Sunday, Jun 12, 2005 at 00:57
Hi Bob,
Point taken though I am of the era where latin wasn't taught at school so the last bit lost me :o)
If anyone was interested Frankston amateur radio club do a great tapped whip at a very good price and have them specifically for VKS &RFDS frequencies.
Certainly if you have a place to mount them they are still a workable item like you suggest though you won't be able to direct dial on them and it would be really useful if they were of the variety with selcal.
So long as the price was exceptional - because even the tapped whip with base and spring isn't going to be cheap unless you pick one up second hand with the right frequencies on it - they are potentially worth purchasing.
But say the radio was $300, reprogramming was $80-100 (Telstat or similar charge about this to burn a standard eeprom), the base spring and antenna about $300 (FAMPARC) or more for name brand, plus postage at about $20, its all starting to add up. At least they aren't old crystal locked boxes and they can be affordably reprogrammed. I have seen many people buy the crystal version only to find out reprograming 5 frequencies is going to cost more than they paid for the radio.
You can buy a remote 8528 and tapped whip for less than a grand on ebay if you watch it for a while and wait patiently, and get a remote 8528 and autotune for between $1000 & $1400 depending on the age of the autotune.
I'm not suggesting people don't buy them, someone will. Just making sure people know what they are doing as I have horse traded in HF gear a bit. I've had wins and I've been burnt a couple of times. But there's nothing worse than buying something that either won't do what you wanted or finding out that there's so much more you can do if you had spent an extra couple of hundred bucks. (eg. Radtel direct dial, selcal fellow travellers and bases, selcal preprogrammed support
services etc.)
In all likely hood the fact that they are for sale is likely to mean VKS737 will pick up another 40 members or a good portion there of and maybe a few new people will be introduced to the joys of travelling as a member of the
HF radio community. You aren't as alone out there as you think.
Just tonight on the
Alice Springs sched they were helping a bloke on the
Mitchell River somewhere organise a new radiator for his vehicle. Other members were relaying for the guy in trouble and probably by tomorrow mornings sched he'll have a solution or be very close to it as a result of being a member of what I personally think is one of the best communities on the road.
You can always leave it on 8022 and put an extension speaker in the front. You never know when you may be able to be of immense assistance to a fellow traveller just down the road a few km or maybe more. Heck it could be me!
Travel safely and go with HF :o)
For more info on the 4wd radio network go to VKS737's web page at www.vks737.on.net
Dave
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