Frank Church Wilderness - River of no Return

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redbeard

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Been watching a new show on Discovery about some ranchers there. Seems at least two of them have HF radios, one for sure is a Spilsbury SBX-11A. They don't use callsigns, just Unit 2, Unit 5, etc. Well looking at some specs on that radio it's capable of 1.6-10MHz, 10W, 4 channels, and crystal controlled. I just watched episode 5 and when the radio was turned on I could hear a CODAR transmitter leading me to believe it's in the 4-5MHz range. This website says a couple common freqs to find them on are 4441/5031kHz but those may be more common in Canada. I also found that the state of Idaho has some HF licensed (WPVX422) in nearby Salmon, ID. I wonder if these are in common use out there or if they are unrelated and perhaps for DHS/SHARES use. Any suggestions?
 

wowologist

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Sounds like a clear case of a WTF letter to both the producers AND the FCC. Just because your making a TV show does not give you a right to poach spectrum. (However I do recall long ago thier were logging frequencies allocated somewhere around midish 5Mhz >10w output for itinerent use) I suppose they could be BS'ing thier way onto those...other then that I'd say it's a clear case of unauthorized use.
 

mmckenna

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If you do an FCC license search and use the parameters:
State = Idaho
Frequency Range 2 MHz to 10 MHz,
You'll see a number of licenses come up for ranches and other businesses. A few active and many expired.
There are HF allocations for business and public safety in the US.

Nothing at all wrong if they are operating under one of those licenses.
Just because you don't hear a call sign on TV doesn't mean they are not operating legally. Could just have been edited out.
 

redbeard

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Hey I never mentioned the legality of it because we don't know what freq and therefore what license they are operating under. I watched the last episode and saw another Spilsbury radio at a different ranch so there's at least 2 out of 3 known users with the same radio. I also heard CODAR again during a short radio exchange in the last episode. There is CODAR at 4441 so it wouldn't surpise me really if these were bought or brought from Canada and they continued to use the same freqs as users tend to do unknowingly or otherwise.

I did do a database search, that is where I got the state callsign I listed. There were no other HF licenses for that county that they reside in. If they are using a license from somewhere else, it will be harder to correlate. So that's why I am asking if any locals know what the deal is. There may be 'local customs' at play.
 

safetypro79

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after living in Alaska for 35 years and having a cabin in a remote location HF operations were common throughout the state the majority being unlicensed.

here in the back country in Idaho where I fly often (Cessna 180) it’s basically the same cabins and ranchers in remote locations use HF for communication when cell phone service is not available, the communications are sporadic with set frequencies known to the users ( outside amateur bands) and basically mundane comms.

yes they are in violation of FCC laws but basically they’re so remote and state agencies operating VHF and UHF networks there’s there’s no interference as expected from brief HF comms.
 

redbeard

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I understand, I was replying to wowologist.
As was I... I will reiterate again for safetypro79, I am not concerned with whether they are legal or not. I want to know what freq to monitor to see if I can hear them. As far as interference goes however, if they are indeed unlicensed, HF as you know is capable to travel great distances and they could in fact be interfering with licensed operation. It's easier to forgive remote unlicensed vhf/uhf operation as the signal doesn't travel as far.
 

brandon

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I've heard similar type of stations on 4634.5 before. Can't say for sure if its the same guys, but it might be worth a shot.
 
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