I am not looking for any responses from this post ,,, i am just making a comment...
Before i make this comment let me say that i was the number one offender of thinking i knew it all about how to work a
HF radio....
I bought a Barrett 950
HF radio and have listened to the skeds and even called in a few times and thought what a great thing to have in an emergency...
So i thought if an emergency ever arose whilst i was driving along on the remote outback i could just call an RFDS base and have all the medical help i could ask for....Just by picking up the mike and calling....
HOW WRONG COULD I HAVE BEEN...
I learnt unless you are calling Pt
Augusta RFDS during business hours by voice you wont even get anyone because they are all answered by computer which in turn makes the operator aware you are calling...
So firstly you have know how far away the base you are calling is and then send the appropriate ALARM tone to it...
You need to always have your LIST of where all the RFDS bases are and what frequencies they are on and then depending on whether it is day or night or inbetween time,,,you then have to choose what frequency you use to send the alarm on......
It is so involved but in turn it is so easy,,,,, and it could be so easy to have all this technology at your fingertips and be faced with an emergency and still be helpless...
So if you are puting off your training .....GO AND GET IT......You never know when you need to perform with no time to spare.....
I also used to think that a sat phone was the be-all and end-all,,,,In an emercency a sat phone would be handy but if you needed to have a doctor on the other end of your communications whilst trying administer
first aid to a dying person as a doctor is on the way by aircraft or whatever,,,,, sometimes you need to communicatecontinuously with these doctors and a sat phone would prob go flat after 20mins or so where a HF would go on and on and on....
Anyway... I just thought i would write what i was thinking...