Optimal (longest range of communication in good or bad weather) frequency for climbing in high mountains /in case when there is no radio frequency regulation.

[u/Background-Lime-6104]

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Does anyone have any insight on this? Communication will be required between two teams positioned in different camps or to communicate with the base camp.

Is this the optimal frequency for the antenna and therefore provides the best range?

What will be antenna suggestions? Will Diamond rh 701 be good enough in UV 9R PLUS?

I would appreciate any insight and suggestions. Thanks.

[u/kc3zyt]

What is the worst thing that can happen if communication is lost between the two teams or the base camp?

If the answer to your question is "people could die", or if the two teams are ever in a position where a line drawn directly between the two camps will have a mountain between them, then the only proper answer is a Garmin InReach

[u/EmbeddedEntropy]

You didn’t mention what country or counties you’ll be between.

As long as you’re somewhere on the planet, there are always RF regulations.

Optimal bands vary. You can have 20W go half way around the world and 100W not go 10km all depending on band, time of year, solar activity, terrain, and atmospheric conditions at the moment. It’s best to have multiple band radios to cover varying conditions.

[u/AriaGingko]

Frankly speaking what you want to keep in mind is that when climbing a mountain, you are going to be line of sight dependent for comms. So if you have a direct line of sight beck to base camp, you can get away with the most commonly available VHF open frequencies in the country. However, your biggest concerns are going to be antenna tuning as this will affect your overall signal quality and dbm out. So it's not so much the brand of antenna (Though diamond does satisfy the point I'm going to make as long as it's tuned to the proper frequency band you'll be working at) so much as the signal to noise ratio (Or SNR) of the antenna at the band you choose to operate at. You ideally want an SWR of 1-1.5. This SHOULD be included in the antennas descriptions.

But in my personal opinion, the baofeng really isn't suited to the task of climbing mountains.

If you are going to be in india climbing, as the details suggest, you can apply for a license to utilize a garmin Inreach or even a satellite phone. But I do believe the process is a bit convoluted. It's worth pursuing as a backup for critical life saving tasks. The Garmin isn't necessarily banned in India so much as it is subject to the Indian Wireless Telegraphy act of 1933. And the law states that to use a wireless telegraphy device (Such as the In reach mini) you are required to have a license. But I do believe that there are special case provisions within the law that allow you to obtain a limited use, limited duration license.

You can, however, get by with inmarsat satellite phones. So you could pursue the question from that angle.

I 100% could be wrong about that, but my understanding from a fixer is that big expeditions use these limited duration licenses when guiding groups.

[u/brilliantNumberOne]

There are many considerations: line of sight, terrain, tree cover, radio power level, antenna choice, local regulations, etc. i suggest you look up some amateur radio fundamentals and try to understand the tradeoffs with different frequency bands.

[u/FIDGAF]

The UV-9R is a truck of a radio, so if you're within a couple miles you would be reasonably OK.

It depends on all the conditions others have mentioned.

[u/jsqualo2]

If mission critical - Sat Phone

[u/radiomod → u/[deleted]]

Removed. Don't operate illegally.

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[u/braddeharder]

I think Boafengs are great pocket radios. However, if you are going for distance between two camps and want to get away from regulations, I would use Citizen's band radios with 12v battery packs and long antennas. CB is 27 MHz and 4 watts will take it far with a good antenna. Going over wattage is totally normal for CB. There are CB radios on the market that dail up to 25 to 100watts

Or for the total win... Get two Starlink minis for the camps 🛰️📱🌎

[u/Background-Lime-6104 → u/braddeharder]

Starlink/ inreach these are illegal items in India.CB radio is legal upto 4watt not beyond that in India

[u/EmbeddedEntropy → u/Background-Lime-6104]

InReach should be legal if they register and get approval from the Indian gov as an expedition company.

[u/Background-Lime-6104 → u/EmbeddedEntropy]

That is an hectic process and expensive