UHF reception record?

Great replies ,was on 18/40 and not using Duplex,
Rosco

Mark
I know if a bloke, close by to me, on SE coast of Victoria, talks to Tassie on his UHF home base.
He has unbelievable reception. The mobile unit in his 4B, he often chats on simplex 80 km away.
Then again he boosts his machines up a little. (50 + Watt's, is what he is talking)
Has been known to blow up a couple radios too, as cooling seems to be an issue with him.
All about the $$$$$ and how much you want to spend

Cheers
Bucky

Errrr.... Bucky, not something to talk about in public... The legal limit is 5W for mobile UHF.

Cheers

John

Hi John and Val

To clarify that point, if you are a certain distance from a built up area, I think in excess of 200 km, such a restriction does not apply. I have the HF plus 2 UHF in my vehicle, and one is by far stronger than the other, and legally so, as I use the stronger unit aroiund the area that I live.

I frequently monitor people on the CSR, but do not chat with them unless they seem to be having problems. For my HF I am licenced through ACMA and with VKS 737 (Mobile2153 from memory), I also hold an RFDS Outpost licence, but that is a "just in case" thing, which has already paid for itself with a young child that was bitten by a king brown.

I am soon to also incorporate my Thuraya Sat Phone aerial onto my car, but aain for those urgent situations, I rarely use my Sat phone otherwise, but I do keep the account open just in case.

Cheers

Marc - I can assure you that the 5 W limit on the CB bands applies Oz wide. You may use equipment that is approved for UHF land mobile services on the CB band but it must have its Tx output reduced to 5 W when transmitting on the CB frequencies.

Ever heard "Bull Bar" ?
A public nusance on the UHF bands, in and around SE Melbourne, and he really hooks into the Truckies. I would love to see what power he is running.
He is one idiot that should be shut down.

Commercial units are apparently allowed to run 25 watts, so where is the problem with non commercial units doing the same.....?
I fail to see how these can be regulated, as everyone is chasing distance and are prepared to get it.

As I said before. its all about how many $$$$$$ you spend

Cheers
Bucky

Don't want to start an argument here, but it's my understanding that the power of UHF mobiles is legally restricted to 5W nation wide. I believe that the limit in the USA is higher and I've seen imported 25W mobiles that are in use in Australia. For practical purpose, once away from densely populated areas I see no reason for the 5W limit. The range at 470 MHz is limited pretty much by line-of-sight anyway, and although higher power will allow your signal to be heard further away, only under freak conditions will it reach beyond the horizon.

I wonder Marc if one of your 2 UHF sets is in fact a 27MHz unit. These operate near the top end of the HF band, where range isn't usually limited to line-of-sight. Contacts at 27 MHz have been reported around the world under favourable conditions.

Bucky - The commercial units you refer to are required by law to be limited to 5W when operating on the chatterbox frequencies (citizens band) we call UHF. In fact that's only a very small part of the UHF spectrum, and amateurs and commercial operators may run higher powers elsewhere within the UHF band. It's not generally recognised that "our" bit of the UHF spectrum is not to be used for commercial operation - I doubt that many couriers and building contractors are aware of that! As you suggest, impossible to regulate.

Cheers

John

Like Bucky, across Bass Strait and to Portland across water base to mobile, normally two hours drive away.

John
Cheers for the info, and I too do not want to start something that may lead a hot debate.

The whole thing leaves me pondering with bad thoughts, how I can do everything legal, and be blasted off the air by someone like Bull Bar with a high powered set..????

Yet they can get their hands on sets that are that good..or have lots of $$$$$
and can do basically whatever..

I scratch my head..

All I know is my set works, distance is a whole new ball game, and must have to do with areials and power..


Probably why I pack milk powder, and not work for NASA ( hehe )

Cheers
Bucky

Bucky, we used to have our base antenna to about 21-23 metres and it hadn't been a problem. That being said our current one is at about 12 metres, but we have been at some places around the farm to have Portland booming in on the trailing edge of a high pressure in summer. In less frequent occasions Tassie.

One EO member who shall remain anonymous but I know well, has used a high power set and couldn't get in much better than other trucks to us from the Princes Highway.

The height of the antenna means a lot avoiding tree bases. Line of sight is a reference only as you can get signals over and around hills a bit, but not like the old rotten 27mhz radios.

27mhz signal can bounce of the ironasphere and can travel thousands of miles. A peson broke down in a boat off QLD. and our local sea rescue picked up the signal in SA and rang the QLD police. Saved his life VHF and UHF are more line of sight so if you run on duplex through a repeter high on a mountain you could hear the conversation for miles. Unless you can hit the repeter to transmit it wont work

Heard of a case in Qld a good few years ago ....

UHF conversation from near Rockhampton to near Brisbane.

Comments were - it sounded like talking through a 6" poly pipe.

Cant confirm the story tho ....

The old 27mhz was always good for a million miles range with some simple gear and the right conditions ..... Just couldnt always guarrantee talking to who you wanted to ... LOL

Ducting .... Captured between layers ....

Thanks VK ... that would lend some fact to the hollow poly pipe, transmission sound quality.

Guess I was wrong ... and the bloke wasnt "troppo" after all ... LOL

I don't think the hollow echo type of sound would be produced with an FM signal. Maybe that piping sound was from an equipment malfunction. Maybe even a crook microphone or something around the speaker producing an echo.

I wondered about the word troppo when it first came up in lectures as well. The lecturer used it to perfection.

Its a marvelous yet very strange phenomenon and I have enjoyed over the years, a few ducted (piped if you want) contacts with other amateur stations way up in Asia and of course across the pond in New Zealand. Mainly on UHF as I dont have any SHF equipment. Even went and visited one New Zealand contact and went fishing on Lake Taupo. You want trout - you aint seen nothing. Huge!!!

Enjoy

Phil

I have been out in the NW Indian Ocean when we were getting surface ducting that had both UHF and Indian band surface radar reception out to 600 Nautical Miles.

The weather conditions were ususual though.

Pete

The good old days before we had responsibilities, eh

There is a weather condition called a temperature inversion that allows very high frequency (VHF) signals to travel further than normal. This usually happens in the evening during nice summer weather. It is like an upside down mirage. There is cool air at ground level and warmer air above. These layers act as a mirror (by total internal reflection) and the radio signals get reflected over the horizon. Warm air bubbles rising in thunder storms sometimes act as a giant lens giving short-lived freak radio reception over surprisingly long distances.

Contact with a horse and cart Doug ??!!

Your transmission must have gone back in TIME as well.

Just amazing.....

I bet the temperature inversion was right under the horse's tail....

Horse and Cart is what I said, and it wasn't Harold Steptoe.
I moved over to Perth June 06 so I reackon it would have been 2005, he was travelling from NT to Qld, maybe some other member saw him on the Stuart, Barkly, or Flinders Highways.

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Hi Doug

Just to let you know, it must be the same chap, with the horse and cart, in 2005 travelling just outisde Timber Creek, so that part can be readily verified, and I will go through my old photos as I know I have one somewhere.

Cheers

Marc
Very good, look forward to seeing the photo. We drivers knew where he was because we seen him on the way over to Townsville the day before so had an idea of the approx' range we were getting.

Doug

Doug

I have a 500mb external HDD full of photos and music, and you might guess that I have not labelled anything, so it will be interesting finding the photo, but when I do I will post it.

Cheers

Naughty...I have over 7.51gb of photo's 8,997 in 50 folders all named, so when I want to find one I just type in part of the name and it's found in seconds.

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