I'm not very familiar with GMRS, but your scenario is what that license is designed for. So I'd recommend it.
I think in some places you can set up a repeater for GMRS? You'd have to check up with the local regulations.
Of course, you could get everyone (or a few designated people) ham licensed. In many areas, operators are allowed to let other people use their radios under their supervision, so you might not need to even get every single person licensed.
Frequency plays a very big role, and the rest "depend".
There are some frequencies that'd just simply be impossible to use for communication that close (in the grand scheme of things) and others that would struggle to penetrate the trees.
Without knowing the area, I'd guess that 2 or 6 meters would be your best bet. (Probably 2m)
Your next challenge would be getting good antennas. The antenna matters a lot (even more than power output. (See me hitting Australia with 7w))
I'm always available for questions via email. You'll find it in my website.
Thank for you the response! If this GMRS stuff goes well (getting the radios in a few days, hiking the week after that), a HAM license sounds like a fun thing to look at next. But from the movies, it always seemed like that was more of a way to chat with random strangers around the world (like this "Parks on the Air" thing), rather than coordinating hikes between specific individuals. Is that accurate at all?
> Without knowing the area, I'd guess that 2 or 6 meters would be your best bet. (Probably 2m)
What is this in reference to? Is that a measure of wavelength (e.g. 2-6m ~= VHF?) or did I misunderstand? I thought for longer-range comms, you would want to utilize not just repeaters but things like ionosphere reflections and HF. Are you saying that's actually not the best thing to use for wooded areas a few miles apart?
I appreciate the info :) If I really get into this as a hobby, I'd love to hit you up via email. Please give me a few weeks to test the waters first.
Haha, I saw this comment coming as I wrote this sentence. I tried to link to everything you might find relevant in the text.
The other comment under yours does a great job explaining things too.
As an additional note KC (Kilo Cycles) is the old way of writing Kilohertz. I just happen to prefer writing Kc for some reason even though I know it's no longer "correct"
I actually intended to make these proper POTA activations, but I couldn't figure out the park identifier due to lack of cell service, and I also didn't bring anything for VHF to try doing so over APRS.
A buddipole has been on my list for a while, but as you said the KX2 is really good, and happily tunes even the worst of my antenna experiments. I've made contacts with the output of this radio tied directly into a grounding rod and nothing else before.
On this particular trip, I had my antenna at a perfect 1:1 the whole time.
I'm pretty bad at sticking to a set list of topics. I like to just write about whatever is interesting me at the moment. Lots of semi-how-to-style posts where I end up explaining how to do the things I find interesting.
I think in some places you can set up a repeater for GMRS? You'd have to check up with the local regulations.
Of course, you could get everyone (or a few designated people) ham licensed. In many areas, operators are allowed to let other people use their radios under their supervision, so you might not need to even get every single person licensed.
Frequency plays a very big role, and the rest "depend".
There are some frequencies that'd just simply be impossible to use for communication that close (in the grand scheme of things) and others that would struggle to penetrate the trees.
Without knowing the area, I'd guess that 2 or 6 meters would be your best bet. (Probably 2m)
Your next challenge would be getting good antennas. The antenna matters a lot (even more than power output. (See me hitting Australia with 7w))
I'm always available for questions via email. You'll find it in my website.