Thread: HF frequencies?

See http://www.flyingdoctor.net/hfradio.htm

Ron

Originally Posted by p38arover

See http://www.flyingdoctor.net/hfradio.htm

Ron

Duh! I looked there, but didn't scroll down the page enough. Thanks!

Seems that and VKS are all in the 2,3,5,6,11 and 15MHz region, so the iCom 7000 I was looking at should do it nicely, I hope.

It also has a 440MHz UHF band, so I'm going to call a couple of dealers and see if that is tweakable to 477MHz, as then I'd only need one set in the car.

Still worries me that it's too cheap - I must be missing something.

Will the Icom tune the required frequencies in the Tx - often the receivers will cover the full HF band 3-30 MHz but the Tx will only work amateur bands.

Ron

Originally Posted by p38arover

Will the Icom tune the required frequencies in the Tx - often the receivers will cover the full HF band 3-30 MHz but the Tx will only work amateur bands.

Ron

Good point - the shop said 0-30MHz (Plus the other bands), programmable via the front panel, but looking at the specs on the web it shows:

0.030–199.999MHz*2
400.000–470.000MHz*2
1.800– 1.999MHz
3.500– 3.999MHz
5.3305, 5.3465, 5.3665, 5.3715, 5.4035MHz*3
7.000– 7.300MHz
10.100–10.150MHz
14.000–14.350MHz
18.068–18.168MHz
21.000–21.450MHz
24.890–24.990MHz
28.000–29.700MHz

Which doesn't seem to match up at all well with the VKS ones for a start, which are:

1 5455 Khz
2 8022 Khz
3 11612 Khz
4 14977 Khz
5 3995 Khz

Damn, knew it was too good to be true. But still doesn't explain why HF sets like the Codans are so much more expensive though....

Ron's right - be careful here. You will probably need to mod. the radio to make it work on VKS737 freqs. And VKS737 don't allow amateur sets to use their their freqs either. ( although it would be hard for them to know )

There are a couple of websites that will show you how to modfiy the set to Tx over the whole band - its normally only a couple of links that needs to be changed around/resoldered - but do you really want to risk it ?

The other way you could go is get your Ham license than you have a whole heap of frequencies to choose from in HF, VHF, and UHF- I did it last year and its not hard. If you do think you might get get a HAM licence getting a set from overseas either an ICOM or Yaesu is possibly a good move. I'm not sure if you would have any issues bringing it through Customs - generally I think any transmitting device needs an Australian ACMA cert..

Originally Posted by waynep

Ron's right - be careful here. You will probably need to mod. the radio to make it work on VKS737 freqs. And VKS737 strictly don't allow amatuer sets to use their their freqs either.

There are a couple of websites that will show you how to modfiy the set to Tx over the whole band - its normally only a couple of links that needs to be changed around/resoldered - but do you really want to risk it ?

OK, I can understand VKS only wanting paid-for members using their frequencies, and I understand they have bought frequencies in the HF band so non-licensed users can use them...but why would they want to stop certain types of equipment from using them, if the user is both a licensed amateur radio operator and a VKS member??

I also note iCom list country-specific versions of this set, so I wonder if the Aus one has different frequencies? Will call them when I'm back, as it will also be interesting to see how much this set is at home compared to the $1250US it can be got for here....

Depending on the answer, it may or may not be worth the risk as you say. Would also be good to know if the 430-450MHz band can be changed to 477MHz to stop me needing two sets in the truck.

Will have a further Google...thanks.

Originally Posted by waynep

The other way you could go is get your Ham license than you have a whole heap of frequencies to choose from in HF, VHF, and UHF- I did it last year and its not hard. If you do think you might get get a HAM licence getting a set from overseas either an ICOM or Yaesu is possibly a good move. I'm not sure if you would have any issues bringing it through Customs - generally I think any transmitting device needs an Australian ACMA cert..

Meant to mention, am about to do my amateur license, which is what prompted the question...seeing if I could get a set to do both jobs, and seemingly at a fraction of the cost of a "non-amateur" HF set.

If you can find a Codan 9360 (a 9323 with the Tx free tune option (they all have free tune on the Rx I believe) and LSB on the amateur bands on the Tx) than that will do what you want.

The 9360 was sold overseas I beleive. I'm no expert on this but if you have contacts O/S it could be worth a search.

One's 9323 can be converted easily if one has the password/pin that only Codan have and don't normally give out.


Ron