other off road ham guys(or gals) we will use 146.460.

 

[TerryD]

I run the local repeater on VFO A and APRS or the local simplex frequency on VFO B around town. I have both 520 and 460 set in all my radios though and run scan in the house and garage.

I've run 460 on trail rides before but will run 520 when I'm out solo just to keep an ear out for a SOTA activation or other calls on the frequency.

With that said, as a person who does scan frequencies when I'm not right at the radio, when you put out a call on a repeater or frequency please announce the frequency or at least last 3 of a repeater output. For instance, when putting out a call on my local machine I try to announce "KT4OZ monitoring 805" so that my friends who also scan when around the house know where I'm monitoring. It's helpful, especially if you are trying to make a contact but won't be making repeated calls.

 

[NC Old Man Overland]

I got my radio. Got my License. Got my vanity call sign already (N1DON) and haven't been able to make contact with ONE person thus far!!!

I applied for a vanity, but it got shot down. The one I want is open in 14 days from today, fingers crossed. I have had KA8WGH for 34 years, it is time for a "4" callsign - and something cool :-).

 

[TerryD]

Oh yeah, I am also seeing more licensees thanks to overlanding. In fact both @witchdoctor_33 and @Adventr-X have both been licensed this year and we've been playing around on the air some. Jon (Adventr-X) popped for the FTM-400 and we played with APRS last weekend some. I think he got a kick out of what it could do.

It's also nice having others with that capability around me so we can make use of it more.

It also has the negative effect of some folks who don't intend to take it seriously coming onboard but if we continue the tradition of self policing as much as possible and attempting to correct folks in a friendly manner we'll be ok.

 

[NC Old Man Overland]

Oh yeah, I am also seeing more licensees thanks to overlanding. In fact both @witchdoctor_33 and @Adventr-X have both been licensed this year and we've been playing around on the air some. Jon (Adventr-X) popped for the FTM-400 and we played with APRS last weekend some. I think he got a kick out of what it could do.

It's also nice having others with that capability around me so we can make use of it more.

It also has the negative effect of some folks who don't intend to take it seriously coming onboard but if we continue the tradition of self policing as much as possible and attempting to correct folks in a friendly manner we'll be ok.

I have been out of ham for 15 years. Coming back, unboxing radios has been fun.

I have no clue what APRS is, but I did load Echolink -------- Grits N Gravy. But, Friday nights are hard, my kids come home from college and we always do family night.......

 

[TerryD]

I have been out of ham for 15 years. Coming back, unboxing radios has been fun.

I have no clue what APRS is, but I did load Echolink -------- Grits N Gravy. But, Friday nights are hard, my kids come home from college and we always do family night.......

Jon has a few write-ups on APRS here but it is "automatic packet reporting system" and allows you to send text based messages radio to radio, emails, and even SMS messages from your radio. It also reports your position to other users as well as the internet where you can then review your track later.

I understand being busy on Fridays. I have to just take one a month so I can try to run the net but most other Fridays I'm doing a mix of mobile monitoring and checking in over my phone as I can find a minute. It's a balance I think.

 

[NC Old Man Overland]

I think I ran some kind of APRS on 2 meter, but I do not think it was called APRS - I think it was just called Packet? We used to use it for DX clusters and alerts. It has been so long.

I have an old Pak-Rat PK232, it is so old that it has serial ports, LoL.

I was big into data. I loved morse, rtty, amtor, etc.........

 

[Prerunner1982]

Intro to APRS: Intro to APRS
SMS Text and Email by APRS: OB Approved - SMS Text and Email via APRS

 

[Ubiety]

I think I ran some kind of APRS on 2 meter, but I do not think it was called APRS - I think it was just called Packet? We used to use it for DX clusters and alerts. It has been so long.

I have an old Pak-Rat PK232, it is so old that it has serial ports, LoL.

I was big into data. I loved morse, rtty, amtor, etc.........

You can think of APRS as packet radio, pretty close to the same thing. However APRS has an awesome infrastructure including repeaters (digipeaters), iGates (RF to Internet and ability to do Internet to RF, latter pretty uncommon) and awesome web sites like aprs.fi to view everything that was gated to the internet. I have used it for years and have trained friends and family to go there for updates on my location/status. APRS coverage is great in more populous areas and not so great in the areas where we overland so it is not our primary, rather a fun backup... Lately a small group of friends and I have been looking into it for real time convoy data, etc.

 

[Kent R]

I am new to Overlanding. My opinion is that Overlanding and amateur radio go hand in hand, it is a perfect fit. With Overlanding becoming more main stream, my hope is for a resurgence in amateur radio. I am a retired military guy and listen to several podcast. Two of which - Fieldcraft Survival and Last Line of Defense have several episodes on Overlanding, both guys are big into comms and do a good job getting amateur radio out to the public.

I do have a question, when you are on trips, are you monitoring 146.460? I have 146.520 in my memory bank, I am pretty sure I have only used in once or twice in the past 37 years of being licensed.

We chose 146.460 because it is the unofficial off road frequency. If you click on the top banner it will take you to our comms plan.

One interesting thing is happening, since we did designate this freq for the US we have seen some instances were members have been contacted by other members on the road. Remember 146.46 is just a starting point to make contact, if it works in your area great if not change the freq.

 

[RockyMountaineer]

Radio is only and tool and amateur radio is a versatile tool that fits very nicely with overlanding/off-roading. As for overlanding specifically communication off the beaten path has long been a goal and radio has long been a potential solution. With todays technology amateur radio gives those of us who like the venture off the beaten path some really great options and a fun hobby. And the barriers to becoming a licensed ham have largely been eliminated. So in my mind there really is reason why one would not put that tool in their toolbox.

 

[Ian_Hgn]

Anyone in Southeastern Wisconsin with a Ham license? I got into Ham last year and that's what got me into Overland.

Picked up the IC-2730 and have it installed in my truck now. Hopefully be able to put up a post about how I set it up in the future.

 

[Dilldog]

I got my license because of overlanding, and actually 2 members here helped nudge me along and get my first rigs sorted out. Thanks @Sandpoint Steve @WU7X .
For monitoring, there's a super great group on a repeater here that actually covers all of eastern Washington, so I monitor that. When I'm out with other OB folks I run 460.

 

[Jeremy M.]

In my group of travel buddies we use 146.46 for simplex within the group and monitor the local repeater where ever we are, so I'm not usually on 146.52. I have however pick up a few hits on 146.52 while traveling solo.