Thread: HF Radios and antennas - need advice please

Cant help you with the RT taps. They don't make any sense to me.

Maybe shoot an email off to Barratt, and see what they can suggest.



Have a look here for the RFDS frequencies:

http://www.flyingdoctor.org.au/Commu...o-Frequencies/

G'day Gav,

Sorry, a little late in getting to this thread. I think most of your questions have been answered previously. Arthur is definitely worth his weight there, among many others also.

The RT taps on your antenna refer to RadTel frequencies/channels. Have a look here for more info.

I have a Barrett 950 which is currently not in service since finding a spot for an autotune (let alone a multitap) is a bit of a challenge on an L322!

I would suggest that if you can afford it, get an autotune unit. The Barrett unit is a 910. There is a newer version, the 2019 which looks a lot like the familiar Codan 9350, but I'm not sure that newer one works with the older Barrett radios. That being said, I always carried a dipole antenna or a multitap as a backup anyway, should the autotune suffer issues (which it never did).

The 550 is capable of many more channels than can be fit on a multitap antenna. Besides which I always found it a pain to change the wander lead every time you wanted to change frequency. There is no ideal frequency/remote base combination for a given time of day or location so there is always a bit of experimentation involved, requiring a few transmission tests. This can be performed with a "beacon" call but we'll save that discussion for another time. There can be a lot of futzing about with the wander lead on a multitap during this process. BTW carry a spare wander lead (or two) as they have a habit of "wandering" off!!

An autotune unit is much more convenient when trying to get good communication with a base station (or another mobile unit). This is where that "tune" button on your set comes in handy. Without getting too technical this button produces a "test" carrier so the autotune unit can find the best setting for that frequency. This may initially takes a few seconds. Once setup or "tuned" for a given frequency/channel the autotune unit should tune in a fraction of a second whenever that frequency/channel is next used as there are memories for the settings.

Anyway I think that's about it but let us know if there still any question outstanding.

Cheers,
Iain

There's a chance the RT taps are Radtel channels.
Radtel 24 is 12211.5khz and VKS4 is 14977khz so seems the right order in the tappings.

Beaten to it.


Martyn

snip

Originally Posted by RangieBit

I would suggest that if you can afford it, get an autotune unit. The Barrett unit is a 910. There is a newer version, the 2019 which looks a lot like the familiar Codan 9350, but I'm not sure that newer one works with the older Barrett radios. That being said, I always carried a dipole antenna or a multitap as a backup anyway, should the autotune suffer issues (which it never did).

end snip

Everything you say is correct, but I wonder how many auto tunes are only ever tuned to 8022! (VKS737 Ch2).

Regards
Max P

Yep dredging the memory banks here as well

4 digit numbers are radio frequencies in kHz, the others I expect will probably refer to frequencies. 2020 in the old days was the inter station chat frequency and the one you used for emergencies in the evening. To tune to 2020 the tap wire is removed completely.

The WL150 refers to the length of the tap wire in centimetres, to ensure proper tuning for that particular antenna. This is the wire with 2plugs.

Cheers

Steve

Originally Posted by Tusker

Everything you say is correct, but I wonder how many auto tunes are only ever tuned to 8022! (VKS737 Ch2).

Fair point that Max, in my case no, for points mentioned earlier - frequency/base issues due to propagation. You know how it is, sometimes it's easier to talk to the west coast than the east at a particular time of day, and the inverse as well. I did also use those RadTel frequencies for the odd phone call. Besides which the ADF did teach me how to use a HF radio proper, in a strict and precise military manner!

However I do agree, most people probably don't stray off 8022!!

BTW Gav, the antenna you have was probably manufactured by Bushcomm. I seem to recall they make a HF whip antenna with similar windings/taps to yours for HFOz. It's not exactly the same but they always did custom wound whips anyway.

Cheers,
Iain

Funny you guys say that as it was tuned to VKS2 when I got it...