A number of us on the forum are HAM radio operators. I carry a 2m handheld radio everyday in my Urban kit and generally take it along on backcountry trips. This is a good radio for my needs. I have phone patch capabilities and fairly wide range broadcast if I can hit a repeater system.

I am unaware of any organization that rents out radios and monitors to see if people get into trouble.

The major problem we have here in the US is that there is no one standard radio or frequency set that is available for emergency use. We, of course, as individuals have or can obtain the necessary radios, licenses and skills, but the most generally useful frequencies require Federal licenses. This certainly limits the appeal. HF, VHF and UHF bands are split into business, amateur, and military uses. It is generally not easy to cross the lines since available radios cannot transmit to outside their range without modification. While it is legal to transmit into another band in an emergency it is not easy to purchase a handheld radio with this capability, and the complexity of new radios prevents many from even attempting these modifications. It is also not legal to test your modifications should you do them so......

Probably the best system we have in the US is marine radio. One channel (16) is required to be monitored by all boats if they have a radio. The Coast Guard also constantly monitors this channel. These VHF radios also have decent range on the water, and larger boats will assist.

The other good system is the emergency beacons. But again these are beacons not two-way radios.

In the US I would say cell phones are generally taking the place of handheld radios. Coverage is very good in most places even from the backcountry around major urban areas. Their limitations are mostly overshadowed by their apparent and mostly demonstrated usefulness.

Sadly, the interest in HAM radio has been severely negatively impacted by the ease of cell phones.

There are several threads on this forum that discuss radio use in emergency kits, but loads of the threads are concerned with small personal kits which are by definition too small for such items.

I guess the major issue is whether the radio carried will have the ability to contact someone. I know my 2m radio can contact Seattle repeaters from the areas I frequent both in the city and local backcountry. Therefore it works for me. However, I used to live in Montana, and it was highly unlikely that I would be able to contact anyone via my HAM radio or cell phone (if I owned one <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> ) from my normal backcountry haunts. So like all things it depends.

It sounds like New Zealand has set up a workable and comprehensive system that would make inclusion of a radio an excellent idea for all larger kits.