I wish to implement a system that would allow my boat to communicate with the camp on land.
Currently we have ICOM IC-M25 (5W) handheld radios that work well but do not provide enough range. I am looking for a system that would be able to communicate with the boat when it is a maximum of 12km away.
Our land camp has a hill behind it with an elevation of 30m. My question is if I can put an antenna on the hill with a more powerful radio would I be able to have two way communication with the IC-M25 on the boat at 12km. If so what radio and antenna should I look at purchasing?
Or if not, would I need to install a more powerful radio with antenna on the boat as well? And once again what would suffice?
I think the one thing that would be most helpful at this juncture would be knowing where you’re located.
I know there are some restrictions on land-based use of marine VHF frequencies in the US but I don’t know about other countries. I think land-based use of Marine VHF is generally prohibited with the exception of entities like the US Coast Guard, membership-type vessel assist organizations and marinas.
As said - the legality depends on the Country, but the size of your bank balance matters too. What you are describing requires a repeater, and a decent antenna on the high ground. We do this kind of thing for temporary events, and we simply park a vehicle with the repeater in it on the high ground, and use a roof mounted antenna - or a taller mast when we have to. Our licence lets us hire stuff like this out to our clients which is cost effective. If they wanted to buy the equipment and then take out their own licence, the things gets more complicated and costs go up. A repeater, antennas and the necessary filters would cost here maybe ?1500?
The repeater listens, and being on high ground hears everything - it then retransmits this out again on a different frequency. The height sets the range, power far less so. Anyone within a rough circle around the repeater can talk to anyone else on lower powered equipment.
Your problem is that your M25 is a marine band radio - and you won’t get a licence (certainly not if you are in the UK) to use it to talk to a land station inland. Marinas and ports, yes - but Marine is out. I believe the US situation is very similar - Marine is well, marine. You’ll need to buy a complete system for this one, I’m afraid.
I’m thinking the OP is probably in the UK as he gave his distances in Km.
Since we’ve determined the use of Marine radios is out of the question, either a GMRS (or the UK equivalent) or an amateur license would be the best way to go. The situation he describes would probably be feasible with simplex as long as there was direct line of sight between the boat and the hilltop antenna. I’ve hit a repeater on a 3,500 ft mountain from 85 nautical miles away (over water) with a 5 watt HT and one of my club members conducted a net from Santa Catalina Island off the California coast through a repeater 88 miles away on the mainland with an HT.
Was Reading the Thread and Decided to Search the Legalities from Ship to Shore-- Like In The US we Can NOT as Private Citizens–Here is the PDF Link for the UK-----
Is it need to ask the relevant department?As others had said,you need repeater.But specific steps will be a little troublesome.Maybe can find someone to help you to do it.Hope it is helpful.
I figured he wasn’t in the UK, for exactly the same reason - he used Km. The UK uses miles for transport. Our speed limits and vehicle speedometers are in miles per hour, but we do have a smaller scale on the speedo for KM. Oddly, our kids are taught metric in school, and ask a teen year old how big an inch is would make them think? Otherwise, we do miles and yards. Older people still do pints and feet, younger people are happy with metres and litres. We buy fuel in litres, but still talk about miles per gallon! What a mess!
The UK marine licensing situation is a bit complicated. One of those Ofcom links is really about the ‘station’ - as in when a radio is fitted to a vessel, and this licence also provides the reference number that modern radios use to identify on the auto systems. It doesn’t have anything to do with the person operating - this is the RYA organisation who run the short range marine qualification - and that’s not linked to a specific vessel. So we need two different licences - one for the vessel and one for the operator. The Marina channels are quite unique to us - but would be no use for this circumstance - the land camp need to talk to a boat. Here, the way that would be done would not be marine band - because although repeaters on the old ship to shore telephone patch channels would be possible - it would also involve the shore station being licenced and that is VERY expensive, and not, as far as I’m aware, available as a short term event.