Thread: What kinds of radios do people mostly run? Kitting out my D1...

What sort of areas are you looking to travel?
How frequently?
What duration?

I ask these because if you’re looking at remote trips only a few times a year, then hiring comms outside of a basic UHF often works out cheaper.

for our next extended remote trip I’ll consider purchasing a Sat Phone

Until than I’m comfortable with my UHF and PLB.

UHF and PLB for me, too. Can't recall where I got it, ACMA maybe, but I used to have a map showing UHF repeater coverage areas. Could be handy planning your trip needs.

I have a UHF radio fitted to the truck and also carry a hand held unit.
As 99% of the time I am towing a boat I also have flares and an EPIREB that I can use in an emergency situation.
A sat phone or a HF radio would be nice But unless you are travelling to extremely remote areas on your own I feel that they are an unwarranted expense.

For now it'll just be a few trips a year, and nothing extremely remote just yet...but hopefully very soon

I think I like the sound of an EPIRB and a UHF for now, sounds like that will do me.

What exactly is a HF radio good for?

I've got a really good old classic AM CB radio which has wood grain on it that I was going to fit just for a talking point...wonder if there will be anyone to talk to on that

For UHF, I can't recommend the GME XRS(370 and 330) series highly enough.
I'm guessing that you'd be the type to appreciate the bluetooth connectivity feature they have.
The Bt feature is a simple way to upload stored settings into the radio itself via your Bt 'smart device'.
The unit itself holds about 400 extra receive channels into different memory banks, which means that you can load a heap of emergency channels into the unit for the various areas you visit.

eg. on your impending WA trip you'd locate WA emergency channels(via the smart device app) in the area you're going to visit(in WA) and when you get there, you'd then load whichever number of channels that fit into the memory bank sync the radio to the app, they get loaded into the radio and in use you just flick to that memory bank.
So you get the normal 80channels for normal use and you set the radio to scan .. it then listens to all those channels in that memory bank.

Took me a few goes to understand the process, but now it makes more sense having done it few times(I have the 370c).
If the radio is disconnected from it's power source, it loses all the saved settings. Having all those settings backed up in the app makes it easy to set it up again the way you prefer.

As for AM .. haven't used it in about 20 odd years. Had a nice Motorola unit with chrome and woodgrain in my RRC way back in the early 90's, which my brother brought back from the US .. was ok in terms of usage, but UHF is a lot better for actual comms.
I guess you may be able to listen too someone playing with their HAM setup wherever they may be in the world ... I doubt anyone still has one fitted to their vehicle tho.

Anyone have experience with these? Personally, I can see issues when you upgrade to a new phone, but maybe they've thought of that. I don't imagine that they are as good as a dedicated satphone, but they are way cheaper and have the advantage of familiarity, which could help in an emergency. Subscription costs should be the same one would think. Maybe they can be hired as well.

SatSleeve for iPhone | Thuraya

Pivotel Sat Sleeve

Originally Posted by johntins

Anyone have experience with these? Personally, I can see issues when you upgrade to a new phone, but maybe they've thought of that. I don't imagine that they are as good as a dedicated satphone, but they are way cheaper and have the advantage of familiarity, which could help in an emergency. Subscription costs should be the same one would think. Maybe they can be hired as well.

SatSleeve for iPhone | Thuraya

Pivotel Sat Sleeve

You can get a version that doesn’t “sleeve” that avoids the phone upgrade issue.

Links via WiFi/BT (I forget which) and uplinks from a small unit external to your phone...