I am lucky enough to live minutes from the North Yorkshire National Park. I walk there on a weekly basis usually testing my SOTA preparation and portable kit/Man-pack and APRS systems.

Image courtesy of
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_York_Moors#/media/File:North_York_Moors_map_en.png

Although fairly well laid out these days, the park can be dangerous, and in many places remote — very remote. Lots of the park suffers from poor to zero cell phone coverage. Once you get into the valley there is a real chance that you won’t see a soul for hours — especially in winter.

Amateur Radio Coverage

Amateur radio coverage is very good in large areas on the park. The fantastic coverage of 2m analogue repeater GB7RW near Robin Hoods Bay is a lifeline for external contact, especially to the East.

MB7RWV

APRS in the majority of the N. Yorkshire National Park is banned due to a licence restriction which prohibits its use on 144.800 MHz within 50 Km of GCQH on Irton Moor. In 2021 I applied for an NoV variation to allow the installation of a 70cm RX only iGate near Osgodby & Eastfield. The proposed callsign is MB7RWV and it monitors 433.800 MHz at 1200 Baud for APRS packets. See the RSGB website here for more details on that or check schedule 2 of your Amateur Radio License.

Image source from https://www.thersgb.org/services/licence-map/schedule-2.htm

OTH NYNP (On the Hour Wilderness Protocol)

As I use the park so often, I became concerned that at times (certainly when alone) the danger of injury is not unwarranted. Being able to contact someone to get help in -5 degrees C in a remote valley whilst injured could prove difficult, especially with such intermittent phone signal.

The OTH NYWP is a take on the very useful but far under used Wilderness Protocol used in the USA. The protocol encourages stations in range of frequented wilderness spots to monitor 145.500 (the UK calling frequency) for emergency calls at the top of the hour for 2 minutes. This means that an injured or troubled station could save vital battery energy by only calling on the calling frequency at a time they know someone may be listening. Similar to a volunteer fire service, operators listen out/check-in hourly or when they can on the off chance someone may need help. I’d like to promote this kind of community operation in the North Yorkshire Park catchment area. Just sign on and announce you are QRV!

CCARC Cross Counties

The CCARC digital node is available 24/7 on DMR TG23591, Yaesu YSF GB-CCARC and Echolink 23591 (Link via GB7RW if required during NYNP operations via DTFM 506929 [ 2E0WWV-L Echolink ] ). I am often QRV on CCARC if you are in the park and want to get a radio check be sure to call in a give me a shout.

73 2E0WWV