Backcountry Ski and Snowboard Tips and Tricks
from Louis Dawson and friends

Two-Way Radios for Backcountry Skiing and Snowboarding

by Lou Dawson

I'm a big advocate of using 2-way radios for communication while backcountry skiing, especially in avalanche terrain. To minimize risk in avalanche areas, it's essential to spread your party out, often traveling or skiing down one at a time. When doing so communication can be a challenge -- shouting and wild gesturing only go so far, especially in storm conditions. In one documented fatal accident, party members below a skier tried to gesture and shout for the skier to turn out of the avalanche path, but the skier keep heading down and was killed.

If every backcountry skiing party member carries and uses a 2-way, you can prevent these types of situations, more, you'll find you can relax a bit more, and your whole day may feel that much more fun. (Tip: rig all 2-ways with a small speaker mic that's clipped in a convenient location on the exterior of your jacket or pack strap, so you don't have to dig for your radio every time you need to use it.) A wide choice of small consumer two-way radios is now available. They use different frequency "bands" defined by the government.

Family Radio Service (FRS) These are the radios most commonly sold to consumers, and use frequencies (AKA channels) specified by the FCC (no license required). Most of these work fine if you're chatting line-of-site a short distance. More powerful models will work slightly farther apart. Sadly, all the FRS radios are nearly useless for calling help in an emergency (as there is no monitoring system for FRS), and they're strictly line-of-sight. Indeed, they're so meager you can lose contact with someone as soon as they round a corner on the trail. Also, there is no system of repeater towers (as for ham radio and sometimes other bands) that'll get your FRS signal to the right people in an emergency.

General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS). An alternative to FRS, GMRS) is slightly better than FRS. But it's still limited in power and scope. GMRS is not as common as FRS, but is recommended if you're buying a set of radios to use among a group. Some consumer type radios may be available with both FRS and GMRS frequencies and might be the best choice for a new purchase.

Citizen Band (CB) The trucker "10-4" type radio. For backcountry use don't bother with this interference prone, limited range band, filled with bandit high power operators shouting profanity and clogging the airways (thanks for nothing FCC). It can be useful to have a small inexpensive CB mounted in your vehicle, left off most of the time and used to chat with truckers on the open road or with others while on 4x4 trails. Some CB radios are sold with weather channels, a useful feature (use it as your weather radio, while using your other radios for communication).

Amateur Radio (ham) If you're serious about using a two-way radio for trail "inter-comm" -- and for emergencies -- get your amateur "ham" license (easier than you think). Doing so allows you to use a wide selection of high power "dual band" handheld radios. Our favorite is the old workhorse Yaesu FT50rd, but there are dozens of choices out there. If you're shopping for a Yeasu, be sure to check Ebay.

The beauty of ham radio is that ham clubs everywhere in the country have amazing systems of repeaters that allow effective emergency communication from places where a cell phone call is a joke.

The problem with using a ham radio is that very few of your buddies will take the time to get a license. It's best if they do so, but if you fail to convince them here is the solution: They can still carry a ham type radio configured for all the emergency frequencies, but they can only transmit on those freqs in an emergency (it's legal to transmit on any freq in a life/death emergency). For inter-party communication (inter-comm) on the trail, simply get an FCC business license for one of the frequencies in the business band (see information later in this article). Keep everyone on your licensed frequency, and you're cool. I've also heard that many people simply use the FRS frequencies with a ham radio (see below) for trail intercomm, this can work well but doing so is of questionable legality.

If you make the correct hardware modifications to a dual band ham radio such as the FT50, you can use such a radio to monitor (scan) the the FRS (Talkabout) frequencies. To keep this legal, you can't transmit anything but emergency calls on the FRS freqs.(see FCC FRS rules) if you do need to transmit FRS in an emergency, you should stick to the rules as best you can. To do so, you must transmit at no greater than .5 watts, with a minimal antenna always directly attached to your radio. Again: It's legal to listen to (scan) the FRS frequencies any time you want, with any equipment, they just don't want you transmitting with anything other than a "FCC certified FRS unit," or doing the kind of anonymous scat that's common with the CB radio frequencies. See below for the FRS frequencies and more info on programming them into your scanner.

To find out more about getting your ham credential, see the Amateur Radio Relay League webpages.

Tip for all hand-held radios: The LCD on such radios can soon be scratched into uselessness. Protect the LCD with clear plastic tape. Replace the tape when it gets scratched, and you'll always have a crystal clear LCD. I use clear plastic packing tape for this, but 3M clear tape might leave less residue.

FAMILY RADIO SERVICE FREQUENCIES (aka freqs or channels)

1---462.5625
2---462.5875
3---462.6125
4---462.6375
5---462.6625
6---462.6875
7---462.7125
8---467.5625
9---467.5875
10--467.6125
11--467.6375
12--467.6625
13--467.6875
14--467.7125

FRS freqs 8 through 14 are best, since they don't overlap GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service). On the other hand, various FRS radios have frequencies 1 to 7 in common, so it might be best to work with all the FRS freqs.

If you use an FRS radio, such as a Radio Shack (see below) or Motorola Talkabout, you'll notice it allows a "privacy code" with each frequency (aka channel). These are simply subaudible tones known as CTCSS tones. If you set the Talkabout to code 0 (zero), it doesn't use a tone and you can communicate without additional settings on your FT50. Otherwise, you'll need to set your FT50 to match the tone code used by the Talkabout. This is easy, but it's best to stick with code 0 and not bother. If you need to use a tone code, here are the steps and the code numbers with the CTCSS tone you need on your FT50:

Other ham type handheld 2-way radios have similar functions, but for the sake of clarity I'll stick to talking about the FT50. Let's say it's a life/death emergency, and you have to talk to an FRS radio (Talkabout) user wants to use "channel 1, code 7." On your FT 50, set your frequency (channel) to 462.5625 (see chart above and your owner manual). With your freq set and showing on the radio's LCD, punch the TN-T.S. key on the keypad several times so that you see the letters T-SQ appear at the top of the LCD. You're now set to send/receive using a tone code. But you need to set the tone to match the Talkabout.

To set the tone code, press the F-W key on the FT-50 keypad, then press the TN-T.S key. You'll see a number appear on the right side of the LCD. This number is the frequency of your tone code. Using the chart below, you can see that tone code 7 is 85.4. Rotate the dial on top of the radio until you've changed the number to 85.4. To exit, press F-W then TN-T.S. You are now set to Talkabout with a code. That said, bear in mind that it's much simpler to use no code, by setting the Talkabout to code 0 (zero).

If you plan on listening to much FRS Talkabout use (the things breed like roaches), program all 14 FRS freqs into your FT-50 (as listen only, to stay legal). You might program one set with no CTCSS tone code, and another set with, say, tone code 7. If your friends insist on using a tone code, get them to use code 7 and you're ready for them. (Tone codes below number 7 have problems on some FRS radios, so use codes from 7 to 30). Bear in mind that the FRS freqs 8 to 14 are the best to use because they don't conflict with other more used freqs. Thus, if you've got limited space on your FT50 (it has 100 memories), you could just program those freqs and ask your friends to use them on their Talkabouts. On the other hand, channels 1 through 7 are shared by all the Motorola consumer FRS radios (Sport Radio, etc.), so it might be good to have those freqs available as well. On my rig, I'd program all 14 freqs, with code 0. If I need a tone code, I'd then set it in the field as needed. BEAR IN MIND THAT THE ABOVE IS FOR EMERGENCY USE ONLY.

TONE CODE NUMBERS with TONE FREQUENCY (in Hertz)

00...00.0
01...67.1
02...71.9
03...74.4
04...77.0
05...79.7
06...82.5
07...85.4 (tones below 7 are not recommended)
08...88.5
09...91.5
10...94.8
11...97.4
12...100.0
13...103.5
14...107.2
15...110.9
16...114.8
17...118.8
18...123.0
19...127.3
20...131.8
21...136.5
22...141.3
23...146.2
24...151.4
25...156.7
26...162.2
27...167.9
28...173.8
29...179.9
30...186.2 (tones above 30 are not recommended)
31...192.8
32...203.5
33...210.7
34...218.1
35...225.7
36...233.6
37...241.8
38...250.3

Motorola also makes other goofy low power radios that use the FRS freqs. In case your friends use them, here are the numbers you need. As the chart shows, all the Motorola FRS radios share freqs 1 to 7:

Motorola FRS Radio Frequencies

The following business "Dot" Frequencies are good for radio chat. Always listen before you talk, so you won't interfere with someone -- use of these frequencies is common. These frequencies require an easy to obtain license. One license for one business covers any number of radios used by that one operation. For license information, contact the FCC at 717-337-1212 or http://www.fcc.gov. An itinerant freq is one used when moving around (such as by a delivery service). Before licensing a freq, monitor it when you're at your backcountry haunts to make sure it's not being heavily used by someone else. Hopefully, the FCC will try to analyze this when you get a license, but nothing is better than checking for yourself.

color and freq
Red.......151.625 itinerant
Purple....151.955
Blue......154.570
Green.....154.600
White.....462.575
Brown.....464.500 itinerant
Yellow....464.550 itinerant
no color..151.505 itinerant
no color..158.400 itinerant
no color..469.500 itinerant
no color..469.550 itinerant

GLOSSARY OF RADIO TERMS

HT ...means handheld transceiver or handy talkie
Freq ....radio frequency
Ham ...an amateur radio operator licensed by the FCC
FCC ...Federal Communications Commission
Broadcast ...to transmit like televison or commercial radio
Transmit ...to talk on a 2-way radio
Receive ...listen to a 2-way radio
Hand mic ...a small microphone/speaker attached by a cord to your radio
Speaker mic ...same as above

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MERE FLEXUS ... NIX INDOMITUS