cokeaddict replied:

Sounds fair to me mate,
If the sign said ch 10 thats where i would be...simple common sence i think. But ther are alwasy hero's out there that know it all. Just glad you guys made it home, thats the important bit.

MrBitchi replied:

I agree. Scanning 40 channels takes too long.
If your going to use scanning then you should set up group scanning and only scan the channels that may be of interest eg. 5, 10, 11, 18, 40. Scanning only 5 channels or so doesn't take long so you don't miss any callers. Probably should add in the repeater channel for the area your in.

GO_OFFROAD replied:

all this is fine, if you have a uhf radio, but a radio still doesnt cover for lack of common sense, a flag, or not treating each dune as if it is a 2 way track.

Until it becomes law to be on ch 10, and listen, people are still free to chose I guess.

I took a group of 17 across recently, and had my hand held uhf on 10, which picked up noise in plenty of time, without listening to the others for an hour before seeing them, while we used our own trip designated channel for our group.

I had one of our vehicles in my convoy doing the talking to others on 10, [he was on our channel, and 10 as well] so i was still free to talk to tail end or the group on our channel as required. He was using a proper uhf set, and when he heard others would ask them what track they were on, and which direction [n s e w] they were headed, then report back to me on 10 if they were going to become oncoming, and the hand held would allow me to hear/speak with them once we were within about 1km normally.

Worked very well, though we still had some surprises.

Member - AndrewPatrol replied:

Yeh we just got back too. I made a "group scan" group that included 10 and the channel we were using plus any that we heard on the air. Occasionally I would stop on top of a dune and listen for a few minutes then ask for travellers in the opposing direction on several channels (especially 10). I also found that having a powerful aerial helped quite a bit (one of those GME 2.1 mt jobs) . This still does not help for those idiots that don't have any form of warning device but what can you do? There are risks in everyday life.
The major advantage of "group scan" is that the radio doesn't beep everytime you want to talk. I also had a very tall flag. We found that big groups tend to use other channels and it wasn't a prob to pick them up. As for the loners - well - what can you say?
I've probably said all that you have, but the problem seems to be the people that just go into ARB and then think they can buy experience off the shelf, let alone are too arrogant to read the instruction book ( don't care if this is harsh) or join a club or look on this site or any other form of learning from others before its too late.

Nudenut replied:

make it one way ....problem solvered haha

Member - Peter replied:

The other point I wanted to make was, that if everybody listened to Ch10 that defeats the purposes.

The key issue is that Ch10 must be used, that is, talk on it.

Just listening to the channel will not prevent incidents.

I am happy people seem to generally agree, I was starting to think I was being a bit of a Nazi.

rolande replied:

Peter,
I agree with you, and so will be installing a 27mHz AM unit for general banter between vehicles, while being able to listen and use the UHF for the area we are travelling through. Kids in vehicles love chatting to each other but we don't want to tie up a channel all the time. Trip info and chatter is via UHF. We have decided this the best solution for us, certainly not perfect but at least we don't need to scan.
Those working in the bush around my area don't always appreciate kids having fun.
Rolande

Member - JohnR (Vic) replied:

Peter agree entirely but it does not stop some who think they have a pressing reason to be elsewhere and agree with others that listening does nothing if everyone else is doing the same.

It is important to let others know you are in the proximity. We gave a position call periodically ie. "WAA315 heading west" to alert others to proximity. Listening does nothing at all on channel 10 and talking on another channel is as useful as tits on a bull...............

fozzy replied:

peter would tend to agree a little in what you say but at the end of the day all it would take is at least the lead car having a flag of somesort and looking where they are going
all the radio communications ,gadgets etc will not stop accidents but looking where you are going and concentrating would help
realistically u dont need much speed to get over 99 % of the dunes in the simpson anyway

Sam replied:

On a GME TX4200 you can set your priority channel to 10 (Press the channel selector button for about 4 seconds) and then "group scan" on 40 channels.

By doing this if there is any transmission on channel 10 the set will pick it up - regardless on where it is up to on the 1 - 40 scan.

On "open scan" this function will not work.

Hope this helps.

floyd replied:

Simple solution:::

Get all west bound traffic to use chanell 10

All Eastern bound traffic tio use chanell 20

In Ireland it works well.

Willem replied:

Just back from there
Really could not be bothered listening to all the inane crap from other groups on Ch10 so used another channel. I go to the desert to enjoy the mnbience of the place not to listen to the bloody radio crackling. My 5 metre flag pole was suffiecient to be seen by anyone approaching. Took things easy and did not have any near misses

Croozer replied:

I would also emphasize the importance of a flag on a TALL aerial, and drive at a sensible pace. I crossed the Simpson last year and saw several vehicles with no flag or one that was difficult to see (ie a small blue aussie flag) and quite a few clowns driving too fast, Whats the hurry !!!!!!!!!

Stu