The Wilderness Protocol - The Adventure Radio Protocol

In 1915, the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) was established to further the interests of amateur radio operators. Hiram Percy Maxim was the first president of the ARRL, and today ARRL remains the largest advocacy organization for Radio Amateurs in the United States.

In 1927, Congress passed the Radio Act of 1927, which created the Federal Radio Commission (FRC), under the Department of Commerce. Licensing responsibility for Amateurs was transferred to the FRC. This later became the Federal Communications Commission, when in 1934, Congress passed the Communications Act of 1934.

The first radios were introduced in the Intermountain Region and used by the Forest Service in about 1928 or 1929, and required a pack outfit to haul them in plus tools and equipment to set them up. They were a great aid to Forest Service men. The first two-way radios were used about 1937 or 1938 for communication between fire camps and the Supervisor's Office in Jackson, WY.

Today, radio remains an important tool for those who wander the forests and travel through the darkling wilderness. In the remote and isolated areas of Cascadia radio may be our only means of communication. Too often there is no cellular service in the backcountry, but our radios continue to work, to provide us with a connection to the outside world. Unlike the early days of the Forest Service when radio communication required a pack outfit to haul the radio into the backcountry, today our radios are easily carried in our rucksack with the rest of our gear; or perhaps even fit comfortably into the pocket of a jacket.

Wilderness Protocol

In the February, 1994 edition of QST magazine, William Alsup, N6XMW from Oakland, CA, wrote an article proposing a Wilderness Protocol “for effective simplex use of handheld VHF and FM transceivers in the backcountry.” In the August, 1995 QST, William reported enthusiastic support of the proposal and reminded us to spread the use of the protocol. The Wilderness Protocol is a suggestion that those outside of repeater range should monitor standard simplex channels at specific times in case others have Emergency or priority calls. The primary frequency is 146.52 MHz with 52.525, 223.5, 446.0 and 1294.5 MHz serving as secondary frequencies. This system was conceived to facilitate communications between hams that were hiking or backpacking in uninhabited areas, outside repeater range. However, the Wilderness Protocol should not be viewed as something just for hikers. It can (and should) be used by everyone anywhere repeater coverage is unavailable. The protocol only becomes effective when many people use it.

The Wilderness Protocol recommends that those stations able to do so should monitor the primary (and secondary, if possible) frequency every three hours starting at 7 AM, local time, for 5 minutes... (and then every three hours thereafter: 10 AM, 1 PM, 4 PM, 7 PM, & 10 PM... breaking between 10:05 PM and 7 AM the next morning).  

If you have Emergency or Priority traffic use the LONG TONE ZERO (abbreviated LiTZ) to begin your call. Begin calls for assistance with about 10 seconds of TONE with the LiTZ signal. Do this by keying up and holding down the zero key to continuously transmit the zero DTMF tone (hence: LONG TONE ZERO ). Then proceed to make your emergency or priority call. This should help those listening to recognize that an emergency or priority call is coming through.

At the end of the five minute monitoring period, assuming that there is no emergency or priority traffic, Amateurs may wish to announce their callsign to establish routine random contacts with other operators for the purpose of hobby communications. 146.50 MHz is the 2-meter national calling frequency (and the secondary frequencies are the calling frequencies in their respective bands). For making general simplex contacts, the national calling frequencies are a great place to start.

Adventure Radio Protocol

In 2023, George Zafiropoulos KJ6VU proposed the Adventure Radio Protocol. KJ6VU stated "We propose to use 146.580 MHz FM for the nationwide US adventure radio frequency.  This frequency is chosen because it is already in use in various regions of the US for hiking, backpacking, SOTA, over-landing and other outdoors activities.  We also want to avoid using 146.520 to remove outdoor activity traffic from the national calling frequency." More information about the Adventure Radio Protocol can be found here: (https://www.sierraradio.net/adventure-radio.html).

While I believe that we should continue to follow the Wilderness Protocol during any backcountry travel, the Adventure Radio Protocol serves as an additional frequency around which Amateurs in the outdoors can focus their radio communications.