traildad wrote:
Sounds cool. What is the coverage like while riding in the Tahoe/Truckee area? Can you reasonably expect to use that feature, or is it just the rare spot where you can get out?
Also, if my wife was in camp, let say at Meadow Lake, how much riding could I do and still talk to her with a ham radio?
The repeater coverage up here is actually pretty good. If you've got a 5W 2m radio, even with the standard crap antenna you get with the radio, you can expect to be in range of a repeater from virtually every ridge top. Even if you're just riding around down low in somewhere like Sagehen Hills or Bear Valley OHV, there is a real good chance you'll be in range of one of the repeaters up on the range between us (Truckee) and Reno. If you happen to be up on Signal Peak... you own the airwaves, dude. Wanna bring up a repeater over in the Bay Area? Just DO IT.
If you were based out at Meadow Lake... your best bet might be simplex (direct) communications back to your wife. Terrain is important. So if you were up on Jack's Spot, she'd think you were standing right next to you. But if you were down by Jackson Meadows or Catfish lakes... fuhget about it. You'd need a repeater.
The key thing about radios is that it is basically *all about the antenna and transmit power, especially the antenna*. The radio manufacturers will try to sell you all kinds of useless bells and whistles, in radios with largely equivalent receiver circuitry, but not tell you that simple truth. If you've got a good antenna on board, even if only for use in emergencies, your chances of communicating just got a whole lot higher. Good antennas basically boost your transmit power and your receive "power", all at the same time.
In hang gliding, we all carry a 5/8w telescoping whip bungeed to our cross bar (inside the glider and inaccessible while flying). When we get on the ground, we toss the crappy "rubber duck" antenna, put on our telescoping whip, and we can reach out and touch someone a whole lot better. Long story, but one of my buddies almost DIED out in the OR desert after he flew out there and realized he forgot his whip.
On ATV's, you can carry a portable yagi (beam) like I sometimes do that collapses down to something that looks like a portable fishing pole. Toss that in your trailer, or bag, or whatever... and now you can get out and communicate from lots more places.
Anyhoo... hate to go on and on about radios in a SPOT thread, but if you want to communicate, you need to become a ham. Period. The FRS radios and the Colletts and the rest of those work well for ATV-to-ATV comms, when everyone is pretty close together, but if you want to reach out and touch someone... ham radio is the way to go. Hams have been doing this ever since Marconi figured out how to get an electrical spark to convey information to his buddy.
Get a SPOT, get a ham radio, know their uses/limitations, add a sat phone maybe... and you've got all the bases covered.