Do any BCP ham radio/ pilots here know how effective of a backup VHF/UHF ham radio equipment can be in Alaska? I was particularly wondering what it's like in Alaska's Northern and Western areas? Here is a list of some of the amateur radio VHF/UHF repeater stations in Alaska which can "hear" a signal and then retransmit it on a second offset frequency.
http://www.artscipub.com/repeaters/search/index.asp?state=Alaska

I was reading an older thread about Satellite phones in Alaska ( Iridium vs other systems), and how there are sometimes issues with dropped calls, access, costs, etc.
https://www.backcountrypilot.org/forum/sat-phones-in-alaska-15224.

Ham radio of course can not be used for commercial purposes, and I am not suggesting one use it in place of say an Iridium system to save a few bucks. Rather, I was curious in case one had a " situation " arise and that expensive commercial SAT phone you own or rent is not doing what it is supposed to. Things do happen. A tiny ham radio transceiver with 50 watts FM output on 144 Mhz. into a small foldable light weight portable wire Yagi antenna aimed at a repeater on a mountain 50-100 miles away seems very doable.

Just wondering.

I don't know about Ham radio, but Marine Band VHF is used in every village in the Arctic between the air-taxi outfits and their village agents. Some of those sets boom out there a long ways.

My agent in Kivalina was an old Eskimo gal named Gladys Adams. And even though she was way north of Kotzebue up the Arctic coast, I could hear her screechy voice yelling on the radio when I was 100 miles south of Kotz, when she needed me for something...

"Yute Air! Yute Air! You copy Kivalina??" Over and over till I'd answer her.

If you have a VHF, you're gonna reach somebody.

Gump

Thanks Gump,

I never even thought about using my Marine VHF gear, Good idea even if it is low powered, relative to my VHF/UHF ham gear. Marine radio can be my back up back up.

One major down side of ham radio is that you have to pass an examination to earn a license. I had to visit the FCC office in Norfolk, VA to take my ham radio license exam including Morse Code, , but that was ages ago. The Morse Code is now gone but the written test remains, and can be administered by local volunteer examiners.

I think in time cell phone coverage will be everywhere, and unless a major earthquake or something hits, your Apple iPhone or Samsung Galaxy will do it all. But....in the mean time.....

We had Iridium phones in our airplanes, all our field crews, stationed in the bush (as in not in a village) were equipped with Iridium phones. If we had a couple dropped calls a season it was a bad season. And, if a call was dropped, you just re-dialed the number and reconnected. With Iridium, there's always satellites in view in AK. When one drops below the horizon, there will virtually always be another in view.

We found coverage to be good even in canyons, though dropped calls are more likely.

I'd suggest you spend the money on an Iridium phone and a SIM card with minutes rather than fiddling with ham radio. Unless of course, you WANT to fiddle with ham radio.

Iridium is the gold standard in remote comm.

I spent a number of years working repeaters with VHF-FM in the interior, and they worked well, but you have to have a repeater in "sight" and that's not always convenient.

MTV