Forecast alternatives to mountain radio - ideas?

I used for some time the Degen DE1103 SW radios you see on ebay to pick up the DOC and canterbury mountain radio scheds and forecasts. This was fairly reliable with a good long-wire antenna, but impossible without. You need a SW radio with SSB or BFO (the same thing) to do this - the degen I mention is probably the cheapest, lowest end option capable of this. The Degen died one day during an electrical storm and has not since been replaced. These days I just rely on medium wave (AM) - I've almost always been able to get national radio from a couple of hours after sundown to just before dawn - most exceptions being in very deep valleys. 567am seems the strongest signal in really remote south island areas at night, but the local transmitter will be better in front country. Can't recall what frequencies I used coming down the Taramakau and up the Taipo, but don;t recall it being a blackspot. National radio gives you the mountain forecast at 5am, and the extended shipping forecasts at 3am and 4am which can give you a good long-range feel of what's coming up the country, be it from a coastal perspective. A long-range terrestrial forecast at night would be good - but no joy on that one yet. The AM receiver (medium wave) in most radios uses only the internal coil antenna - even if you plug in an external one. To improve reception when required I find running out the long-wire antenna and coiling in a spiral round the outside of the radio gives a good inductive coupling to the internal antenna and boosts signal (and noise) considerably. By long-wire antenna, I mean a long single strand of braided wire - speaker wire - 10 to 20m long generally.

Strongly advise any party travelling in the back country for any extended period to take a mountain radio....and plb. The radio is no bigger than the old pound of butter,the aerial is coiled on a small cotton reel type carrier and the weight is negligable compared to the lives it may save in an emergency. Messages can be passed on , altered scheduled pick up times arranged,families kept informed of intentions, and many other sometimes important tasks done ie you may be called on to contact Base for SAR help for someone who hasnt taken a radio and has fallen ill, had an accident etc.

I saw some fish and game dudes at Casey Hut doing a salmon survey in 2005 who had an amazing gadget the size of a matchbox. Unfortunately to our disgust, he was listening to the rugby but in spite of this, we did become friends. It worked by improving the aerial. Very impressive.

Thanks for the replies. Question for Madpom: I am thinking of trying the AM option for this trip. Not out for that long but want to try and get a system that works. Do you just use a standard small pocket transciever with a small (maybe 40cm) aerial? Then you take your wire wrap it around the body of the radio a few times and then run the rest of it out?

Yes. That's my technique. The extendable (maybe 40cm) aerial is not used for AM reception - just for FM, so you can leave that tucked in. Ideally run the wire out the window to a tree or something. Sometimes finding a good metal connection to the hut roof works wonders too! Over the years have had good success with several mid-range AM radios: Sony, Panasonic, Degen, Kchibo - the sort that run on a couple or four AA batteries and (just) fit in your pocket. The $10 warehouse jobs will probably not do the job as they seem to be rather deaf even in town, and the smaller the radio, probably the smaller the coil antenna inside so I would avoid the really tiny ones. Anyway - give it a go an let me know your results! === In case anyone's wondering why AM works only at night - and sorry if I'm teaching old dogs to suck eggs: 'Skip' is where the radio waves bounce to and fro between the earth and lower ionosphere - so can travel large distances over obstructions like mountains in between you and the transmitter. Charge in the atmosphere is low near ground, and highest in the upper ionosphere - which is a long way up there. The higher the frequency of your radiowave, the more charge needed to reflect the waves back to earth. So at high frequency (short wave) radio-waves get very high before being bounced back to earth and so travel large distances in each 'skip' in daytime / summer. At night, there is not enough charge in the ionosphere to reflect the higher frequency waves at all - so they disappear into space, which is why the higher shortwave frequencies do not work over distance at night. Down at medium wave ('medium frequency') very little charge is required to reflect the waves, and even the low charge down near ground level is enough to reflect them in daytime - so they never gain enough height to 'skip' over the mountains and travel large distances. As night arrives, however, the atmosphere loses charge in the absence of radiation from the sun - so the medium-wave radio-waves start to travel to greater heights before being reflected, and hence bounce back to earth further away and can travel larger distances and over obstructions.

We older dogs thank you sometimes remembering this sort of information is like finding a long lost friend. Quite pleasing!

The other option is a satellite telephone.....if you can afford one

Another option which noone has mentioned is maybe to understand the weather patterns and be equipped for and have escape plans if the worst happens. Weather in NZ does follow general patterns so if you learn what they are then you can sometimes predict what the weather is likely to do by observing the wind direction, cloud build up etc. and plan accordingly. At one stage in my tramping career I remember I used to shun weather forecasts completely, making decisions based on what I saw when I woke up in the morning and what I observed during the day. I always had extra food and storm clothing so was ready for the worst and was ready to turn back if I needed too or to be confident that weather was improving. And remember, even the worst weather will improve eventually. You have to be prepared to wait. Nowadays I am a great fan of the 3day and 7day rain models on the met service web site. They can give a pretty good idea what is going to happen up to 7 days ahead, which covers most tramping trips, and you don't have to carry anything. Although it won't give you a weather forecast, a PLB is a good idea I think.

Thats pretty much my modus operandi and to be fair it would need to be a severe storm warning to put me off. something along the lines of Bola