Weekend comms

[Turtle61]

Just came back for a weekend in Mudgee, staying at Windeyer, visiting Sofala, Hill End and returning via The Briddle Track from Hill End to Bathurst. Nice, although cold, weekend introducing my 3yo to the joys of dirt roads and easy 4WD tracks.

When driving around an interesting issue came up: no communication at all. The mobile phones do not work in the area although we were only about 20kms from Mudgee or any other town in that area

So, the question is: what would be a good communication equipment for weekends away in the country side (not quite the outback)?

Sat phone hire might be a good idea but probably get pricy if used regularly. Buying one might be an option (haven't looked at prices yet)...
Good UHF radio (need to replace the one stolen from my apartment before I left for Switzerland)?
HF?
EPIRB beacon is on the books for all trips but this is not what I the question is about...


Cheers

--Irek

[kaa45]

Depends how far away the other party is. UHF for local comms or HF for calling help. Just want to make phone calls, then Sat phone. :D

[DiscoTDI]

Depends on the area but I have just had a next-g phone with a car kit and hard wired aerial installed, I now can travel from Mackay to Moranabh without dropping out (200km) plus areas around Moranbah (100km) without dropping out. I have a bit more testing and will be doing a trip down to Brisbane next week and I expect that I will have a fair amount of coverage the whole way down (1100km).

A car kit with a hard wired aerial is the key to the good reception.

Thats if you are talking about phones, either that or get a Sat phone;)

[mark2]

A UHF with a good antenna will ping a repeater in many areas. There are plenty of 25+ watt UHF's available (if you know what to look for) which help a lot when the signal is marginal with a 5 watt unit.

[Hunchy]

Sat phones are crap. Hired one for a trip Brissy to Alice via the Plenty, it was pretty much useless. Sometimes it worked well, sometimes it didn't work at all, other times I could hear the other party & they couldn't hear me, and vice versa.

Don't need that sort of hassle when you really, really need to get a message across.

[JDNSW]

You don't say what type of mobile phone you were using. In that area (and many others) the only practical phone is Telstra Next-G or CDMA (until it dies in February). See Telstra's coverage maps. A vehicle antenna will help.

As others have commented there are a number of UHF repeater, particularly in mountainous areas.

But it needs pointing out, that the need for continuous communications has only been visualised as a possibility, let alone a requirement, in perhaps the last twenty years. Is it really necessary? I drove over a lot of Australia with no communications whatever, when things were a lot more isolated than they are today, forty years ago. You simply worked on a plan and made sure you kept to it, and relied on your own resources a lot more than is fashionable today.

John

John

[waynep]

Nxt G phone coverage is improving all the time. ( so I've heard ). When they turn the CDMA off altogether they can turn up the wick a bit more. The situation you described probably had Next G but not GSM coverage.

Sat phones are good for remote trips IMHO, easy to use and portable - our 4WD Club has an Iridium one which seems to work OK in all places except indoors. ( of course ). Just a normal phone call once you lock on to the satellite.

HF Radio - OK but you need a bit more knowledge to use it and you have big antennas, more kit in the car etc to think about.

UHF CB repeaters - OK but run largely by volunteers and not always guaranteed to be online. Also, is there always going to be someone at the other end who willing to help ?

We are planning to do a few "big trips" in the next five years too. For our purposes ( rarely anything really remote ), we'll have a Next G phone with in car kit, and have one of the new model 400MHz EPIRBs as a last resort . We will hire or borrow a SatPhone if we do Simpson Desert or something.( or better still team up with someone who has one :D )

[Broome Defender]

I've just got a next g and haven't really tested reception around Broome yet. I have a Barrett HF radio and the thing is that although I don't use it much its the piece of mind. Once set up they are very affordable. Membership with VKS 737 is under $100 per year and after the initial set up $$ this would be all I have to pay, plus I bought it second hand in VIC and the guru I bought it off made his own manually tuneable aerials and set the channels up. However, you can apply for a grant, I think from the federal govt for the purchase of a sat phone, the conditions of which I am not sure, but you can only ask. This might make this option a bit more affordable but there are consistent on-going costs. I find the HF network to be like a community in such that people look out for eachother. I think you'd have to call the RACV on your sat phone to get that kind of support!

I'll stop rambling now...

Dan