HF Radio - No traffic picked up

olcoolone - shanegu6 & I would like to know what that is - I am sure. I have had my radio in for a year and still do not know what the hell you are talking about. :-)

Lots of us put them in and do not use them much - they are there just in case we need it, so radio jargon will not mean much unless there is a quick explanation as well :-)

Oh! thats right you expect me to read the instructions to the darn thingy. Oh well. :-) Cheers Tony

All VKS 737 bases and most mobiles with selcall have beacon call facilities.

Beacon call is the nearly same as selcall except...

When you selcall someone it wakes there radio and alerts them that some one is calling and send a reply tone back to you so you know you have reached them.

When you beacon call someone there radio will not alert them that someone is trying to get in contact with them but will send a reply tone back to you so you know you have reached them.

You can use it when you need to make contact to a base and you don't know what one you will get or which one is the strongest, you can beacon call the bases without there knowledge and find the strongest base to then selcall.

Selcalling and beacon calling is one of the most important thing to learn so you can contact bases in out of hour times.

Having a HF radio with out selcall is pretty useless...much like having a rim with no tyre.

There are some people who still think you don't need a HF radio with selcall.

Tony have a peek hereSite Link

Footloose - :-) LOL - God one Mate! Funny thing is used HF for years with Councils - Thing is they are always on one channel, never had to change it. I do have the instruction book and I could go on to VKS737 site and do a bit of research, but other things to do at this time :-). So as long as I can turn it on, put it on a channel and push the tune button - all's well. Cheers TONY

Tony, you will not alert a VKS737 base out of sched times without using selcall, the only way of getting help is hopefully someone like me might be listerning when you need help.

Selcall is vital.

I have a auto antenna.

Then as said above wait for the skeds and then tune in to 8022. You should hear something at Sked times, if not you have a connection issue. Cheers Tony

Hey Jeepthing, I have the antenna mounted on the rear of the vehicle and the earth form it earthed to the rear barn door (internally). The unit is powered and earthed directly to the battery. Did you have to extend the length of the earth cable from the antenna.

shanegu6.

Most problems with HF are "earth" related.
I would extend the earth from your barn door connection to a good earth in the main part of the vehicle.

regards

shanegu6,

I have a Barrett 250 and I was assuming you had a tapped aerial, my mistake wrong model.

Nevertheless as Wim correctly says most problems are earth related and I agree with his suggestion.

Additionally, even though the unit is powered and earthed directly to the battery I was advised to run an earth cable from the unit's case to a good earth on the vehicle's body.

The aerial for my unit is designed to be mounted on the bull bar only as it uses the vehicle's bonnet as it's ground plane.

I don't know much about the type of aerial you have but I do know that when you rear mount an aerial it needs to be in a position to ensure it will have a clear transmission.

If it doesn't you will find that when you transmit a lot of the energy from the aerial will be absorbed into the body of your vehicle consequently the transmission will be weak.

Make sure that the aerial is designed for a rear mount too. Even if it is I understand that they work more efficiently when bull bar mounted as the bonnet provides a better ground plane.

Shane - No mate, you can not all the time and middle of the day not so good. You may pick up my area during the day - but it is very random where you can get to. A lot of factors come into play. Some days its great, some days its not. Cheers Tony. If you want give me a time and I will fire mine up and see if I can get you. Cheers Tony

It would pay to do all the other doors and the bonnet as it increases your ground plan which in radio talk is a good thing.

I put a second earth bond braid from the body to the chassis and then earthed the doors etc to the body.

Works well as most times I can hit Albany from NSW.

Cheers

Im not 100% sure what you mean about doing all the other doors and bonnet. Do you mean running a wire from every door and bonnet to the chassis? If so what size?

Just use some 6mm wire to link between the door and the body bypassing the hinge. Link the body to the chassis with another 6 mm cable. Do the same for anything on hinge.

Cheers

I live 60kms south of Brisbane on acreage. Not in suburbia but still have power lines.

shouldnt be to bad then just get asfar from the lines as possibe

Adelaide should be on soon about 6.00 your time I usualy get them in WA no worries although it might be made easier as the sun is still up in the west

Just a thought mate -have you tried plugging in a speaker or head phones.My codan 8525 speaker was pretty well rs and when i plugged in an external speaker found that it really was receiving very well!!!
Cheers,
mary