After the GNE last month I'm thinking about testing up and putting a mobile HF rig in the family adventure van. I know a couple of you have experience in such things and I wanted to know if I was barking up the wrong tree.
During the GNE the 2M communications between members of our group went really well, unless we had any distance between us (obviously). In the eastern part of central Texas in which I live communications over surprisingly long distances using 2M simplex is attainable, in the mountains of Wyoming, Montana, Utah and Colorado we had some issues. Repeaters filled the gap for most except in the national parks themselves, coverage (as I found it) was significantly lacking. We could put up a temporary repeater at camp, but even then we wouldn't have good line of sight for the signal in many instances. So the thought is to test up and go HF for group communications outside of line of sight, using (perhaps) 40M with someone in a stand off position (back in Texas?) in case of emergencies.
An example is that my family and I headed back towards camp in Lizard Creek to start cooking dinner (northern Tetons NP) while the other family and friends were visiting some spots in southern Yellowstone NP. We lost comms after about 2 miles of separation due to terrain. Is that too close to get a vertical bounce using something like 40M? As I understand it the terrain would eliminate ground wave just as the VHF/UHF was interrupted, we would be too close to each other for a typical propagation bounce but depending on the antenna design it could work with a near vertical bounce back towards the surface. If that understanding isn't correct, I would really love to learn why it isn't, or what your suggestions are. I'm looking at a Yaesu FT-857D, some of the local HAMs on the popular repeater suggested an auto-tuning motorized antenna, I was thinking about the big coil long whip design I've seen in my travels for a higher level of ruggedness, but to be frank I don't really understand which would be better fit to work through our minor difficulties.
If you're curious the campsite was here: https://goo.gl/maps/8nNkVMRTUv92 and a good reference point would be Lewis Falls in southern Yellowstone. Another example would be Logan's Pass to Fish Creek Campground in Glaicer NP.
During the GNE the 2M communications between members of our group went really well, unless we had any distance between us (obviously). In the eastern part of central Texas in which I live communications over surprisingly long distances using 2M simplex is attainable, in the mountains of Wyoming, Montana, Utah and Colorado we had some issues. Repeaters filled the gap for most except in the national parks themselves, coverage (as I found it) was significantly lacking. We could put up a temporary repeater at camp, but even then we wouldn't have good line of sight for the signal in many instances. So the thought is to test up and go HF for group communications outside of line of sight, using (perhaps) 40M with someone in a stand off position (back in Texas?) in case of emergencies.
An example is that my family and I headed back towards camp in Lizard Creek to start cooking dinner (northern Tetons NP) while the other family and friends were visiting some spots in southern Yellowstone NP. We lost comms after about 2 miles of separation due to terrain. Is that too close to get a vertical bounce using something like 40M? As I understand it the terrain would eliminate ground wave just as the VHF/UHF was interrupted, we would be too close to each other for a typical propagation bounce but depending on the antenna design it could work with a near vertical bounce back towards the surface. If that understanding isn't correct, I would really love to learn why it isn't, or what your suggestions are. I'm looking at a Yaesu FT-857D, some of the local HAMs on the popular repeater suggested an auto-tuning motorized antenna, I was thinking about the big coil long whip design I've seen in my travels for a higher level of ruggedness, but to be frank I don't really understand which would be better fit to work through our minor difficulties.
If you're curious the campsite was here: https://goo.gl/maps/8nNkVMRTUv92 and a good reference point would be Lewis Falls in southern Yellowstone. Another example would be Logan's Pass to Fish Creek Campground in Glaicer NP.
