Thread: Which HF Radio?

Originally Posted by tcgooge

As with most things, the budget is tight, looking at spending about $1000 for the radio and about $500 for aerial.

With that budget your best option would be to hire one. Try Jim Shire on the Gold Coast. Jims 4wd radio sales and hire Gold Coast Australia

I picked up a coden second hand in qid for about that money
Heres some links that may help
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/communicat...ips-traps.html
cheers
blaze

Mates and I (three of us) purchased second hand Wagner sets from a bloke at the 60th in Cooma for $400 each. They are only two channel but complete with multi tap aerial and worked a treat on our Madigan trip.

G'Day, tccooge.
After posting the Querie in the link that blaze has provided above, I purchased one of these : BARRETT 250 HF RADIO-CODAN SELCALL-VKS737 4WD/MARINE - eBay 2-Way Radios, 2-Way Radios, Walkie Talkies, Radio Equipment, Electronics. (end time 19-Feb-09 07:46:56 AEDST) from dave, the seller above.

Radio worked fine ( but for a poor earth(this installers error) Dave even programmed my selcall info in! He supplied a Bushmaster multitap (12 frequency) for ~$300. Have seen them for a little less since though (275). Add around $100 for power cabling and heavy duty fuse and you are on fire : ))

We toured for around 1.5 months, so the cost of hiring a Sat phone or HF compared with going halves with my mate in the Barrett. Except I get to keep it !!
You can get very cheap, 2 channel sets for a few hundred, but for a few hundred more I would strongly advise getting a multi channel model. We raced the low that cut off the gulf just after new years, and kept tabs using the weather reports when there was no other sound coming from the ether (am/ fm radio). nice to know whats happening!
If you are new to the scene (HF radios) and can't hook up with anyone local, I'm up near redcliffe. PM me and we can rv for a sked (scheduled contact with the network)
I hope this helps.
Cheers, Dave.

Barrett 250 ....
Wagner 2 channel ...
selcal maybe ....
Multi-tap

I guess I was thinking at the platinum end of the spectrum - Codan NGT or 9323 and a 9360. (I have 9323/9360 in the RRc and 8525/Moonraker ATU's for the SIIB )

Yes you can get older sets for around and less than $1,500. I wouldn't be going older than the Barret 250 or the Codan 8525 (preferably "b" model) and be sure you have selcall and the "emergency button" if it's the only HF set in the group. 20 years is pretty old for electronic equipment that is there as a lifeline.

What ever you get ensure it is checked over thoroughly before you leave.

Diana

Diana, we had 4 vehicles with 4 HF's. We were able to contact VKS every night without fail. I agree, if I had the money I too would be looking at a more modern job.

In saying that, plenty of people are happy with their 20 plus year old vehicles

hi all i going to get a hf radio fo touring aus soon but i was wondering what type of licence is needed where to get it if they have a web site and any rules reg for hf that are online and if a foundation licence covers it as i am getting one soon

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

I guess I was thinking at the platinum end of the spectrum - Codan NGT or 9323 and a 9360. (I have 9323/9360 in the RRc and 8525/Moonraker ATU's for the SIIB )

My 9323 and 9350 cost $1300 s/h. However, they were bought seperately, and I passed up a great many that were going for a lot more money. NGT's are still silly money, as are any 9323's purchased from a dealer IME, but you can get bargains if you bide your time and buy privately.