vhf radios: any use in the bush

VHF frequencies do not bounce off the ionosphere.HF frequencies are the ones you were thinking of.Your radio will be pretty much useless inland.

Sounds like a fantastic trip Nigel and one you'll enjoy. Great country. Have sent you a mm regarding your query.

Cheers. Mick.

If you are going to take a VHF marine radio with you you might want to consider a CDMA phone and a old 27Mhz AM CB radio as well, all three would be as good as each other.

In an emergency you would have more luck sending smoke signals.

Sure VHF has got very good range, in some instances up to 150 kilometers or more.

VHF marine radio may be good along the coastal areas but inland no.

UHF radio and an EPIRB (PLB) would be minimum requirements.

You might want to look at hiring a sat phone or HF radio, sat phones are easier to use then HF radio.

What do you mean SatNav fell through?

If you have a distress beacon ... thats a hell of a start.

http://www.flyingdoctor.net/HF-Radio---Communications.html

http://www.vks737.on.net/pdfs/DOC%2006.pdf

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A UHF will let you contact someone in very close proximity unless there is repeater towers in the vicinity extending the range.

A 27mhz AM / SSB ( not AM only ) will give you ... your ionosphere bouncing capability. Trick will be - getting anybody but Indonesian fishing boats to hear you these days and where to store the 9' antennae needed to get a best result.

Bris to Melb / Darwin to Bris, / T'ville to Perth / was all typical of distances regularly achieved back in the heady days of 27mhz SSB comms. Didnt matter who you spoke to in an emergency ... they could normally talk to someone close to you. Heard many NT / Kimberly problems sorted by relayed messages via Tassie / Qld / WA and back to Darwin on the "emergency" channel.

Was a good cheap backup system for travel. In the right weather conditions even AM could achieve Bris to Melb ... but rare.

Your VHF radio will be good for a jack stand if you happen to need to use the jack for any reason.

UHF, NextG, Satphone, EPIRB in that order

Plenty of traffic where you are going.

Is your Epirb 121 mhz ? If so this system is being switch off on 1st Feb 09 so all 121 epirb's will be useless . The 406 mhz will be the standard frequency from now on.

Col

TX all. I'll save the space. The loan satnav fell thru and the rental for the satnav didn't seem worthwhile for thr short times off the traffickrd roads. FYI I carry lots of self help recovery gera, but ther is a limit to the budget!