Thread: UHF channels

Originally Posted by Hymie

Down Gippsland way there is a bloke who has an Internet relay set up on UHF Ch26.
It's amazing driving along the highway from Warragul to Moe and chatting to somebody in Baltimore or London.
I believe theres another "node" in Rockingham W.A as well.

On the subject of Repeaters, I was involved in a search for a missing/overdue French family who had rented one of our Defenders.
They had gone missing somewhere north of Walhalla and we really needed the CH 3 repeater to coordinate the search as there is no Phone reception.
All we got was a convoy of 4WD's coming out of Moe northbound on the repeater input channel absolutely destroying our comms.
We asked them on numerous occasions to get off the freq but they just told up to POQ, that was their channel and nothing was going to change their mind thank you very much!

Similar to what sometimes occur here. In the RFS we use the UHF between trucks at an incident. It is hard going through Firecom when you are dealing with up to 8 trucks per area. However some people seem to enjoy making life difficult -as if it isn't already!

Originally Posted by Hymie

The area concerned is about 2 Hours East of Melbourne, but might a well be the Kimberley.
I did have a Sat phone and HF, but I was the only one.
I could have rung the Code family at Aberfeldy who run the repeater and passed messages through them if I had to, It was just a major embuggerance to have ignorant selfish people abusing what could have been a lifeline if things had not gone well.
We found the vehicle we were looking for 5 kilometers from where it was supposed to be. The French family has spent a cold night stuck in the snow off Army Track.

We now have the state emergency service WAERN's radios fitted to all our vehicles after discussions with FESA. Allows contact with local FESA, BFS, SES, Ambo's, Police and VMS. There are hundreds of channels on these radios and as a private company are only to use them in emergencies, but handy to be able to talk directly to other emergency services workers from our fire tenders and ambulances and coordinate multi sector response. They actually supplied these radios to us, but we also donated 2 light tankers / fast attack vehicles to the local area as well.
As I said I would hope in an emergency people would stand down, but we all have to realise it is an open Citizen Band frequency. Even for the data, anyone can use it for data trans.
IMHO I think companies should not be allowed to use the frequencies for business related purposes (maybe relevant to size of business) and should get their own frequencies. Pretty much same for emergency services. Provides a better service and save people getting upset. Possiblly with the upgrade 80 channel if it happens, 50-60 rural farming channels, 60-70 business only, 70-75 ancillary emergency channels (maybe no critical transmission). Just some thought that may ease congestion.

Originally Posted by Bushwanderer

"41-49"

41-50 are the receive only emergeny services channels. (If you have a compatible radio)

It's like getting the news without reading the papers.

W

I used to scan 41 - 50 and listen to the cops but they've now gone digital and they can't be picked up.
Not by my radio anyway although no doubt others have more sophisticated equipment that can.
It used to be quite funny listening to traffic cops inventing traffic stops to get out of doing general duties work.
Radio Operator to #### Police car - "There's a 329 (Domestic) at so and so address"

Answer - "But this is a traffic car"

Operator - "I know, it's also the nearest police car"

Answer - "I'll just do this traffic stop first" and sound of siren.

Operator - "Please report to the Duty Inspector after your shift has ended with your incident book"

No answer from car until the Duty Inspector came on and reiterated what the operator had said.

Which is the reason they disbanded the Road Traffic Authority here in WA years ago because traffic didn't like getting their hands dirty with general duties work!
They've spoilt my fun.
Alan.

Originally Posted by waz

41-50 are the receive only emergeny services channels. (If you have a compatible radio)

It's like getting the news without reading the papers.

W

Seems to me that the main problem with the CB UHF is just that Citizens Band, all of them, free of charge.
This includes all types. That takes some putting up with sometimes, especially when there are children in the car.. Say no more.

What we want is a perfectly empty channel so we can have a good chat while we drive.

Using a repeater channel (31 - 38) might get you a quite time but anything you say is re-broadcast (usually from a great height) so everybody for a large area can hear you. That’s what repeater channels are for.
Everybody includes the police, rangers, land holders and on 35 Air Sea rescue and Ambulance could be listening, not really what we are looking for.

Lucky for us we have moved along somewhat since the 27mz days.
Nearly all UHF sets come equipped with some form of Tone Calling.

If we study our manuals we discover that you can set a channel; say 13
AND you can also set a Code; say 13.
Once in this mode you will only hear from other UHF sets that also have CODE 13 set.
All the other yobbos will simply not be heard.

This effectively gives us the nice quite channel we are looking for.

With some sets you may need to press Tone Call on the mike to be heard, but it really is not difficult.

So might I suggest that clubs discuss the issue and decide on a Legal Channel to use (http://www.telstat.com.au/channel-use.htm) and also a standard code to use, then maybe some radio training might be in order on the next training day..

The only prob with setting cell call is that when you want to get intouch with the moron that is coming over a crest into your bull bar, him and none of his crew have their radio on open channel so you cant say.....wait on big fella...

This has happened to me a couple of times where they either are not on their radios or are just ignoring anyone else that tries to break into their channel.