UHF CB Protocols

Plus, offficially, the Canning Stock Route channel is Ch40 (just to be confusing of course).

Michelle, i think if that pic is anything to go by, all the constant praise about your site is getting to you and David

Actually I got lucky here!!!!

My mate who sold me the unit had this feature fitted here in Adelaide.

The feature is not as fast as my Hand Held Uniden UH044, but still good.

All in all, a good sound unit, and at the right price. I just don't want to sound like a dated wanker when I go to use it, I mean Kris & Ali were good in Convoy, but that's all histoty.......

Cheers

Ian

But Gajm - that's what we REALLY look like! ha ha

Ian,
Having autoscan is certainly a bonus! The tips Navaraman gave for which channels are spot on, but of course not everyone knows that, so it is great to be able to autoscan in case someone is saying something very worthwhile, however as he also says, in the cities, its usually just all total crap, in fact we never have our unit on for general around home/city use.

So, in answer to your original question - the lingo to "adopt" is not that of what you'll hear in the cities (almost unintelligble swearing), and not that of the truckies (secret codes such as "little one" = car, 'big one" = truck, "4by" = 4WD, "one" = Polic RBT/highway patrol/multinova", and then lots of rubbish - even they have dropped much of the formalities.

I don't know what you do and don't know about today's use, so I hope I aren't being too condescending by stating the bleedin' obvious! Anway,
a few lingo things still in use however - are "Roger" or more typically now "Copy" - eg. "do you copy?", "anyone copy", plus most importantly everyone should still clearly state "over" and also "over and out".

Most convoy's run a "radio check" at the start of each day's travel to ensure everyone's units are on and functioning, or if you're doing some home testing of your test up. You just say "can anyone give me a radio check" and hopefully you'll get a response like "yep loud and clear, my position is ....." so you can gauge your signal strength.

It is usually polite if you meet someone on an open channel (eg. 40 or 10 where others are listing in) and you want to start a longwinded private chatty, advise that you're going to pick another channel (if its quiet) eg. "move up to 15" and do everyone else a favour so they don't have to hear all about your story about when 15 years ago I did a trip to blah and we were the only ones to get through the river it was soo deep, blahdy blah blah". Nothing worse that people going on and on when using major channels like 40 or 10 or 18 that they might be locked onto.

Sorry if I have stated the obvious. Hope it was of some help. Can't think of much else really.

Hi Ian (and Michelle)
You said in your intro that you fitted the radio (& I guess for more than one reason) "that your wife doesn't like you travelling alone". I am assuming here that you go touring occassionally by your self. You are probably aware, but I must emphasize that these radios are only good basically, for line of sight ie vehicle to vehicle. Therefore if you get stuck "outback' by yourself these radios should not be relied upon to make contact with the outside world. If this is in fact the situation you should think about EPIRB's or similar.

Michelle in the lingo bit, correctly, when an operator uses the term "over and out" it means that the operator is finished speaking and is turning [the radio] off. When leaving the channel open & finished speaking say "(call name)......standing by". Some operators when finished just say "over", but it sought of leaves it hanging, the other operator should then say "(name)....standing by". That's usually the full stop to the conversation but my radios listening.

my understanding is that "over" is never folwed by "out"

"over" means - over to you

"out" means - that the conversation has ceased and I won't be joining again unless called upon.

by saying "over and out" you are saying.

"it's your turn to speak, but i don't care because I have left the conversation, and won't be responding unless called upon (initial call up procedure)"

this is my understanding of what is left of UHF protocol.

(I do spend a fair wack of time on boats, and in general protocol is still respected on the water)

Yes, Dave and Cocka I agree with your more detailed explanations of the use of "over and out" which indeeds indicates that you have finished speaking, but that you are also no longer listening, in fact turning your radio off (eg. getting out of vehicle) or that you are switching back to another channel.

Thank you for making this statement clearer to those reading that might not have understood that.

I was also going to mention the "standing by" or "on the side", phrase to indicate that you will still be listening but rushed my reply a bit - actually I kept getting interupted to help David pull cables through the wall whilst he was installing a new hot water system yesterday. It's a wonder my response made any sense at all.

over and out means (over to you and your reply will be the last words spoken , sort of reminds me of my wife . LOL )

Thankyou.

Vehicles getting broken in to?

Caravan Parks? National Parks? where?

Seems like we go away for a while and hope that the house is okay, and then we lose stuff in our vehicles.....

Cheers

Ian

if you do search on the archive you will find quite a few fridges being stolen from vehicles, to out of tents while people slept. Gone are the days when you could just leave your gear set up at camp and go off for a drive or walk and know that it would be fine if anyone else happened to come along.
I don't know how secure caravan parks are as i do most of my camping in the bush, but i'd say unfortunatley it happens pretty well anywhere, which is why people have chains and cables securing fridges, and why you can even buy a whole range of trailer locks from this very site, (it isnt so the missus can't disconnect the trailer and drive off while you sleep!) not everyone has the respect for other peoples property as we do.

Your right Cajm, bring back the old days when you could leave camp & not worry. But alas they are gone but hopefully not forever.

"Over" has been almost universally dispensed with as airwaves become more crowded and sets become clearer and therefoe easier for people to hear. Probably the only time you would use "over" now is when you are on HF and the signal is poor.

I am digressing but there are some lessons to be learned from aircraft communications where coms must be concise and clear. On aircraft in particular,"over" is never used as it takes up valuable time and therefore unnecessarily crowds the airwaves. Also when calling another station the appropriate way used to be "your callsign this is my callsign" ie if I was calling Ian, I would have said "Ian this is David" but now even the "this is" has been dropped from aircraft coms, which I note causes some confusion by other users who adopt the same method- they get mixed up and say DavidIan instead of IanDavid.
When training pilots I like to remind them of the missing words "this is"- that seems to help them.

Enough rambling...back to work

I agree with both BobY & DavidO. Everyday language between friends is fine in the paddock & between moving vehicles in recreational situations and is all that is needed. Can't imagine saying "breaker - breaker" in conversation with SWMBO.
However my references above are more relevant when talking with emergency services such as RVCP, police, bushfire brigades etc when precise understanding is required between communicators. I was not aware of the aircraft "speak" as that is not my bag.

This is only chat, but back in the "HF days", before we all got DRCS phones, many people would use "back", or even "back to you", instead of "over". Often, depending on the person speaking, this word would be delivered in a staccato manner, leaving the listener in no doubt that the other had finished the over.

Always use the aircraft style calling as mentioned by David, feel that it alerts the other party much better.

Cocka, understand the need for more formality, with those services, they are often in life threatening situations.

Hooroo...