uhf 5 watt handheld

G'day Thing

5 watts is the maxium output allowable for a UHF radio. UHF is line of site. Because of the curve of the earth you can see about 8 km to the horizon on flat ground. This means that you are limited to about 8 km with your radio transmission and reception.

If you want a greater range, get on top of a hill. The higher the hill the further you'll get provided there's not another hill in the way and within your power output and the other radio's power output.

If you want to get further you need HF, (big dollar!) or sat phone, (also big dollar!)

Regards,
Laurie.

thanks bega would it be worth the money or should i just leave it as is i dont wanna buy a in car uhf as i cant really use it im only 15 aye thanks for the help on my uhf 5 watt

We have two of them at work. At first I was concerned about buying them as they are Uniden but they are a great radio. None of the others I am aware of would have survived the bashing we give them. Ours have been left out in the rain and have had chemicals spilt on them and they work fine still. Cheaper too.

You are able to connect an external antenna. We haven't but when we bought them the antenna was not attached so it definately comes off.

Try looking in the online stores and then seeing if your local DSE will match that price. If not then order it online.

Olbis $369
Prestige $369

Have fun

hey whould it still be worth it in a house cause i live at Young and my dad lives about 40 kms out of town and i can get him on top of the roof but when i get down i cant get him he has a gme 3400 in the house so if i get i external antenna well i still get him ?

Hi SXC,

You'll only get your Dad if you get on the roof or if you put the arial on the roof. It's that line of sight thing.

I'm surprized that you can comunicate over 40 km from such a low elevation as the roof. Perhaps both you and your Dad are on fairly high hills with no obstruction.

An alternative for you is: if there is a UHF repeater station in your area it will have a high arial to receive and transmit so this will overcome the line of sight problem. You will need to both use the same channel as the repeater station. I've seen a list somewhere, I think on this site, of the UHF repeater stations.

Someone who knows about these things might comment.

It will be great if you can comunicate with your Dad in this way without having to get on the roof. It's up to you what it's worth not to have to climb onto the roof for a chat.

Regards,
Laurie.

Guys,
I'm surprised no one has pointed this out to you yet.

Antenna's are finely accurate and scientifically engineered (don't worry about the speeling), to work with certain frequencies and power output.

You might be able to get better reception, but adding a BIGGER aerial is not the answer. Think about it. Every owner would buy a piddly powered transciever, then attach a HUGE antenna - it doesn't work that way.

Get yourself a bigger output and the antenna supplied will be correct. If you have to buy one, then you will be asked what unit you have.

Hope that helps.

Alan.

yes im on the highest point of town and you can see in to town from the farm but the only thing is you cant see my side of town you see the other side of town so do you think it well work if i walk out the back and up the yard and it works it about 10 foot higher then the roof i can here him like i sad but only on a good day

SXC,

Sounds to me like you're on the upper limit of the capacity of a 5 watt UHF radio no matter how high you go. Try walking over to the other side of town that you can see from the farm but I doubt that it will be any better.

Consider this, you'll need a bit of radio knolledge and some basic building skills:

You could set up a base station with a car type UHF radio.

You need an old UHF radio set from the car wrecker along with the arial, speaker and whatever else. Try and get it for $35, less if you can but be prepared to go to $50. Drive a hard bargine. (I'm just a poor 15 year old kid, you were young once).

To power it you'll need an old car battery, doesn't have to be a good one that will start a car, just needs to be good enough to power a radio. Get one from the tyre service(for free), they'll have a dozen (maybe a pallet load) to choose from.

Mount the arial on a bamboo pole attached to the chimney. I suppose you'll need co-ax cable.

You'll need something to trickle charge the battery. It might be just as good to run the radio straight from your charging source but be sure it's putting out 12V DC. Don't have the battery in the house. Put it outside.

You'll need someone more knolledgable than I to help but it could be done.

Regards,
Laurie.

SXC,

There is a repeater station in Young.

Location * Shire Council Site Boundary Rd 7km SSE of YOUNG
State * NSW
Channel * 4
Callsign * YNG04
Latitude 34:22:29S
Longitude 148:16:37E

I got this info from this sight.

I don't know if you just tune to channel 4 and go for it or whether you pay a fee and join up. Someone else will be able to advise.

Info came from: Vehicle requirements>communications>UHF Repeaters Index

This may be your best shot.

Regards,
Laurie.

hey thanks my dad just sad that he got me a external antenna from a workcause i they have one at work so we going to try it out and see how if it works thanks for all ur help so much every one luke

hey guys i tryed a external antenna and it works ok. he called me at 8am derrrr god one dad! yeah any ways now it dont work it still works on the roof i put the antenna on the roof im going to try it on a 40ft pole. should it work? do u have to ground it or anything cause when in a car dont you need a good earth base or sumthing?

Hi SXC.

1) Don't use a 40 foot pole. When the wind blows it will break the pole off and break the roof when it falls, hit the power lines or brain you. Try a 10 foot pole.

2) When you're on the roof with your hand held radio, don't fall because when you hit the ground you might break the radio.

3) When you put the arial on the roof you'll need to use co-ax cable for the extention between the external arial and the adaptor that plugs into the radio. The outer shield on the co-ax cable carries the earth and connects to both the radio end adaptor and the arial earth connections. If you don't use co-ax cable the extra wire will become extra length of arial and will receive too much signal and you'll blow up your radio or at least overcome the tuning capacitor.

4) Contrary to what someone else told you, it is illegal to increase the transmission output of a UHF radio by modifying the arial. UHF, ultra high frequency, is quite a different matter than HF, high frequency where you make various changes to the arial according to the time of day and other factors. UHF is line of sight. HF bounces off the ionosphere and can be received thousands of kms away in favourable conditions, with the unit adjusted correctly for current conditions.

5) If your radio was working at ground level at 8.00am but not now, that's because of atmospheric conditions such as dust and other pollutents in the air. Try at night and early morning. Smoke from people's home heating will block or impeed the signal.

6) I'm surprized that you are transmitting and receiving successfully over 40 km with UHF. Where I live, on the NSW Far South Coast, it's about 40 km of relatively flat country with hills to a couple of hundred meters. Then the country rises sharply to 1100 meters at the top of Brown Mountain. Sometimes we hear truckies from the top of the mountain using their truck UHF radios with us using your type of hand held radio. But we have the advantage of great height and good line of sight. I don't think you'll do any better than at present no matter what you do. You're on the top limits of what your radio will do and way beyond what the manufacturer would claim.

Have a good time chatting within the limits of your equipment.

Regards,
Laurie.

thanks i looked at getting a tx3400 i think for 400 its that a good price dad sad he will buy on. i can use the hand held for when i got out to his place as its big so when i go out on the motor bike if he wants me he dont have to get in the car a drive all over lol and how high should i put the on for a the tx3400 i can get i antenna its 2.1 long i think its 6db not should dad got one from the old old house

Hi again SXC,

I don't know about the technical details. Try the man where you buy the radio.

However, I come back to what I said before: 5 watts is 5 watts. I'm doubtful you'll do any better with 5 watts UHF if you spend $1000 or a million for that matter.

I think you should get some reliable advice before you spend your money, to avoid dissapointment.

Truckies use UHF to talk to another truck they pass on the highway or call in to their depot as they arrive at the edge of town.

Stop and go men on a roadworks job use UHF to communicate over a km or so. If the job goes over a hill or around a windy hilly area they need an extra radio man in the middle of the job to control the whole thing.

4x4ers use UHF to communicate with other members of a convoy.

These are the typical applications for UHF radio. If it works for you in your current application then good on ya. But you should understand that you're way beyond what the manufacture claims it will do and you're on the top limits where service will be unreliable.

Did you take note of my earlier post about the repeater station in Young? If you can get access to that, you might find your UHF setup will work just like you and your Dad were 500 meters apart. I've never used a repeater station on a regular channel so I don't know what the access set up is but I'm guessing that you and your Dad simply go to channel 4 and go for it, remembering that there will be other users. Give it a go. Just be careful you don't interfeer with other transmissions that may be of an urgent nature. Sounds like the repeater belongs to the council. Give them a phone call.

With the repeater you may need to hold your transmit button for a second or two before you speak.

This is an Ozi adventure type forum. You may get better advice if you try a CB radio group. All the best.

Regards,
Laurie.