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I am looking at acquiring a 100 watt VHF radio setup to include a base unit in the house and a mobile unit in my truck. Lots of areas around here where cellular is spotty / non-existent and I am hoping a radio could fill the gap. We will probably add a base unit at the house out on the island and a couple of more to vehicles of some of the crew but I wanted to start with my house and truck to get a feel for how well they will work.

Anybody else here using a similar radio setup in Baja?

Originally Posted by BajaGringo

...We will probably add a base unit at the house out on the island and a couple of more to vehicles of some of the crew but ...

Who/what's "the crew," BG?

We are about to start seeding abalone out at San Martin Island. We have the Federal Concession for most of the eastern side of the island including all the beach landing areas and cove, where we are building facilities to house the divers, security personnel, equipment and other support facilities.

That's what's been missing in San Quintin all these years, abalone. La Chorera had ample supplies of abalone many years ago but over-fishing wiped them out in the area. Good luck in your endeavor BG.........dibs on the first batch!!

Ron

As you know, VHF (Marine band) is line of sight. The higher the base antenna the better

PS: would like to put in an order from your first batch!!!!!

We live outside the footprint of any cell towers so most here use 2 meter band. I really have no idea what 2 meter is, but they seem to be able to communicate with ranchos that are pretty far away and not line of site.

Wow, BG -- you DO have lots of projects going on! When will I be able to get some abalone there ??? (Smiley means "yum, yum" not "nah nah".)

The abalone will take 4 to 5 years to reach harvesting size so I hope nobody skips too many meals waiting.

Line of sight is the norm for radio communications but from what I understand the lower end of the VHF range tends to do better in hilly areas. Also we will not be using the small, handheld units that are typically 4 to 5 watts maximum. We have acquired some 100+ watt Motorola units that are really powerful tanks. They should do very well from the beach here out to the island and to other facilities we have here nearby. I will be curious to see how they do going into town. We can always contract with the local repeaters if needed I suppose.

We will be using the Motorola Maratrac series. Does it look familiar to some of you guys who have worked in law enforcement/fire fighting?