Travelling Solo !

I agree with Fred and would add that, assuming you may be staying in various c/van parks, and assuming you ARE an outgoing type of bloke........ one idea that may be worth considering is this:

Many of these parks tend to have a happy hour of some description, where "grey nomads" congregate with their own fold-up chair (and maybe a small table) together with your chosen drink (doesn't have to be alcolhol) and a plate of nibblies (something as simple as Jatz and cheese cubes) and I'm sure you'd be made most welcome.

Some ettiquete ideas are : try not to dominate conversations and NEVER put-down somebody else's choice of vehicle, caravan, partner (hahaha) or anything else.

dear vk1dx many thanks for your suggestion. HF outfit too expensive for me. like your idea but i dont quite understand exactly what sort of unit you are referring to please give me some more info cheers Thomas QLD

Happy to help.

The reason I started down the track of HF communications is to start the ball rolling on safety communications.

This is about amateur radio:
One example of a radio is the one here: Yaesu HF, VHF and UHF.

It won't give you the RFDS and the 4WD HF system but it will give you world wide coverage. It will also give you access to the amateur repeaters and satellites. Yearly licence is about $70. My wife just pays mine. The radio in the example is smaller than some UHF CBs.

You would then need antennas and in some cases an antenna tuner. They can be a simple as a wire thrown over a tree. I have actually used a barbed wire fence to talk to an ex Aussie in Washington. I lowered the out put power to 1.5W and we still got through. Or you could get a vertical that has various settings for different bands of frequencies.

The main thing about amateur radio is that you have the licence so you can use whatever you want on the ham bands provided you stay within the regulations and specification of each service. That is a piece of cake with all these top radios around.

Now to 4WD HF services.
There are a number of clubs and organisations that hold a class licence from ACA to assist 4WD followers with both emergency and casual communications. One such service is VKS: VKS-737 Radio Network,

I do not know a lot about them so I hope someone will drop in and give you a brief.

To compare equipment for each system I shall stick to new estimates that I have heard. A good HF radio for this 4WD HF system could cost up to $3000 including antenna and antenna tuner. Please anyone correct me. Compared to the Ham radio above at $1099 thats a bit expensive.

You can do cheaper for both systems.

I realise I mentioned equipment that you may not be familiar with but you would soon understand what they do and how you use them. Not complex as most of it can be automatic.

Hows that for the moment?

Phil

I meant to say in summing up that this is an emergency comms system you should have.

Also every ham will answer an emergency call. When in trouble you look for anyone and just butt in. They will immediately help. They are bound by law to do so. Its in the licence. We have been lucky enough to have helped several.

There are areas set aside for emergency comms and several well run travellers nets for the mobile ops who just want to say they are still around and enjoying the outdoors. There is not limit to how long you can chat. Plenty of "channels" to use. No crowding. I have in the past spoken to Rajhid Ghandi and even King Hassein. I have met prince Phillip and thousands of equally nice people. Mostly on air. Thats what I mean by a social hobby.

Please someone give us some words on the benefits of the 4WD HF system. But don't confuse the man with tech talk about modes and cellcall stuff.

Phil

racinrob many thanks for your suggestion appealing where did you learn to use a camp oven? c/oven cookbooks seem a bit daunting and complicated dont want to carry a delicatessen with me. has to be simple would be happy to have only 2 or 3 recipes i could easily survive on that. cheers Thomas QLD

G'day Thomas. No great skill required to operate a camp oven, once you've used one and gained a bit of confidence it's all go. One of the easier dishes is roast chicken and it's great for a cold salad next day.
Prepare and stuff a chook, rub oilve oil all over (the chook) and sit it on a trivet, that is a wire cake cooler, in your camp oven. Put your oven over a few coals at the side of your fire with a shovel full of coals on the lid. After about 40 minutes check with a skewer or fork to see if the moisture is pink, if so it indicates blood so give it a bit longer, five minutes or so.
I always do potatoes wrapped in foil in the coals, (about twenty minutes depending on size) If your oven is a dutch oven, that is no legs, sit it up on some rocks otherwise it will extinguish the coals it's sitting on, couldn't be easier. Good luck.
Go to Camp Oven Cooking in Australia on the net, more recipes then you could imagine

Rob.

Hi Thomas,
I use charcoal bricks on the camp oven and find it a lot easier than burning a fire for hours to get some coals. The instructions are on the Camp Over Cooking site. Easiest way to knock up a roast meal in a couple of hours.
Regards
Geoff