UHF etiquette

Yes, CH18 is the channel for caravanners to natter on. Also it is of little use being on CH40 if you are going to talk over road transport operators giving out safety information, after all, that is the only real reason for people to monitor CH40.

Grunt,

Whilst I agree there is a plethora of absolute Bull Shit on channel 40 around Melbourne and Geelong, it is not all from truck drivers. There are a number of people on the UHF that are not mobile, but using a UHF from a stationary location, that are just looking to engage with truck drivers and other legitimate radio users in order to disrupt, annoy and be an absolute pain in the butt, they seem to get their “jollies” by doing this.

There is one person in particular based around Lara and Little River on the Princess Freeway.

Once you get out of the metropolitan areas of Geelong and Melbourne, it is much quieter.

There are some locations where quarries, road work sites, and other industrial worksites that use channel 40 which can also be annoying.

The actions of those people you have described is a nothing short of disrespectful.

Macca.

Its not just Melbourne. It happens in all of the big caital cities. The band settles down when you get out of range of the capital cities.

Hi Tony,

That won’t change a thing. Back in the 1980’s when a CB License was “mandatory” the same issues were around then, particularly in built up areas. Many people did not bother getting a license, and there was very little done by the authorities to “police” CB users. For some reason, some people take great delight in anonymously annoying others.

Macca.

There was a fellow in Newcastle in the 80's that must have had a home base that use to carry on so one night we decided to track him. You new someone was roughly within 100mts or so from one car to another so we just tried it with his signal then announced what street we thought he was in and silence fell upon the radio. We had no intentions of confronting him just seeing if we could shut him up for a while.

If there was a fee, it could fund inspectors, they have almost completely dissapeared. Also it would change CB's to a privalige not a right.

Tony,

There were inspectors under the old CB days, and it didn’t make any difference then, why would it make a difference now? The vast majority of people didn’t bother getting a license then, that is why there isn’t a licence fee now. How would they “police” home base units? It is pretty easy to disguise a UHF mast on a residential building.

Macca.

I'm not sure about home base transmitters. Do people still do that?

The biggest issue I see is anywhere near major highways or cities. The language is awful.

The class licence should be amended to include a compulary, unique digital signiture called a burst ID something common in commercail FM radios and almost zero $ to implement.

It would take several years, but the transistion from 40Ch to 80 Ch was many years ago and worked reatively smoothly.

Then it is simple to catch and fine offenders.

Tony,

When they brought in 80 channel uhf, the government wanted to make all 40 channel units illegal to own and use after the 5 year period.

Never ever got off the ground through legal reason and now you can still own and operate on the older 40 channel radios.

As for coding all uhf radios, that would be totally impossible and try telling that to the general public and who would pay for it, do you honestly thing the city wankers that do that shit would worry about it…….pigs might fly as well

There are quite a few caravaners that are in their own little world when they get into the drivers seat totally oblivious to what's going on around them especially in their mirrors they don't use.

On holiday so switch the brain off! See it all the time living near a popular tourist area.

Like having them oblivious to us in our CFA tanker behind them on our way to a fire sirens & lights on but they won't let us past!

Did I mention "we wanted to visit the market" & the closest place to park is right in front of the CFA station roller doors!
Funny how they get it when you explain if their house was on fire with people inside how would they feel if we were delayed due to some clown parking their rig & blocking the trucks from leaving the station. Grrrr !
Rant over
Cheers
Stu