Purely for the resident Aussies,
I need an HF radio.
Have the chance to do some of the West Kimberley this July / August. Reckon I might trailer Nimiane to Derby and go check out the Buccaneer Archipelago / Horizontal falls / Montgomery Reef and as far as Prince Regent River.
Need an H.F. radio to keep in contact and weather etc. and boy are they expensive !!! Anyone have one for sale or know anyone ???
HF's are wonderful things but as you say very expensive. I have flown over all that country you are heading to and it is fairly remote. Have you thought of renting a satellite phone for the period you are up there?
being a ham radio operator (VK4NFL) I like HF radio, but as others have suggested, sat phone would be a lot easier, have you thought about hiring one? there are plenty of companies that hire them.
Mate,hiring a Sat phone would be the way to go for you. Especially as it is short term and there is no resale on HF's anymore. ( buy cheap and sell even cheaper)
I have both and use the HF for weather on the automatic channels but when I really want some info I call home or a mate on the sat phone.
I also think the HF would take up to much space on your boat , especially for the amount of use it would get.
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My boat came with an HF radio and aerial of skyscraper height, I think they were standard to 80s IGs. I fitted VHFs up and down, never bothered with the HF, but would not remove it either, except for the massive aerial. Sat phone sounds a good idea, especially when I see letters in Afloat about limited Marine Rescue HF coverage.
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BruceK
2005 Integrity 386 "Sojourn"
Sydney Australia
Marine HF is expensive....have heard that HAM radios can do the same freqs/job for a fraction of the price...plus how you rig it can alter the bottom line too.
HF still has it's place,however VHF has pretty good coverage especially on the East Coast.
Sat phone are great,again with the proviso that you can't receive general radio traffic,sat phones are good when ET wants to phone home and an outright emergency,but of you want to chat try ham radio.Like all phones you need the number of who you want to contact.
We still use HF,a lot of the time just for listening rather than communicating.
You should be able to pick up a set with RFD (Royal Flying Doctor) stuff all set up for a 4wd on Ebay,not marine but will get the message out if required.
If it just emergency and reporting home though I would go the sat phone.
If you go the Ham route I thought I'd give you a picture of a nice compact set up for you.
Also a picture of a typical Ham operator,the young lady,I heard is quite keen on a trip to WA as well.She will teach you whatever you heart desires to know about Ham radio.
Thx guys,
for all inputs, especially stornaway7, that's just what I wondered about the units out of 4wd's. There's a few here in perth 4 sale, and yes I would get to see it operating and have help installing and mayb even a quick lesson in operation.
My main objective is to get the weather report out of Wiluna every day. Not big on the boat to boat chatter - LoL got a woman with me for that !!!
Just cannot risk getting caught in King Sound or any open ocean however short a trip up there if a high pressure comes through like this week for example. As you guys know the southerly/sou.easter up there is gale force for days matched with a massive tide.
regards
My boat came with an HF radio and aerial of skyscraper height, I think they were standard to 80s IGs. I fitted VHFs up and down, never bothered with the HF, but would not remove it either, except for the massive aerial. Sat phone sounds a good idea, especially when I see letters in Afloat about limited Marine Rescue HF coverage.
Ditto for Malagari - a giant Wagner radio and aerial tuner above the downstairs helm station - about as useful as ................. well you can work it out. Its still there only because I don`t want to have to fill the holes. Still has the huge aerial - I`m thinking of cutting off the top 2 metres just to make it about the same size as the VHF
Don't forget that with the ham radio you will be required to get either a foundation radio lic or an upgraded Standard radio lic. Our marine radio lic apparently doesn't cut the mustard for the ham guys.
__________________
"When I die I hope my wife doesn't sell my toys for what I told her I paid for them"
Money: It's made round to go round , not flat to stack.
"Get out and do it"
Don`t we need a licence even for VHF? Does anyone get one? The original owner`s radio qualification certificate is with papers I got with my boat.
Our SSB is a Wagner too, same reason to leave it in place. I did remove the aerial, we`d never have fitted under the Spit Bridge to access Middle Harbour with it in place,save waiting for bridge openings for sailboat/yachts.
Hope the OP finds a suitable unit at a good price, it will be handy to have.
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BruceK
2005 Integrity 386 "Sojourn"
Sydney Australia
Only 27 Mhz doesn't need a licence.
Almost all boat users should have their MROCP (Marine Radio Operators Certificate of Proficiency.)I thinks it has been replace by the LROCP (Long Range Operators Cert of Proficiency)
From memory when you do the course it's very easy to do the HF component at the same time.Not sure what the age limit is,my daughter got hers when she was 17 so it must be 16.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bogranjac1
Thx guys,
for all inputs, especially stornaway7, that's just what I wondered about the units out of 4wd's. There's a few here in perth 4 sale, and yes I would get to see it operating and have help installing and mayb even a quick lesson in operation.
My main objective is to get the weather report out of Wiluna every day. Not big on the boat to boat chatter - LoL got a woman with me for that !!!
Just cannot risk getting caught in King Sound or any open ocean however short a trip up there if a high pressure comes through like this week for example. As you guys know the southerly/sou.easter up there is gale force for days matched with a massive tide.
regards
I think for HF you are also meant to have a special licence and pass a proficiency course and test. I suspect that is still the case. Probably not worth the fuss. The sat phone would be better. I think you can get the local weather through a GPS. Navionics, on my iPad has the weather, tides, etc option.
PS. Sorry, I missed the fact others had already mentioned the licence thing. My wife and I did our VHF one years ago in NZ and it was accepted here, which made a change, Almost nothing else is.
The sat phone would be better. I think you can get the local weather through a GPS. Navionics, on my iPad has the weather, tides, etc option.
peter. please elaborate this statement, I want to know how an ipad or comp can give the the daily weather reports ( from where) when i'm at the 'back of Burke'
Am I missing something (or displaying what a luddite I am) but is there likely to be any reliable mobile/data coverage where the trip is planned
No you're not missing anything .
If traveling alone and venturing onshore in such a remote area wouldn't a sat phone be number 1 priority and a fixed radio on board for weather be a back up ?