Ice Road Trucker Communications

[kc8gpd]

what do ice road truckers use for long haul communications?? surely a 4w AM/12w SSB 40ch CB just won't cut it in this type of situation.

anyone know? speculation?

 

[mjmurphy61]

Probably Qualcomm satellite communications. There is really no need for voice coms. Has GPS and you can type messages and dispatches between the truck and dispatch.

 

[tiawah466]

check out this post
http://radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73844

 

[tneff]

I don't know how they communicate, but them are some crazy half frozen people driving them trucks. Pretty interesting show.

 

[DPD1]

I watched for a while the other day and wondered the same thing. They seem to send the trucks through in groups... Obviously talking to each other in that situation is easy. But I also noticed that the base of operations seemed to hint that they could call guys out on the road. Perhaps the company that organizes the efforts has repeaters setup along the route.

Dave
www.DPDProductions.com
Custom Antennas & Radio Accessories

 

[Big_Ears]

I was watching one trucker talking to another and it appeared to be FM due to the crisp squelch and the full quieting. Their microphones appeared to be stock and not the Turner/Astatic/Echo variety.

 

[studgeman]

NUNA logistics has a whole bunch of VHF High frequencies licensed for up there. They are fixed Base and mobile licenses. Up there you can get fairly good distance off a single tower, there are no trees and not too many large hills. There are about 3 or 4 locations licensed.

 

[scansomd]

what do ice road truckers use for long haul communications?? surely a 4w AM/12w SSB 40ch CB just won't cut it in this type of situation.

anyone know? speculation?

It sure looks like a Kenwood I own (boxed up in the garage) - Model 2100 perhaps? (I can't recall with 100% certainty)

I -suspect- they are using the amateur 2 Meter band.

 

[Jay911]

As mentioned in "the other" thread on this in the West Can forums, they are most likely using the LAD channels prevalent in Western Canada. Nuna's licenses in the TAFL reflect this.

It is extremely doubtful they are using any amateur frequencies, as the LAD channels are an entire allocation specifically to trucking operations in the region.

 

[KF4ZTO]

I doubt they are using 2m frequencies, but instead opened VHF ham rigs on the LAD frequencies, as it would probably be more cost-effective to do that instead of buying commercial gear (albeit not-type accepted, but I dont want to start that rant)

 

[DiGiTaLD]

In the episode that was on last night, one of the guys' trucks had a Kenwood that I'm almost certain was a TM-271. It looked exactly like the radio that's sitting on my desk right now.

There was a shot of the Nuna Logistics dispatch area showing the radio, and that was a commercial rig, Kenwood I think.

 

[trace1]

Good show, enjoy watching it. But I do remember seeing an ICOM in at least one of the Dispatch offices in an earlier episode and it looked like a commercial type radio.

 

[kadetklapp]

Love this show. I thought I saw an Icom mic in one of the trucks, maybe Hugh's?

Either way, must have som e good comms guys to keep those radios and repeaters running in the extreme cold and in all those trucks on bumpy roads.

 

[z96cobra]

I doubt they are using 2m frequencies, but instead opened VHF ham rigs on the LAD frequencies, as it would probably be more cost-effective to do that instead of buying commercial gear (albeit not-type accepted, but I dont want to start that rant)

Does Canada even have a "type accepted" requirement like the FCC here in the US? I'm guessing that they do, but not positive.

Roger

 

[steele_lpd]

From what I've seen on the show most of the guys have Kenwood TM-271A's in the trucks.