Continue with onX Maps
Sign in with Facebook
Walkie talkies for Aid
|
I have always considered Rockie Talkies a bit gummbyish and unnecessary for free climbing; however, for aid and the increased amount of communication present in aid climbing, do people find them worth it? I would assume Rockie Talkies are the standard, but has anyone found a way to modify standard ones to be usable for climbing? |
|
I use Bruuntons, but anything will work if you add a clip in loop. A short loop to attach to your harness or rack, and a longer loop to reach your mouth. Opposite end of the cord attaches with a locker so you can never drop it. Short loop into a non-locker to clip and unclip to speak. If your partner is around a roof or corner, or there is any kind of wind, it can be nearly impossible to communicate. They are absolutely worth their weight and cost, zero doubt of that. It can be amusing on the wall listening to other parties trying to communicate, poor buggers. Before every kid had a cell phone, they had the walkie talkies with the usual Motorola bands. Might be the same as CB? There were always kids walking all over you. Not sure if that is still a problem or not, but I always told everyone to make sure they bought the kind with sub-channels. The old El Cap frequency used to be 4-20, thanks to Dave Turner. I use always use half of that, which is 2 sub 10. If you see me hauling on the wall, we'll have the radios on, so give us a shout on 2-10. |
|
Just know that everybody using walkie talkies to communicate in a civilized, quiet manner consider all you goobers screaming at the top of your lungs back and forth on multi pitch routes to be annoying clowns |
|
I used to subscribe to radios are gummbyish and unnecessary, but after using them for some bigger alpine objectives this season I'm convinced that NOT having them is the Gumby move. We had the rope get stuck in a roof and I had to prussick up to clear it before I could be on belay. The roof combined with wind made it impossible to hear each other without radios, and doing those shanagins without communication would not have been ideal. Also did some simuling a full rope length from my partner and radios were a game changer for communicating. And all the other belay commands we didn't have to yell was awesome and made for a quieter backcountry experience. I'm sure they're great for aiding too! |
|
More than for the aiding itself (though you're more likely to be tagging esoteric stuff up and down), they're really nice to have for hauling. |
|
I remember climbing in the days before walkie talkie’s, before cell phones even. We had elaborate plans to use tugs on the rope for communication. One tug meant you were off belay, two meant … a little bit of rope drag around a corner and … was that a tug? Or is the leader just pulling on the rope because I’m not giving them enough slack? About the only time I DON’T use a radio is single pitch sport climbing. I consider them essential safety equipment on par with a helmet. |
|
Not using radios is fine when nothing goes wrong. I've used them on my last 6 partnered wall ascents and find them critical if anyone on your team is new to wall climbing. |
|
" Aw, man it was epic! We put the repeater on Dolt Tower and sprinted for the next pitch. Jake was flagging the solar panel/ledge for the haul. The anchor sucked so we had to belay off the long-wire and the aid was so thin we used a weird Jungle antennae variant. We got weathered in and spent two cold nights on SSB under the navy surplus dish with only Morse for comfort. couldn't even get NVIS with QRP, so we resorted to lowering a twisted pair to the ground. Next day was no better and this Canadian guy kept dropping olives on us. I can’t believe that guy! He was hauling a 70 year old AN/GRC 109 and a bicycle modified to crank it!" Yes, radios are very useful!!! the motorola and bruuntons are excellent. Make a communications plan and leave your primary and alternate frequencies with someone in the meadow. |
|
I agree 100%, and I am convinced they add a significant safety advantage. Just last spring, my son and I had a very tricky situation rapping Steve’s fixed lines near Lurking Fear where my son came up short of reaching an anchor because we had a 60m haul line and a 70m lead line (Steve’s fixed line decent route that was up at the time required a pair of 70m ropes to cross Lurking Fear)… we had zero ability to hear each other and ended up doing a tricky transfer of him to our lead line and lower, that required him to essentially rap off the end of the shorter haul line intentionally and let me lower him on the longer lead line that he had tied into. I can not imagine doing this with no communication. Just one example, and perhaps an extreme one that we could have dealt with some other way, but the radios helped us avoid an epic. We own Rockie Talkies but actually prefer BaoFeng Ham radios. They are: - very affordable - more compact than RT’s but a little heavier - way stronger wattage to reach miles further than any of the other options typically used - have the ability to monitor and communicate on pretty much any frequency out there. (note that some newer ones may come locked out but there's an easy sequence to unlock all frequency access. * this gives you the ability to monitor your local or regional emergency channels or dispatch and most importantly communicate on them in an emergency. And it IS legal to call for help on a first responder band if you do have a critical rescue situation. * when doing bigger climbs, we always Google the local emergency response bands in the area and program the B channel to it, then choose our A band frequency for our coms. We got tired of all the traffic on the family radio bands (FRS) (same the RT and the cheap ones use), so I bought a GMRS license which practically gives us our own private band to talk on. More info: https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/general-mobile-radio-service-gmrs Here’s an option for the BaoFeng’s: https://amzn.to/46IT6Ic We have tried a lot of antennas, and recommend some stubby ones for walls: We also have used a long antenna you hang in a tree for base camp style communications on longer back country adventures: I am not a prepper, but my son likes the idea of having HAM capable radios should our cell networks ever go down, etc… Either way, some options for you. Worst case, I think some cheap-o ones are better than nothing. |
|
Walky talkies are aid |
Cosmic Hotdogwrote: not clowns, just barbarians. I got sold on radios in one pitch. |
Manley Feinbergwrote: also generally "illegal" in the US without a license. Not that I care- you do you. But if I got my ham license (KJ5JIH) for one reason, it was to be a pedantic nerd on the internet. My point here isn't that folks shouldn't use the cheap-o BFs (I owned 4 before I got my license). Rather, I thought it was interesting and cheap to get a license so I encourage folks to do that when the opportunity presents itself. Anyhow, it took probably 10 hours of watching some videos/ reading the ARRL book, maybe another 10 hours of doing some practice tests, plus a morning to go take the exam. And now I know a lot more about how they work so that's a big plus for their usability. It's kind of a fun thing, IMO. So I encourage folks to do it. Nothing gonna stop me from handing a radio I have set up to my partner, even though they don't have a license. And I wish that I'd had a couple last week on a long climb, so I will probably start bringing them and see how that works. |
John Reevewrote: Do you still need to know Morse code for the test? What about the technical stuff about antennas? |
Marc801 Cwrote: No, they dropped the morse code requirement- I worked on cq for a little bit just cause I was curious, but I didn't get good enough to find it useful before moving on to other stuff n my life. You need to know a little bit about antennas, electronics, etc. The practices tests and ARRL book have everything in them, though. I thought it's was pretty easy, but I already know Ohm's law and a bit of electronics theory. |
|
I never climb Left Ski Track or The Flake or anything on Intersection Rock in JTree without radios. Just the slightest bit of wind and communication is impossible. With the rope running over so much rock, rope tugs won’t even register on the summit. |
|
If I’m “belaying” somebody on an aid climb, I’m probably playing chess on my phone. I would prefer if they couldn’t walkie-talkie me. It disrupts my focus, and I’m bad enough as it is. |
Luke Lalorwrote: "Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess" (think I got the title right) is a good book for the less experienced chess player. "My System", Aaron Nimzovich might keep you busy for decades. Play a lot. Face to face tournaments are a great experience, regardless of your level. My apologies if you are a good player. I kinda reacted to your last sentence. |
