repeaters around TAhoe area?

[Kejtar]

Does anyone know of any 2m or70cm's repeaters I can hit from the Con?

Thanks

 

[kr7o]

I will check with a couple of friends in the area. They are not Jeepers, but they should be able to recommend high-level repeaters in the area that might work on the trail.

 

[Kejtar]

I will check with a couple of friends in the area. They are not Jeepers, but they should be able to recommend high-level repeaters in the area that might work on the trail.

Cool, thanks

 

[kr7o]

From one of the guys up there (will post if I get anything new).

"Hi Robert, try 146.805 pl 123 minus. The KA6GWY/R.
It's used for S&R activities here in El Dorado County.
Most deputies have ham licenses."

 

[Kejtar]

From one of the guys up there (will post if I get anything new).

"Hi Robert, try 146.805 pl 123 minus. The KA6GWY/R.
It's used for S&R activities here in El Dorado County.
Most deputies have ham licenses."

Cool, that's what I was after: a repeater for emergency use
Thanks.

 

[kr7o]

Here is some more info from a friend that is an ATT site manager, so he knows the area pretty well.

"Hi Robert..
That's kind of a difficult area to cover, but try either my machine in Placerville 440.700 PL 123, or the Gorilla machine on 440.750 pl 100. That machine is on Mt Vaca and looks back into the sierra very well, plus, it is linked to 442.475 no pl at Heavenly Valley Ski Resort in Tahoe. That pair of repeaters would probably be your best bet for both sides of the hill. The Vaca machine covers a lot of hidden areas up in the hills very well. On 2m, the 146.865 machine in Pollock Pines has a pretty good view of the Rubicon. There are 3 different repeaters in that system on the same freq and each has a different PL. I believe the Pollock pl is 146.2, but i will verify that. One of them can also be tied to the Vaca 440.75 machine so I will get more info on that for you. "

 

[Kejtar]

Thanks for posting the repeater info. It sure came in handy this weekend as I've used it to contact someone on the outside to get a message to the medivac folks so that they could come in and pull out someone who had fell out of the rig and got crushed under it during a rollover. Between us (SoCal) and Sierra chapter we've had coordinated with the Medivac base, the chopper as well as driven the medic up the trail to the guy and then handcarried the guy down the hill on a stretcher.

 

[BrettM]

Thanks for posting the repeater info. It sure came in handy this weekend as I've used it to contact someone on the outside to get a message to the medivac folks so that they could come in and pull out someone who had fell out of the rig and got crushed under it during a rollover. Between us (SoCal) and Sierra chapter we've had coordinated with the Medivac base, the chopper as well as driven the medic up the trail to the guy and then handcarried the guy down the hill on a stretcher.

that shortwave probably saved that guys life

 

[kr7o]

Glad they worked out. Sorry to hear it was necessary to use them though.

I haven't gotten around to putting my ham gear in the rig since hardly anyone on the trails has them, but this is exactly the reason I should get it installed. 40 or 75 meters with a low antenna is good for 300 mile blanket coverage. Never tried it in a deep canyon, but it should work no problem for areas with no repater coverage.

 

[CRASH]

Glad they worked out. Sorry to hear it was necessary to use them though.

I haven't gotten around to putting my ham gear in the rig since hardly anyone on the trails has them, but this is exactly the reason I should get it installed. 40 or 75 meters with a low antenna is good for 300 mile blanket coverage. Never tried it in a deep canyon, but it should work no problem for areas with no repater coverage.

It's very high on my list of things to install in the rig.

That guy would have been toast for sure, the chopper was in and out in less than 90 minutes.

 

[Kejtar]

40 or 75 meters with a low antenna is good for 300 mile blanket coverage. Never tried it in a deep canyon, but it should work no problem for areas with no repater coverage.

Well you have to have someone listening for you in order to have this work out. Stick with 2m 70cm and maybe 6m and it will work out.

 

[Captain Ron]

Glad they worked out. Sorry to hear it was necessary to use them though.

I haven't gotten around to putting my ham gear in the rig since hardly anyone on the trails has them, but this is exactly the reason I should get it installed. 40 or 75 meters with a low antenna is good for 300 mile blanket coverage. Never tried it in a deep canyon, but it should work no problem for areas with no repater coverage.

40m tunes up great with a Hamstick and a good installation on an XJ, all that ground impedance to play with. The take off angles are very rounded in most cases. My installation peaks at 19 degrees from horizontal, but still has a significant amount of energy radiating all the way up to 75 degrees.

Call me a geek, but I always carry my FT-817 with it's own battery, a portable dipole for 40M and coax... Hey, during this crappy part of the cycle, you never know when the east/west evening path will be open.

As the guys out there found out, rescue helicopters do not use ANY ham bands. Marine VHF "is" standard, along with emergency services frequencies. Although using a marine unit on land is illegal, part 97 of the FCC rules state in short that you may use any frequency or modes in any means nessesary in an emergency. Channel 9, 16 and 22 alpha are the calling, emergency hailing, and emergency traffic channels, respectively.

Better, is to get that HAM licence, and sign up with a local club that does RACES and ARES. "Long tone zero" on some of these repeater systems will get you instance assistance, and communications coordination with rescue services.

Everyone using HAM should be aware of the "Wilderness Protocol". The protocol recommends that those stations able to do so should monitor the primary (and secondary, if possible) frequency every three hours starting at 7 AM local time for 5 minutes. Additionally, those stations that have sufficient power resources should monitor for 5 minutes starting at the top of every hour, or even continuously. The primary frequency is 146.52 MHz, secondary's are 52.525, 223.5, 446.0, and 1294.5 MHz.

73 de K0IOA/6 /M /MM
--ron

 

[Captain Ron]

Well you have to have someone listening for you in order to have this work out. Stick with 2m 70cm and maybe 6m and it will work out.

Remi, with the HF bands, especially the CW portions, you will always be able to make contact with a station, especially if it's a SOS call. Day or Night, someone is always listening. If your signal is getting out, someone will hear it, somewhere.

In areas without repeater coverage, I guarantee, you will not be nearly so lucky. And, believe it or not, such areas do exist, even in CA. 6M is practically useless in most cases, I have yet to QSO simplex on 6M FM, and I've been at it for awhile. 440 is a very range limited band. Without repeaters, I would consider it almost next to useless.

In a crunch, my money is on HF.

--ron

 

[kr7o]

Remi, with the HF bands, especially the CW portions, you will always be able to make contact with a station, especially if it's a SOS call. Day or Night, someone is always listening. If your signal is getting out, someone will hear it, somewhere.

HF with low (NVIS) antennas should be the trick. There is always someone around on 40 or 75 meters.

In areas without repeater coverage, I guarantee, you will not be nearly so lucky. And, believe it or not, such areas do exist, even in CA. 6M is practically useless in most cases, I have yet to QSO simplex on 6M FM, and I've been at it for awhile. 440 is a very range limited band. Without repeaters, I would consider it almost next to useless.

6M (unless the band is open) is just another line of sight band. If there is skip you might work out of a deep canyon and get someone a couple states away. Better than nothing, but in an emergency finding someone more local will usually result in a quicker response.

Ron, 6m has been open many times lately (and was open almost all day yesterday with wide coverage). Listen between 8-10pm and you might find someone to work on 52.525 FM.

In a crunch, my money is on HF.

--ron

 

[kr7o]

40m tunes up great with a Hamstick and a good installation on an XJ, all that ground impedance to play with. The take off angles are very rounded in most cases. My installation peaks at 19 degrees from horizontal, but still has a significant amount of energy radiating all the way up to 75 degrees.

Pulling the end of an 102" whip down to the body with a tuner makes an OK NVIS antenna also.


As the guys out there found out, rescue helicopters do not use ANY ham bands. Marine VHF "is" standard, along with emergency services frequencies. Although using a marine unit on land is illegal, part 97 of the FCC rules state in short that you may use any frequency or modes in any means nessesary in an emergency. Channel 9, 16 and 22 alpha are the calling, emergency hailing, and emergency traffic channels, respectively.

Interesting to note that they carry Marine channels. I may just have to unlock my 706 to cover those channels just in case.

73 de K0IOA/6 /M /MM
--ron

 

[Kejtar]

Remi, with the HF bands, especially the CW portions, you will always be able to make contact with a station, especially if it's a SOS call. Day or Night, someone is always listening. If your signal is getting out, someone will hear it, somewhere.

That's true, but I think for most of the places we go in US, tehre is usually a repeater that's accessible. Plus someone that's somewhat local might be more handy then someone that's far away.