Was just reading my latest issue of American Hunter. Within is a collection of "near-death hunting fiascos" titled: When Things Go Wrong (p. 45, Feb. issue). One article in particular caught my eye about a solo sheep hunter in Alaska who fell prey to a falling boulder that struck his backpack and knocked him over a cliff and onto a ledge that overlooked another big drop-off. He spent the next 10 hours hauling his broken body down the hill to the valley below. Unable to walk, he butt-slid along in a caterpillar-like fashion. He had to leave his backpack behind, but was able to take his FAK, some survival gear (no details) and "a small radio that transmits and receives aircraft frequencies". His rescue came about as follows (and I quote from the article): "After about 10 hours, I heard the faint sounds of a jet. Sending a Mayday on the standard emergency frequency (121.5 MHz) I reached the airplane, a FedEx cargo jet". He goes on to say that the pilot contacted a hospital in Anchorage and that he, our downed hunter, communicated his whereabouts with the hospital via the jet. A helicopter was dispatched and he was rescued.

I am very impressed with a hand held radio that can communicate with an airplane that is probably tens of thousands of feet in the air and I'm thinking this radio sounds like a great piece of emergency gear that should always be with me in the woods, but I'm not familiar with just what kind of radio this really is. I have a scanner that will receive all kinds of frequencies, but will not transmit, of course. Does anyone in the forum have any experience with just what kind of radio this may be and where to get one? This could be much better than a cell phone, or at least another good option.

Several manufactures produce handheld tranceivers that can communicate on the International Aircraft Communication Band. (Referred to as the Com Band) It is for voice communication, and runs from about 118-137MHz. The radios operate on VHF FM, and the quality of communication is surprisingly high. The size of these units has dropped over the past 10 years to make them very reasonable to carry. You do not need a license to operate them from your aircraft in the US. However, to transmit from ground to aircraft, you need to operate under an FCC ground station authorization. Typically, people granted that would be associated with aviation services like airports, pilot training businesses, chase crews for ballooning/soaring. This is similar to Marine radios, which can be used without license on your recreational boat while it's on the water, but, can't be used on land without a special license.

The handhelds will often also have other features, like navigation band (108-118MHz) for VOR, as an example. They will usually have the weather channels included in coverage, and since they are based on Amateur Radio transceivers, many can be modified to cover multiple bands. (You have to have an Amateur Radio license.)

One company that produces some very reliable products in this area is ICOM. They also provide police/fire radios, amateur radios, marine electronics, etc. I have had several of their radios, which perform very reliably. I understand from friends that Yaesu (now called Vertex Standard I think) produces a very nice combination unit that covers the aviation and amateur VHF bands and US weather channels in one very small unit for about $400.

You don't need a license to use the aircraft band freq's. 121.5 is the international distress freq and governed by line-of-sight. It is monitored by most military and government agencies. Also, passing general aviation and commercial MAY be monitoring. The rules have increased for flying since 9-11 so the number of aircraft monitoring 121.5 has greatly increased.

The small handhelds put out 5 watts of transmission power. I don't know what that means but I've been 4,000' above the ground and talked to ATC from ~30 miles out.

Carrying and charging them can be a real pain.

I really don't know very much about either the radios, or the legalities, but I'm interested in learning.

My first question is "What is the most economical handheld capable of transmitting on emergency frequencies" but maybe I need to learn more about it before I start asking things like this <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

A triband HAM could do this couldn't it?

Other than radios....

I remember something about 3 fires in a triangle being recognized as a distress signal. If you made one, out in the wilderness, and it was seen at night by a plane, would they usually report it?

Likewise, 3 smoky fires?

It would seem to be more efficient that wearing out the seat of my pants scooting along the ground.

Sue

If you are going to spend money on a radio to contact a plane possibly flying overhead, why not simply consider a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB).

http://www.equipped.org/faq_plb/default.asp

Pete

I am very interested in a small radio that would do all you say--aircraft transmit, amateur, weather. I am a licensed ham and would appreciate the model number of this Yaesu radio. Thanks

The Yaesu / Vertex Standard VXA-700 covers air and amateur bands. I found it listed a couple places online, here's one example:

http://www.wingsandwheels.com/page6.htm

I want to emphasize, however, that I checked the FCC web site, and my earlier post is correct that although you don't need a license to operate an avaition band handheld from your private plane operating in the US, you DO need a license to operate it from the ground.

I think that for survival situations, a better way to improve your chances for being noticed, and located, would be the personal locator beacons with GPS.

Let's not scare folks off from this technology with irrelevant regulatory BS. While technically correct regarding the legalities, NOBODY bothers with an FCC license these days for aviation handhelds and for use in an emergency it would not be relevant in any case. There's at least one marine case I am aware of where someone died rather than use a ham set for which they had no license. Darwin at work, perhaps, but...

Moreover, these handhelds are used everyday by pilots and others in ground to aircraft communications and if you can find an instance of anyone using it properly in such manner (not boosting the signal or using it fraudulently posing as ATC, as has been done) being violated, I'd be most interested in seeing the cite, because when I researched this a few years ago there were none.

Having said all that, they also have some notable drawbacks. Not all take regular AA batteries, some can only be used with proprietary rechargeable battery packs. That's a problem for survival use, from my POV, so if you have one, be sure it takes regular batteries or you carry a spare charged battery pack. In addition, their range is generally limited and being VHF is line of sight only. Sometimes they will reach that 757 flying overhead, but other times we've had difficulty communicating with aircraft in the landing pattern. Lot depends on antenna location on the aircraft and other related issues.

Also, a point to make that some may not be aware of. The naive user often points the antenna at the aircraft they are trying to communicate with, which puts it in the antenna's cone of silence and significantly reduces the chance it will work. When trying to communicate with such devices, do not aim the antenna at the object with which you are trying to communicate.

If already carrying a handheld for communications with an aircraft, as is often done in places like Alaska, then use what you have to save your butt. Otherwise, For the weight involved, you would do far better carrying a 406 MHz PLB and the cost is not far off. Just my opinion, of course.