VHF Frequencies, BC. AB.

And anyone caught selling programmable radios in Canada could pay up to a $50,000.00 fine for doing so.

 

So I should get one while I can...

I'm not sure that programmabel is the right term....you could just tune to the frequency that you wanted to use/monitor.

 

How powerful of a handheld do you need? We can get Chinese made handheld rated at 4 watts for about $35 and 8 watts for less than $60 US. Programmable on the handheld or through free downloadable software if you buy the $10 cable. I have 3 of them. I do hold a US Ham license but anyone can buy them on amazon. They work on UHF too.

 

Really. I'd go for the higher powered ones. I'd hate to spend big money as I'd likely not get much use out of one. But they'd be handy when you needed one. I'll check into that. Thanks. On the other hand, a guy would hate to buy some cheap chinese crap and have it fail while you were navigating a busy bush road wtih narrows and bridges...

 

Define programmable... The ones In my current company's trucks I can tune to different frequencies as I require.

 

You must go to a LICENCED programmer to ADD frequencies. I have one that I can program but I bought it before the law came into effect.

 

L.B., if you are indeed a licensed ham, then you should know all about the rules concerning unauthorized transmissions on frequencies to which you are not licensed.

I'm sure you would not appreciate nor encourage non-licenced activity on the two-meter band, just as you govern your driving habits by the rules of road without causing grief to yourself and others.

Obviously, it would be best for the entire North American trucking industry if there were a few VHF frequencies officially allotted for international usage that would not require a license, but so far the only ones which come close to providing that need are the five M.U.R.S (Multiple Use Radio Service) frequencies, namely:

151.820 - 151.880 - 151.940 - 154.570 - 154.600

and while the use of these five frequencies is thus far restricted to handheld equipment having a maximum of 2-watts output, they may be the most practical to consider until such time as a superior service comes into being--if that ever happens.

 

I am a licensed ham and I am not encouraging anybody to do anything illegal. I was trying to find out the differences between US and Canadian frequencies open for public use and wether I would have issues crossing the border with my legal ham radio since comments on this thread seem to indicate radios are scrutinized in trucks up north. Where exactly did I tell someone to do anything illegal in canada?

 

No accusations are implied.

Although mobile VHF-UHF ham radio operation is common and routine on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, the fact is that not everyone has a ham license nor might everyone have an interest in obtaining one.

However, since I note that someone elsewhere in this website has posted that they programmed 397 (!) presumably industry-related VHF frequencies into their vehicle's transceiver, one has to wonder why they felt it necessary to have so many, assuming that they are employed by a specific company which is licensed to operate only on a short list of frequencies to which their employer is assigned--although it would be perfectly legal to monitor any number of them on a scanner.

British Columbia already has 40 designated simplex channels for use on remote roads. Further details can be found here:

See: http://www.bcforestsafe.org/road_channels

http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hth/engineering/documents/Road_Radio_Project/rrinformation_bc_final-indcan_apr_2013.pdf

http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hth/engineering/sign_standards.htm

Regarding the BC Resource Road radio protocols, Industry Canada suggests that:

(Quote)"Only use channels for their specific resource use and where they are posted.

Interference can result if channels are used for unauthorized use, like ####-chat, etc.

Please use the LAD channels for talk not directly associated with these designated uses.

All channels are designated that they cause no interference to other users and must accept interference from other priority spectrum users."(Unquote).

Since Citizens Band has its channel 9 and 19, Marine Radio has its channel 16, and even the 2-meter ham has an unofficial National FM Calling Frequency, I suggest that for convenient, practical, and safety purposes, there should be one or two VHF International Trucking Call Channels which are accessible to ALL industrial vehicles working in logging, mining, petroleum, etc.

Until that happens, both LAD and MURS will have to do.

 

Your post contains some good information, but also lacks the perspective of someone who actually works in the environment up here.

The reasons that someone might have 397 channels programmed into their radio (which is likely one of the radios I bought ) is because... simply... it is necessary. As a contractor/power-for-hire, on any given day we can be running anywhere in BC, AB, SK, MB, YT or NT, doing oilfield/heavy haul/mining/lumber work directly for a prime customer or sub-contracting to another carrier. In a one-week period I can work for several different customers/carriers. Many of those customers have their own frequencies as do a lot of the carriers. Mammoet might have a dozen frequencies of their own. The same for Premay, Mullen, TransCanada, Cenovus, Shell, various mines, lumber mills, gas plants, oil sands sites, etc. A single trip of 50 km off-pavement can easily encompass another half-dozen frequencies. A scanner is useless unless you're out here simply for a pleasure drive in a passenger vehicle. Many roads have very narrow sections with limited pullouts and we're frequently heavy (often 2-trailer combinations) and/or wide/long.

Your idea of "one or two VHF International Trucking Call Channels which are accessible to ALL industrial vehicles working in logging, mining, petroleum, etc." is simply unworkable. I have been on jobs where in a 100 square mile area (that's only 10 miles X 10 miles) you can literally have hundreds of trucks on dozens of single-lane roads going to well sites, camps, gas plants, doing road maintenance, etc. Other jobs like preparing a site for a gas plant might have 20 trucks hauling gravel, 30 pieces of heavy equipment, 10 trucks shuttling access mats, road-building crews, and a dozen pick ups all traversing a 10 km stretch of road and a site that's a couple-hundred acres. There needs to be at least one channel for the road, one for the gravel/borrow pit one or two used on-site, a supervisor's channel, etc.

While BC is doing a good job in simplifying and rationalizing the number of channels needed, even their own literature notes the following (from your link):

"Note: as not all resource roads will be adopting the new Resource Road Radio Channels, it is recommended that road users retain current radio frequencies until such time that they are no longer required."​

For a driver that is only on pavement then 4-6 channels is likely all they'll ever need, but for a huge section of the trucking industry up here there are 20-50 channels that get used very regularly and then there are hundreds that might only be needed once or twice per year, but when they're needed... And when a driver finds out at 4:30 PM on Saturday that they need to be at a mine 700 km away for noon Sunday to move a crane and there are at least three different channels needed; if they don't have them, there is virtually no time to get them programmed. That's the reality of the industry up here and why experienced, long-term operators will have hundreds of channels programmed.

All of this is why, although illegal, self-programmable radios are becoming increasingly popular up here.