HF Radio

[Yota Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Yota]

How many pradopointers are using HF radio?
I will be on the road for the next 4 weeks if anyone wants to try and get me on the HF, I've had it a while now but havnt really used it for chating to much.
I will be scaning VKS-737 as well as HFoz, and traveling from the Hunter valley to Fraser Island then Cairns area.

My sellcall / callsign is 1033 on both

[vk2ss55 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close vk2ss55]

Say hullo to Ken Metcalfe for me who operates VKS737 from Alice !
Cheers
Ross VK2SS

[Trekrider Banned Find all posts View Profile Close Trekrider]

Rather than start a new thread I thought I would resurrect this one.

I'm currently looking at an HF radio but am a bit confused about the options.

I had an amateur license in the UK (over 25 years ago) and have just applied for the Australian advanced amateur license. I have been given a callsign - don't know what it is yet as it's in the post. Once it arrives I just have to send off the $72 and I will have my license.

I've also been looking at the VKS-737 network but was a bit concerned over a statement on their website that you can't use an amateur HF radio on VKS-737. Not sure I understand this, I thought the difference was just the frequency. The website also said you can't use VKS-737 to contact the RFDS but the RFDS website says you can use VKS-737 to contact them.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me please?

PS - I've just been looking at the HF Radio Club website and they also say you can't use an amateur HF radio on their network!

[DocK Member Find all posts View Profile Close DocK]

It's not their fault really. It is all to do with Government licensing regulations of the networks that require type approved radios. After that it gets into technicalities - frequency drift, signal power, airwave problems etc etc. All the 4WD HF groups explain it in detail just check the websites.

[Trekrider Banned Find all posts View Profile Close Trekrider]

I had a call from Geoff Hurst of the HF Radio Club today - very helpful and explained the full details.

As DocK said, it's all about type approval and the ACMA.

To use the HF Land mobile frequencies it has to be a type approved radio, same with the HF Marine mobile radios. Essentially they are type approved for just the one service. You can get the same radio that has been type approved for one but you can't use it on the other. Same radio from the same manufacturer to the same specification. The same applies to amateur radios - again, although it may be the same radio from the same manufacturer you can't legally use it as it isn't type approved. Apparently some people do use amateur radios for HF Land mobile it's not legal but without physically checking your radio no-one would be able to tell.

You can get a type approved HF Land Mobile radio like the Codan NGT and Codan can add an amateur pack so that you can also use it on the amateur band (dual use but legal).

As Geoff said, makes no sense at all and they have been campaigning with the ACMA for many years to get this changed but bureaucracy reigns supreme!

[billbo120 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close billbo120]

Its just type aproved by ACMA for that purpose bit the same as someone selling a icom 208H for someone to use on UHF CB it works
but technically dont get caught using i quess lol

[PradoGXL08 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close PradoGXL08]

HI All,

I have just recently bought a Codan NGT 2nd Hand, and wanted to know from our members, the following:

Who has a HF Radio Fitted?

What Brand / Model is it?

What is your Sell Call?

Who are you connetced to? (VKS-737, HFoz, etc...)

Stuart