FJ Cruisers of Northern California

Wilderness Protocol

This may be old and I've copied it from the web.

Local Experts - is there anything else to say about this protocol? and what is a LiTZ signal, dtmf? My station supports dtmf for sending numeric character strings but doesn't say much more beyond the menu configuration.

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The Wilderness Protocol is a suggestion that those outside of repeater range should monitor standard simplex channels at specific times in case others have priority calls. The primary frequency is 146.52 MHz with 52.525, 223.5 446.0 and 1294.5 MHz serving as secondary frequencies. This system was conceived to facilitate communications between hams that were hiking or backpacking in uninhabited areas, outside repeater range. However, the Wilderness Protocol should not be viewed as something just for hikers. It can (and should) be used by everyone anywhere repeater coverage is unavailable. The protocol only becomes effective when many people use it.

The Wilderness Protocol recommends that those stations able to do so should monitor the primary (and secondary, if possible) frequency every three hours starting at 7 AM, local time, for 5 minutes (7:00-7:05 AM, 10:00-10:05 AM, ..., 10:00-10:05 PM). Additionally, those stations that have sufficient power resources should monitor for 5 minutes starting at the top of every hour, or even continuously.
Priority transmissions should begin with the LiTZ signal. CQ-like calls (to see who is out there) should not take place until four minutes after the hour.

For more information on the Wilderness Protocol refer to QST (Feb. 95, page 100; Apr. 94, page 109; May 94, pages 103 - 104.).

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by opg4759 on September 6, 2011 at 7:18am

LiTZ = Long Term Zero. Which it is is holding the Zero button down for 3 seconds to generate audible tone.

DTMF = Dual-tone multi-frequency signaling aka touch tones. DTMF in Ham Radio is generally used for controlling repeater turning off and on functions like adding a link, turning on a phone patch, or enabling a pre-stored message to name a few. More than likely you will never use them.

As far as the Wilderness Protocol the frequencies are the coordinated national calling channels for the appropriate bands. 146.520 is the main channel for calling above 50MHz. Good practice is if you have a VFO free you should keep it tuned and monitor to it. It should never be used for extended conversation only to call and setup and then move to a different frequency. As far a monitoring at specific times if you have the ability and want to do so go for it. As far as trail run stuff we tend to coordinate on different frequencies just to make sure we aren't making noise on the calling channels, but it doesn't hurt to leave a radio on scan in camp.

If you look at the NorCal bandplan I incorporate 146.520 into the plan as the National Calling frequency.

As with most things in HAM radio all these protocols are guidelines and not hard fast rules, unless specifically in the FCC rules, everything that ARRL does is a recommendation, granted most of us follow them.

Permalink Reply by gringo on September 6, 2011 at 1:56pm

thanks opg4759,

I didn't catch that earlier that's it's the same frq as the national calling channel. Glad to hear I will probably never use DTMF since I am on a basic learning curve. I do have the norcal simplex channel programmed into my memory and hopefully will get some usage on it at the next run; HSR.

For liTZ, do you key the mic while holding the Zero down?

Permalink Reply by opg4759 on September 6, 2011 at 2:35pm

For any DTMF you key the radio and then just press a button.

Permalink Reply by gringo on September 7, 2011 at 9:17am

thanks opg4759, really appreciate the info.

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