Article Comment: Anne Beadell Highway

Hello folks. I’ve just completed a solo crossing and I need some help.
I notice the hard covered visitor logbook at Volkes Hill Corner (IIRC) was almost full. It would be great if a future traveller could bring along a new one to keep this piece of future history going. The border log book had a note asking once full, could it be returned to the WA state library (Battye). As Volkes Hill is in SA, maybe they might like to take care of that? Whoever takes responsibility, it needs to be preserved. When full, If anyone heading West can get it to Perth, I can get it to the Battye Library. They should liaise with the SA library on custodianship.
Secondly, I need help from a fellow geocacher in the maintenance of a find. If any can help me here, shoot me an email.
Lastly, I just wanted to make a possibly controversial comment on radio coms. It appears there is no designated radio channel documented for this route. I was almost involved in a head on that radio coms would have averted. I knew of the opposing vehicle 2 days before hand, and the day that we would pass. I was solo, and constantly reporting my position and heading on Ch40. They were on Ch16. I had used scan a few times throughout the day, but at the time we met, it was late afternoon and I figured they were behind schedule and I would not meet them on this day, so gave the scan function the flick. My bad.
Radio coms when everyone follows protocol, works very well on the CSR and crossing the Simmo. We knew about 10Km’s in advance of every opposing vehicle we encountered. It’s not the place for a head on.
Maybe as a group of like minded remote travellers, we can execute a change here. I know Ilkurkla monitors Ch40, and the Outback Travellers Guide strip map has Ch40 plastered all over it. But we have SA parks recommending Ch10 for desert crossings for example. So it’s not going to be an easy fix and will require discussion. But it’s in all our own best interests to do so. We could get Parks SA and permit providers to get on board and have it included in the permit literature.
David/Michelle, if you want to get onboard this idea, shoot me an email. Anyway, thanks for listening and I look forward to your replies.
Sharkcaver at iinet dot net dot au
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Reply By: Member - Rowdy6032 (WA) - Tuesday, Apr 18, 2017 at 14:31

Tuesday, Apr 18, 2017 at 14:31
Hi Shane

Good to hear your safe.

Rowdy
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Reply By: terryt - Tuesday, Apr 18, 2017 at 19:07

Tuesday, Apr 18, 2017 at 19:07
The more channels bring into the equation the harder it is to keep track. You said it yourself. Your bad that you turned off scan. Tune to 40 and scan.
AnswerID: 610325

Follow Up By: Bob Y. - Qld - Tuesday, Apr 18, 2017 at 19:16

Tuesday, Apr 18, 2017 at 19:16
............and the UHF should be set to Group Scan, not Open Scan, to hear everyone within range.

Bob



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Follow Up By: Motherhen - Tuesday, Apr 18, 2017 at 21:48

Tuesday, Apr 18, 2017 at 21:48
For those like me who are not tech savvy, what do Group Scan and Open Scan mean Bob?
Motherhen

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Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Tuesday, Apr 18, 2017 at 21:59

Tuesday, Apr 18, 2017 at 21:59
Hi Motherhen

In group scan, you can preset the channels that you want to scan and only those channels will be scanned.

In open scan, the radio will scan all 40 or 80 channels in numerical order and stop when it hears chatter on any channel. Once the channel is clear, it will then continuing the full scan until another signal is picked up.




Cheers




Stephen, and sorry not Bob
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Follow Up By: Member - ACD 1 - Tuesday, Apr 18, 2017 at 22:02

Tuesday, Apr 18, 2017 at 22:02
Courtesy of Wikipedia

Open Scan scans all 80 channels to find an active conversation. Some radios allow skipping selected channels when scanning.

Group Scan scans a small number of selected channels. For example, a caravanner travelling around the country may choose to group scan Channel 40 (Road Channel), 18 (Caravan Channel) and 5 (Emergency Channel) so they will hear any conversations relating to their travels.

Priority Scan allows selection of a "priority" channel whilst scanning a handful of selected channels. This could be useful in a convoy of cars where vehicles can set their own convoy channel as a priority channel whilst scanning the designated road channel for traffic updates, if a member from their convoy speaks, the radio will always switch back to the priority channel even if someone is speaking on another channel.

Hope that helps Motherhen

Cheers

Anthony
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Follow Up By: Motherhen - Tuesday, Apr 18, 2017 at 22:02

Tuesday, Apr 18, 2017 at 22:02
Thanks Stephen :)
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Follow Up By: Member - ACD 1 - Tuesday, Apr 18, 2017 at 22:03

Tuesday, Apr 18, 2017 at 22:03
Stephen wins fastest finger first LOL

Cheers

Anthony
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Follow Up By: terryt - Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 06:45

Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 06:45
To hear everyone in range wouldn't you use open scan. Group is restrictive.
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Follow Up By: Member - Boobook - Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 12:35

Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 12:35
Yep. Terryt, exactly.


This raises another issue. The scan rate. Many radios only scan at about 10 - 15 channels a second. That's 5 - 8 seconds before it goes through all 80 channels. At that speed the conversation could be missed. That's one reason group and priority scan exists i guess - I know there are others too.

I am looking for a new UHF CB and want a fast scan rate. The new GME XRS radios scan at 50 channels per second. ICOM, Uniden etc don't publish their scan rate and a phone call to both on the spec got a " We don't know". The ICOM is about 15 channels per second according to a forum post i found and people complain it is slow. Oricom, Uniden etc are worse with around 10 channels per second. One was 8 channels per second.

With 3db better reception and 4 x the scan speed of the ICOM, the GME is currently a clear winner - except for the price.





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Follow Up By: Mick O - Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 18:27

Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 18:27
Tony, Oricom have a dual receive radio now that allows you to monitor two channels simultaneously. Scan rate for 80 channels is advertised at 3 seconds.

Oricom Dual Channel Receiver

Had heard about this one from Larry who is trialling it on the Canning with Darryl Beattie this year.

Cheers Mick
''We knew from the experience of well-known travelers that the
trip would doubtless be attended with much hardship.''
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Follow Up By: Bob Y. - Qld - Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 21:41

Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 21:41
Boobook, Terry,

From my experience with scanning, Open scan will only "latch" onto a busy channel as it scans past that channel, so you may lose the first few seconds of the transmission. With Group scan, as long as one is prepared to load all required channels into the memory, then the uhf will respond immediately to any received signals.

Bob

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Follow Up By: Member - Boobook - Thursday, Apr 20, 2017 at 07:30

Thursday, Apr 20, 2017 at 07:30
Thanks Mick, I did look at the Oricom, it has some nice features. Their website says 50mS per channel or 20 channels per second - 4 seconds. For the reasons BobY states I don't think that is fast enough. That is marginally faster than my old radio which misses part of transmissions just as Bob describes. Group scan is really a 'work" around for slow scanning speeds generally. But you can miss transmissions entirely using GS.

Rightly or wrongly I decided to draw a line at under 2 seconds for the full 80 channels so I know I won't miss a transmission on oncoming vehicles.

I decided to get the GME which has a scan rate of 50 channels per second or about 1.6 seconds. It has 3db better reception too.

It has another feature that seemed unique. You can program the top button to your working channel. Eg 10. When you talk during scanning it transmits on 10. Then if it picks up a transmission on say 18 and stops, then you transmit, it will transmit on that channel ( so you can talk to the oncoming traffic). It then stays on that channel till you hit the top button back to your working channel for chatting to both your group and oncoming traffic if they are on different channels.

GME seem to have put a lot of thought into this aspect of using a UHF. Many brands will keep transmitting on your working channel. Maybe others have something similar but that sounds like a great solution for oncoming traffic in mountains / dunes etc. Only downside is the price. Ouch.

Interestingly ICOM confirmed their scan speed of their 410 Pro is 8 seconds for 80 channels if CTCSS is off or a massive 40 seconds if it is on Unbelievable. The new Icom 450 is about 6 seconds. Still too slow.
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Reply By: Member BarryG - Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 10:36

Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 10:36
Hi Shane,

I am heading out there (from Vic's Surf Coast) in a couple of weeks (with the Ultimate in tow) and could leave a new book.
Can you please advise the size that the replacement should be?
I expect to be at the corner about May 9th, but we are not continuing to Perth. Instead we head up to the Gary Junction Rd, then eventually back home via Alice Springs. What do you suggest I do about the full book? I could place a large note on it asking for future delivery help?

Regards
Barry

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Follow Up By: shark_caver - Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 11:06

Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 11:06
G'day Barry. Did you see my road condition report on the ulti FB group?
The book would be A4 or slightly larger, hard covered. I'm not sure about the full book, maybe I should contact the Battye Library and get back on that? As you are headed North, I suggest leaving it in place. Adelaide or Perth destined travellers would be best I think??
Shame you are headed North. The track gets very much easier heading West after this point. There is a lot of vegetation to bash into between Emu and Volkes Hill.
Also note, if you go to Totem 1, just after the Totem 2 turn off, there is an old star picket fence line on your RHS. These pickets have been broken off just above ground level and present a real tyre staking threat. EDIT: pics show stakes on LHS as pic was taken when I came out.....
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Reply By: Member BarryG - Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 11:11

Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 11:11
Thanks Shane,

No, I'm not on FB but my wife is so I'll have a look at that shortly.
I will take a new book and leave it there if no-one else has replaced it in the meantime.
Also, I will leave the full book in place.
Thanks for the warning about the star stakes too!

Barry
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Follow Up By: shark_caver - Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 11:24

Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 11:24
You're a bloody champion, Thanks Barry.
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Follow Up By: Member BarryG - Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 16:37

Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 16:37
Shane,
I've looked at FB but can't find a full trip report for your last trip, and its not yet on your own blog site. Any chance of this being done before we leave (1at May)?
Barry
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Follow Up By: shark_caver - Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 23:53

Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 23:53
I'm onto it as of today and hope to have the AB part published by next week some time. Video will take quite a bit longer to do. Shoot me an email (listed above) and I'll copy the FB post to you. BTW, it wasn't a full trip report I put on the Ulti page, just the road condition report for the AB, because I know of 2 other ultimateers going across this season. My full trip report will probably be more detailed as I'm using my GPS log to determine section speeds and overall speed over ground.

Cheers.
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Reply By: Member - Phil G (SA) - Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 12:55

Wednesday, Apr 19, 2017 at 12:55
We visit the GVD most years.
No point in using a designated channel - there is too little traffic. Pleasantly different to the CSR and Simpson Desert!
The visitors books at Voakes Hill Corner should stay there. It is great to look up the old entries. The State Library would have no interest in it. And I expect the M-T people who own the land likewise.
I like to have a 2nd radio on open scan. I do this with a handheld radio if I'm at the front of the group and our group uses their own channel.
AnswerID: 610350

Follow Up By: shark_caver - Thursday, Apr 20, 2017 at 00:06

Thursday, Apr 20, 2017 at 00:06
I beg to differ Phil, but hey I am only one and put it out there for discussion. It only takes one vehicle to wreck your day, like mine almost was. A prado towing a camper from the East rounds a corner at a great rate of knots, locks it up, puts it sideways and had me in the Spinifex - lucky for me I had spinifex to dive into at that point. I knew he was coming and drove accordingly, he didn't know I was. A dedicated radio channel and all that would have been averted. Its not that hard really to comprehend.

I agree, it is great to look up old entries. However the risk of losing a piece of history like that would be a tragedy. One fire or water damage event and all would be lost. I noted, the book at the border had a note on it asking for a full log to be returned to the Battye Library in Perth to preserve that piece of history. So there is one Library that certainly has interest. However, Volkes Hill lies in SA, and is on MT land as you mention. My main point in the making was to maybe have someone bring a new log book out. The preservation of that piece of history was just a follow on comment. Cheers.
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Reply By: Member - Laurie K (WA) - Sunday, Apr 30, 2017 at 23:06

Sunday, Apr 30, 2017 at 23:06
I was under the impression that Connie Sue Beadell replaced those comment books when necessary as she did her tours. I Could be wrong.

cheers
Laurie
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