Fort Worth Motorcycle Riders

JeffStrom wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 12:05 pm Rick, if you are serious about using HAM radio, there aren't any sites in the monument, but across the river to the south there is a UHF repeater on Navajo mountain that should provide broad coverage for the entire area, as long as you have a view to the south horizon. Don't know if it would at all make sense to have a helmet communicator wired up in the Jeep to converse with bikes when they are very close. That might not be enough of the time to worry about. Also, did you say you upgraded to a Spot X?

Also, for GPS, I heard that Garmin got hit with a ransomware attack recently. I understand that they paid to get the decryption keys, which may mean they are restoring the compromised version of their systems. Map updates are probably fine, but I don't know about downloading software updates from them for a while. Were I that type of criminal, I could think of a lot of mischief to get into while I had access. But then, those guys are pretty focused on the pay day and there isn't comparatively a lot of money coming from individuals so maybe it isn't a big risk. Garmin might have learned a thing or two and actually hired competent IT leadership or perhaps properly funded their existing IT org, or contracted competent help. They may have been able to scrub their systems, and I'm just being paranoid.

fixxervi6 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 3:11 pm Yea I was serious about it, to keep riders connected with me in the jeep, the pace won't match - from experience. I was thinking just simplex for that purpose. Basically it would be like ok we are headed to X location on Y route and bikes would take off and jeep would slog behind slowly, comms would be used just for like safety or whatever in that case not necessarily chit chatting. GMRS would work too as my ham's are unlocked for that frequency and I can use Beck's license for that.

I do have a spot X. I almost considered a Garmin - I'm glad I didn't. For back country emergency comms in the big bend area a tech level license will get you talking hundreds of miles with the linked repeaters, for ham emergency comms in places like the staircase I'm working on a portable HF setup, I got my general ticket a couple months ago.

JeffStrom wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 4:21 pm

fixxervi6 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 3:11 pm Yea I was serious about it, to keep riders connected with me in the jeep, the pace won't match - from experience. I was thinking just simplex for that purpose. Basically it would be like ok we are headed to X location on Y route and bikes would take off and jeep would slog behind slowly, comms would be used just for like safety or whatever in that case not necessarily chit chatting. GMRS would work too as my ham's are unlocked for that frequency and I can use Beck's license for that.

I do have a spot X. I almost considered a Garmin - I'm glad I didn't. For back country emergency comms in the big bend area a tech level license will get you talking hundreds of miles with the linked repeaters, for ham emergency comms in places like the staircase I'm working on a portable HF setup, I got my general ticket a couple months ago.

I searched a different way and am now seeing 3 repeaters on Navajo Mountain. It was a bit odd since the repeaters are in UT, but closest city is Page, AZ.
146.9600 -0.6 MHz 100.0 Page (AZ), Navajo Mountain San Juan W7WAC OPEN ON-AIR
448.7500 -5 MHz 100.0 Page (az), Navajo Mountain San Juan NA7DB OPEN ON-AIR
449.9250 -5 MHz 100.0 Page (AZ), Navajo Mountain San Juan W7CWI OPEN ON-AIR
1st one is linked through Intermountain Intertie with coverage over most of the populated areas of UT.
I haven't looked but I'd be surprised if you could find a GMRS repeater that covers very much of that back country area, so that would be strictly point to point.

There you go Sam. You have a month to get a ham license. You can get Chinese dual-band hand-held radios on Amazon for less than $25. The test is just subset of questions randomly selected from a published question pool. You can download an app that will let you walk through all the questions or randomly generate a test from the pool. If you don't want to actually study the subject matter, you probably have enough technical knowledge that the questions will make sense and you can just use the app in your spare moments. Just need to find a local Ham club with an exam scheduled in the right window. Some of the clubs are pretty good and put paperwork in electronically right away. I've heard of people showing up in the database with a call sign in just a few days after the exam, but it could take longer, and who knows with the COVID stuff.

Telomere wrote: ↑Thu Aug 13, 2020 1:28 pm If you want to understand the material, use the website.