HF Radio

goodday matt
some one will know better than me but from the list i have the channels you have are not vks737nor radtel nor rfds do you know where the radipo came from as they may be private channels or marine
is it a crystal set or electronic tune (just cheaper to tune witha computor than replace crystals i think ?) how many channel ?

steve

Hi Matt
I have just posted about my HF being stolen, keep yours secure.
A good Web site to look at is www.vks737.on.net
I am a member of this network a really great bunch of people willing to help
when I joined like you, new nothing, still don't know much more ????
but found members willing to answer my dumb questions.
good luck
Barry

thanks have been to VKS737 but cant find a data base as to who owns which channel i am interested because you seem to find a few "cheap radios" around and they quote channels but i dont know what use they are

Hi matt H, I'm after a HF radio as well so I learned a bit about them. Looks like you have older type with only 5 channels. Each channel is tuned to it's own frequency and can not be changed except if you replace crystals inside. I reccomend that you take it to some workshop rather than doing it on your own. If you are in to 4WD best is to tune your channels to 5 VKS channels and join their network. You are gonna need suitable multi tap antenna or separate auto tuner for it (not sure if tuners can go with older radios, someone please confirm). I hope that you know that you shouldn't operate HF radio witout proper licence! I can see I'm not much help, but at least you know there are more of us that don't know much about it!

Matt as suggested go with the VKS737 network and for all alterations and information, the head of VKS737 Steve Johnson lives in the Northern Suburbs of Adelaide, so call him on 8287 6222 or www.vks737.on.net

Matt I have just bought a 7727TB remote head and have gone through the same motions, I looked into it a fair bit before I spent my $$$. The Codan 7727 has an offset (not sure exactly) meaning that the frequencies marked on the Crystals are not exactly what the radio is tuned to. It sounds the 8246 you have in there may well be 8022, but you would only be able to check by getting an atenna and a spring base and listen in and see if there are any VKS shceds or conversations.
You can get brand new VKS Whips from a place in queensland cheaper than anyone by a long shot. Email this guy: vk3ab@austarmetro.com.au . $120 for a 9 frequency whip with all 5 VKS-737 and 3 RFDS channels, I've spoken to him a bit and will order one from him when the $$ come up. He sounds like a nice guy and from my understanding a couple of guys from their clup make them to raise money.
As far as changing the frequencies go I have got my hands on a .PDF file of the orig service manual with all the step by step instructions on how to do it and you can buy the crystals for approx $25 each, however I may still get someone else to do it as apparantly the trim pots in the 7727's have a tendancy to break very easily making the job 10 times harder.
Even if your 8246 frequeny is not the VKS channel, you could probally just insert the cyrstal and adjust the pot the tiniest amount and it would work, as it's very very close anyway.
Anyway, good luck with it mate, see how you go, if you got any more questions, just ask!
BTW you probally will get away with only having the 8022 frequency, that's what I've been told anyway, others on VKS may have more info on that one.

Hi Matt,

Your set has been set up for the following frequencies.

6596 kHz
2816 kHz
5290 kHz
3640 kHz
1990 kHz

The 7727 crystals are 1650 kHz above the TX/RX frequency, therefore subtract 1650 from the numbers you have to get the frequencies.

On the topic of conversion, even with the technical service manual you would need soldering skills and test equipment to tune each channel to the crystal, and an understanding of RF comms to decipher the caps and components to support the new crystals. It's not a simple process. You won't know if you are getting an output on the correct frequency or any output at all if you don't have the test equipment.

Now that you know the frequencies the Australian Communications Authority website has a link (given above I think) to determine who has licensed them. I can't remember if the frequency needs to be entered in kHz or MHz.

1990kHz is the same as 1.990MHz

I hope this helps,

Dave