Communication & CB radios

Allison, You could happily travel the length and breadth of Australia on main roads and never use a CB. They are useful if you want to communicate with other travellers and occasionally you may pick up info on road conditions etc. They are VERY useful if you are travelling with other vehicles. If you decide to get a CB I suggest you go for UHF and GME Electrophone is generally recognised as the best (and Australian made) I wouldn't leave home without a mobile and you'll find coverage along most highways and in all populated areas. The service providers should be able to give you coverage maps for all of Australia. I think Telstra give the greatest coverage. Enjoy your trip!!

A UHF CB can be a very useful tool. As Fred said, get a GME. They have a model to suit all budgets and as well as being much better than some other brands they are made in australia.

By monitoring the road channel (40) you can be for-warned of what's ahead. We also have young children, so we have it not too loud for the rare occasions when bad language is used.

The biggest benefit of UHF is when travelling with others, but it is still a worthwhile item for solo travellers.

I'd recommend getting a CDMA phone as they do have better coverage in regional areas (well in my regional area anyway :). If you have an old GSM take it along too, coz even without a SIM card or plan you can still dial 112 for an emergency. There were some areas with GSM coverage only, but they may all have CDMA now.

Allison, i agree with all the others that a UHF is good but not essential if you are staying on the highways. As far as mobiles go, and as far as coverage in WA goes, you should go for a Telstra CDMA phone, i have one and the coverage is far superior to a normal digital (GSM) phone. and telstra have recently announced a huge upgrade of CDMA coverage for WA and the areas they intend to provide an improved service for will be continuous coverage for about 5hrs out of Perth in pretty much any direction on a main highway. I have also used CDMA down south and in the far north of WA.

G'day,
In most areas CDMA does give much better coverage, but a lot of the mines have put in Telstra GSM repeater towers, so in mining areas such as the Kalgoorlie/Goldfields area of WA the coverage of GSM is far superior, with CDMA dropping out about 40km from Kalgoorlie, but GSM available to Wiluna and beyond. Optus and Vodaphone are pretty limited in my experience.
I agree with the comments about CB radios, UHF is much more popular these days. I have both UHF and 27MHz, but I've built up my collection(!!) over the years - for a first-timer, I'd just go for the UHF - I've got a GME Electrophone 3000, and its an excellent basic unit, with all the features you need such as scan (looking thru all channels to see whats going on) and duplex modes (for using repeater towers), the only thing it doesn't have is selcal, but if you're not regularly calling a travelling partner this isn't really necessary.
Hope I haven't confused you too much. Cheers, Alex.

Thank you so very much for your replies and useful information we will go ahead with the recommendations a get a UHF radio and the mobile - it sounds like Telstra is the go from you guys. Thanks again it will make the travels more pleasant and safe.

aus isnt that wild aplace just have a mobile phone just plan you trip and if your concered about braking down just visit local police staition or leave a message at where your staying then just contact them when you get to your destination