UHF Radio

People who earn a living on the road (truckies mainly, but others too) stay on 40 - 18 is traditionally the caravanners' channel (but other users are often found on there too).
The closer you get to the cities, the worse the incidence of ferals too, on UHF (often unusable in urban areas, as a result). If you have programmable scan, you can ask the radio to continually scan both 18 and 40 (plus any others you'd like to add), while cruising.

Always on 40. The people who are working out on the roads, for this read trucks/road trains, are the ones that you need to keep in touch with. Talk to them as the come up behind you or approach you on single lane roads or gravel. Let them know you will do what you can to make it easy for them to pass. They will not only be very appreciative of your consideration but will generally pass on info such as road conditions etc.

I would not use 40 for general chat with other caravan drivers but would drop to 18 or another free channel to do this.

Same as above. We usually stay on 40 on the main roads and then put the scan on. (Set for a few channels, 40, 18 and 10 I think.) If you have all channels on scan you will pick up property workers, miners etc which at times can be a bit annoying to listen to and then sometimes interesting.
On 40 you will also pick up roads works and wide loads, which is very handy. Usually turn off 40 when approaching major centres due to the language.
Kevin

Hi Baker,

As others have advised, Ch 40 is good if you want to talk to the truck drivers. But what channel you use will depend on where you are eg in some places where there are roadworks or a lot of heavy vehicle activity there may be a specific channel in use, notified by roadside signs.

We generally leave our UHF on scan - its easy then to select a particular channel if you hear something of interest.

Enjoy your trip.

Cheers,

Val

Yes very entertaIning the UHF in town you get to learn things you may not wanted to ever know. You forget it's still on then look out definitely not for Nans ear.

Hi Baker

We leave ours on 40 (or the otherwise designated channel for that road). 18 is for used for caravanners in convoy to chat without blocking the road channel - and you will likely only pick up things like them discussing where to stop for lunch if you scan. Scanning will also pick up lots of other conversations as you pass, such as on farms or stations; not what i want to do.

Motherhen

Hi baker
You could leave it on ch40 and purchase a handheld that way if you are talking on another channel ie 18 you can still hear ch40 for the important tasks of trucks wide loads and roadwork etc I always turn mine off in major centres The handheld can then be also used for reversing the van in akward places better than yelling or missed hand signals
Steve

When travelling by our selves we set the radio to scan and scan Ch. 5, 10, 18, 29, 39 and 40.... plus what ever other channels for the area.

They are the most common channels that may concern you, if you use "scan all" you get to much junk.