questions for radio junkies (comms)

[jase]

Hi guys some questions if I may

Does anyone (in Melb) monitor &/or police use VHF channels?
What channels / frequencies do you need a license for? How hard is one to get & how much cost??
Reason for asking we use little UHF handhelds (½ watt uniden jobbies) at work and while they are fine 90% of the time we occasionally get drowned out by useless truck chatter and need to change channels (pain when no one can here you saying "change your channel to ??" cause of the truck chatter).
Anyway I see some 5w VHF’s on ebay cheap (from Hong Kong) and while I’m sure their quality is only ordinary surely they must transmit & receive at least as good as the ½ watt unidens? What do you think ? would we be safe using them? Or heading towards for a world of hurt ??

While on the subject of radios has anyone got an old UHF or 2 lying around they want to sell cheap ? (Doesn’t matter what brand ect as long as it works ok)
I want one for my tractor / backhoe & one for old stage 1 that lives on the farm (so wife can call me when I’m down the paddock). I can’t justify a new one for the few hrs a month they’ll work, currently I’ve got a couple of handhelds but they don’t work to good when hiding down the valley and aren’t loud enough to hear over a working engine?

Thanks
Jase

[Phoenix]

Any UHF rado you can buy is legit, although there is a maximum transmit power that you can't exceed. 25w I think. I'm not an expert.

you can get a few 5w units around. I've got a 0.5w unit that can switch up to 2w which is excellent. Still won't help with the truckies much though as tehy often have the power of their radios turned up beyond the legal level to transmit further, but it drowns out everything else. Best bet, find a quiet chanel. stay away from multiples of 5 and you should be right.

[Tusker]

Have a poke around the ACMA website, that should answer all your questions about licences

http://www.acma.gov.au/ACMAINTER.458992:STANDARD::pc=PC_2032

Basically we all use UHF under a class licence. Marine use tends to be VHF, and licence requirements differ. The LROCV has a VHF frequency too.

http://www.lrocv.com.au/store/page.pl?id=78

For the farm, an old 27 mhz set might do the trick - its not so line-of-sight as UHF is.

Regards
Max P

[JDNSW]

Any UHF rado you can buy is legit, although there is a maximum transmit power that you can't exceed. 25w I think. I'm not an expert.

you can get a few 5w units around. I've got a 0.5w unit that can switch up to 2w which is excellent. Still won't help with the truckies much though as tehy often have the power of their radios turned up beyond the legal level to transmit further, but it drowns out everything else. Best bet, find a quiet chanel. stay away from multiples of 5 and you should be right.

Unless I am mistaken the power limit for CB, either HF or UHF is 5W. Other services (e.g. Marine or Aircraft VHF and most licenced ground mobile VHF,UHF HF), are mostly allowed 25W. But with handhelds you are up against a pretty poor antenna if it is to remain handheld (attaching it to proper a car aerial works wonders), and any increase in power greatly reduces battery life.

As far as truckies go you are up against high gain, high mounted antennas, as well as often illegal power levels.
John

[jase]

I assume (correct me if I'm wrong) you also need licences for UHF if using other than the std 40 preprogrammed channels?

oh and 27mhz is no good for the farm cause the utes & neighbors all already have UHFs

thanks
Jase