HF Radio: Channel tuning & listening to all frequencies

Much the same sentiment here ... We have a Barrett 550 with autotune aerial. It will tune for transmit on all our allocated frequencies. Bought it in 1993, so among these frequencies are all the RFDS nationwide channels, all the School of the Air channels, all the OTC land and marine radfone channels, and of course the likes of VKS etc. My employer at the time also had 3 HF channels - so these were also programmed into the unit. The unit is also optioned for 'Front Panel Field Programing' to enable access to the Amateur HF bands.

With regard to the recieve only capability - it has a free running VFO and any HF band (0.3 MHz to 29.999 MHz) can be input using the front panel digital touchpad. This basicly means any Broadcast band AM (531-1602 Hz) , any HF shortwave which is usually AM also etc.

It can be used on AM, LSB, USB and CW (morse) modes. There is no FM optioned .

VCO should read VFO - too bad for the edit feature on this forum.

In a nutshell - it can tune into any HF frequency for recieve only.

Ok. So does that mean that an owner of a 950 or 9323 can scroll through frequencies (like in the you tube vid) and set receive channels, but not transmit channels (which need to be set by a licensed reseller)?

Can't speak for the 9323 - haven't used one. I think its fair to say that a reseller will simply give you the most useful legal frequency set for your radio, according to your licence. Some, if not all of that setup is possible by the owner (including the selection of Tx channels), but you may contravene regs if you are not particularly careful. Liaison with an HF network or local experienced user is the best route into the HF game.

The 9323 has a "free tune receiver" which will let you scroll and listen through the entire HF band from 250KHz to 30MHz. You can also save your favorite broadcast radio stations as channels if you so desire. The 9323 software configuration will let you do this, but not program it in as a Tx channel, Rx only.

The 9350 autotune antenna has a signal amplifier built in that is used with the free tune receiver.

HTH


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We once tried this option with a Yaesu FT-747GX - and did the GENeral coverage mod which opened up the TX to all HF frequencies.

The problem with most of these amateur trancievers is that most don't have SELCAL, or more importantly the emergency tone call used by the RFDS.

Such radios are NOT type approved for use other than on the amateur bands and also are not easy to use by persons who may be required to use in an emergency situation.

Simplicity is the key for use by inexperienced persons. IMHO.

Most of the amateur radios on the market (yaesu etc) are not as robust as the current crop of Land Mobile transceivers.

Codan and Barrett (dunno about Q-mac and Icom) are built to Mil-spec, which indicates that the design has passed a series of tests to ensure their survival in the field.

As Polaris indicated, amateur transceivers are not type approved for use on Land Mobile frequencies and are specifically excluded from the various HF Radio networks (VKS, VKE etc.)

Imagine having to flick switches and twiddle knobs on your amateur set if confronted with an emergency, instead of simply sending an emergency selcall........


HTH

I sick reading this “Amateur Transmitter” bashing posts – people who doing so hmmm…. How to say politely… Not that competent. All this rubbish about interference (sometimes even harmful!) make no more sense that End Of Universe that suppose to came today. No one from type approval advocates ever thought that ancient Codan 6924 (great rig, BTW) is type approval while supermodern Yaesu FTDX30000 is not. Does anyone seriously reckon that FTDX30000 will produce more interference that 6924? If one does then (s)he is complete and absolute idiot.

Also there are lame arguments about superior robustness of commercial equipment vs amateur one. May be (just may be) my Barrett 950 survive nuclear attack while FTDX30000 not. But again valve transmitter circa 1960 has far better chances to survive such attack then any modern digital gizmos. As for using in 4WD – what happens to properly designed and properly made rig? How many of those “rigidness” advocates has top level UHF radio installed? Bet that majority using cheap chanoze made Unidens and they serving for decades without any problem.

Selcall? Yes, has certain valid merit. But what if one does not really need it? For example to have secondary radio to communicate between cars or between base and bushwalkers? Portable HF is another can of worms – military manpacks from Codan and Barrett not that portable neither particularly cheap and massive overkill for general requirement.

It is boils down to one single point – ACMA does not like us to use amateur equipment. Period. And people who believe that this is because of “safety” can very well believe that 120km/hr on Hume freeway is incredibly dangerous (legal speed 110) while 100km/hr on twisted gravel alpine road is perfectly safe (legal speed 100). Well so often legality and safety can be miles apart.

One can compile thousands of theories why ACMA dislike amateurs equipment, but as far as I can see it boils down to two points – conspiracy theory that they like us to buy commercial equipment (just imagine what happens with prices on new and especially used Codan and Barrett if ACMA allow to use Yaesus, Icoms and Kenwoods!) and valid argument that amateur radios require more knowledge/understanding and almost always more complicate to use. Argument that they easy to tune to any frequency is another lime one – first of all there are plenty of unlocked Barretts and Codans that allow the same and secondly if I have a rifle, then according to this logic nothing can stop me going out and shoot down street just for fun. And second argument cannot stand simple question – why ACMA dislike licensed amateurs to use amateur equipment on VKS737 (and alike) networks. Thus as for me conspiracy theory is prevail.

So please do not show your restricted knowledge and stop bashing amateur equipment – it is damn good nowadays, some models far superior to any commercial ones. It is just against legislation – as simple as this.