emergency communication from the alaska bush?

My Husband and I are also moving to the Alaskan Bush in May of 2006. We have decided to use a sat. phone for emergencies. We are also taking EMT classes to better our chances in case something really bad happens, they are available through most city colleges. We have researched the emergency procedure in our area, where help would come from, what the response time would be etc, I would recommend doing that for you situation too, and then talk to people who are closest to you to see what they reccomend, maybe the closet town or a distant neighbor. We are about an hour and a half by boat from the nearest town or people, but the people in the town have told us to contact them by VHF radio if we can and they would also relay the message for us. Good luck on your move, I am very interested in hearing more.
Pam

GO Fordy!
I've been planning a 12vdc dwelling for years.
Current house is on the market with Coldwell-Bankers.
Done the site planning, going with a hybred wind/solar thingie. Really wanna stay away from hauling gas for any reason.
All my living conveniences have been designed around RV appliances.
Being a HAM already I've got the comm part down pat.
Best of luck to anyone trying this.
Lex

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No lotus land ever cast its spell upon a man's heart more than Wyoming had enchanted mine.-The Virginian-Owen Wister-

I grew up between the urban environment of Anchorage, and the bush. I know that my cell phone worked a few years ago at the family homestead outside Skwentna (MTA service?) and I'm told that ACS offers cell phone service to the Alexander Creek area. Otherwise a satellite phone is, in my opinion, a requirement. I don't think it can be stressed too strongly that emergencies in Alaska can be fatal very quickly. If you don't have the option, like my friends and family, of jumping into your plane and flying out for help, you can die before help can be summoned. Y'know, an ounce of prevention..... and all that. Alaska really is beautiful and wonderful and magical and all that, but mistakes there can easily kill you.

Hey, Good luck with the move, it sounds like a wonderful adventure!

May I recommend a book? It's called 'Arctic Homestead' by Norma Cobb. She was the last woman to get in on the Homestead Act in Alaska. The story is amazing and apparently all true, including several encounters with a yeti or two.

They also mentioned a radio station that read off messages for people every morning.

Beaux

Most 'neighborhood' areas in Alaska have a particular form of bush phone and a local area frequency. In the McCarthy area, for example, every one monitors the CB for local stuff. Most people there have a cell phone to uplink to their email and call out also.

Here in the SW islands, most folks have a marine band radio and monitor the frequency of the nearest village, or their fishing vessel, or their setnet site area. Hikers and hunters will carry marine band because at least the Coast Guard can fly in and rescue if necessary. Remote area folks also try to have a satellite link- in a town one might have more regular phone service, but on islands that may be satellite based too.

Why don't you write to your friends in the area you are moving to and see what form of comms is used in that area? If you don't know folks there, write or call the local State Trooper office (if there is one) or go through ham operators as you "meet" them.

Hope you don't mind me asking, but why in the world would you move up there in February? Have you been to where you are going before, in winter? Summer? (think mosquitoes..) I wish you the best of luck!

Great book, I read it too and would reccomend it; also recommend "The Coldman Cometh" by Bob Durr he and his family moved to the Alaskan bush in the late sixties early seventies. He actually lived for a while not far from where my family and I are moving in the bush to; Lake Illiamna.

We have made a few changes in plans....We will be going up this fall and work for a year, then we will have time to find the property we want, although the one we have been watching looks good on paper. We want to go in by snowmobile and sled in supplies. Having to cross major rivers, and swamps. From what I hear it is the best time to go(February)....Being there for awhile will show us more. We will travel up in a bus and use it for storage when we go to the bush. Alot to do. It will probably be a ham radio we use and thank everyone for their input!!!!! Thanks

It looks like you could use 2 meter in that area pretty well. I looked and see that the Anchorage Amateur Radio Club http://www.kl7aa.org/ operates a cross linked VHF/UHF repeater on Mount Susitna. They'd probably advise you as to what you need to get set up.

You can buy basic 2m handhelds and mobile 12v transceivers fairly cheap.

I was just at the HAM shop on Saturday looking for something for my truck. For a nice, better than the cheapest radio with the antenna and necessary wiring, it'll be around 450 bucks.

The morse code (CW?) portion of the basic license test has been dropped. QRZ.com has practice tests you can take.

Chris

You might want to look into the Alaska Emergency Channel (5167.5 kHz). This is a license free freq. It does require a HF radio capable of operating on this freq.
Yaesu makes 3 radios, all 12v power with various RF power output levels. There are other more expensive commercial radio's that can also be used on this frequency.

These links might help
http://www.amrg.org/hfssb.html
http://www.qsl.net/aresalaska/traini...ions_guide.htm
http://www.survival-resources.com/Su...y-channel.html

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Gary in Central Ohio

thanks everyone!!!!!!!