Saturday, Apr 02, 2005 at 23:53
Hi Ken,
Don't mind your questions at all if the answers will help...we sourced the HF through WA's premier trading post the Quokka. We'd been watching it for quite a while before something came up and it was quite an educational experience in itself. As we discovered beware the HF novice as some of the units advertised would have been dead losses due to age, cost/difficulty of re-tuning, lack of available parts etc and some of the prices being asked for these units was outrageous.
Anyway, we ended up paying $800 for the Barrett 550 with remote head, selcall, user manual and a good tapped antenna with spring base. Unit and antenna were all tuned up with the desirable frequencies (VKS737, RFDS etc). We were able to see the unit operating so had peace of mind on that aspect. All indications are that this was at the very least a fair price, perhaps even a bargain. We recently met and chatted with Stewart Gillam of VKS737
Perth base and he reckoned it was a steal and also that the 550 is an excellent model, very reliable etc.
Ken, we are still HF novices but a little more experienced than when we started out. My advise is to ring VKS737 4WD Network (either head office or a state base) and have a chat with them about what your needs are in a secondhand HF. We found them very welcoming, informative and willing to share some of their vast experience. Also, I rang a couple of HF dealers in
Perth and also found them happy to discuss the merits of various makes, models and prices (remember even though you may not ultimately purchase a HF through them, as a future HF owner you're a potential customer). As to sourcing a second hand HF, keep an eye out in your local trading post, the VKS737 market page and contact your local HF dealers as I discovered most of them sell secondhand HF's (subject to availability) and may even have a website with a trading page.
Lastly, figure out what frequencies you definitely want (in our case VKS737 and RFDS) and make a note of them. When you inquire about a unit ask the seller to tell you specifically if the unit is tuned to these. With many of the later models its not a big deal if not because they can usually be easily retuned but you will most likely have to pay someone to do it for you. Also is the antenna tuned to the unit/frequencies, particularly if it is a tapped antenna as a tuned HF without a correspondingly tapped antenna is useless. You would be surprised how many sellers we contacted made claims such as "tuned to all 4wd and emergency channels" when in fact this wasn't the case or was very loosely interpreted. Sorry if I'm telling you how to suck eggs...
:o) Melissa
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