HF Vks 737 and Bush Telegraph

G'DAy Floyd

For some reason the ABA chose to let these two operators run on the same set of frequencies. On the surface this might look like a reasonable thing to do given the volumn of traffic. However, it has proven to be one of the worst "mistakes" in the history of HF radio. One of the operators is aledged to be a complete goose and behaves accordingly towards the other. This makes life very difficult for anyone who is trying to use the thing for it's intended purpose. Have a listen for the beacon calls during scheds. See if you can guess where they are coming from.

Anyway. Your question. Membership in one does not give you access to the other. Having said that, if you are in any sort of trouble you are permited to transmit and make contact with anyone on any frequency.

Foss.

G'day Floyd,,,,,,,while a member and volunteer base operator for VKS737 I can offer the following personal observations. VKS737 and BT are entirely seperate organisations - our website can tell you most of what you need to know about us (so can the BT site). I confine my energies to what we at VKS737 as a group can offer the community - all of our other staff do the same - what other organisations do is for them to decide. Foss appears way off the mark to me, re apparent conflict - most of the many skeds I monitor weekly present only minor difficulty at times for members calling in - our sked sheets are testament to hundreds of contacts each week. Difficulty in calling in to a base each day is rare, with the natural atmospheric conditions and adverse location of the member being the chief causes. As for non-members status with us - we can only converse with members for normal traffic, BUT we steadfastly address out safety charter of helping anyone in distress, at any minute of ther year, member or not.