HF radio
Submitted by roddo on Sun, 2014-04-27 21:14
Hi guys
My new boat has a hf radio in it which I would like to keep in it as if i was involved in an emergency situation I feel this could be a life saving piece of communication. My question is do the local sea rescue groups also monitor hf and if so what channels also is 4149 the wa weather channel.
I would only ever use it in an emergency situation but I fell it could also be handy for weather updates
i understand you need to hold a License to use it which I will be doing very soon hopefully
cheers
Rod
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tangles
Posts: 1367
Date Joined: 17/12/06
raaf
I do know that RAAF base peirce monitor hf comms freqs n id say so do garden island navy base. Not sure on sea search rescue tho
Rob H
Posts: 5745
Date Joined: 18/01/12
water police do, on 4125,
water police do, on 4125, 6215 and 8291 via Perth and Port Hedland "Coast Radio Perth and PH".
Higher frequencies equal longer range but poorer voice quality
Depending on what sort of HF you have there is a lot more to operation than a VHF, press and talk.
Older ones you need to manually tune the antennae to the frequency you are using but newer will have auto tune, they also draw a hell of a lot more power.
The range can be huge, many times spoken with boats on the east coast, Kimberley to Southcoast, NZ and a couple of times near Hawaii
Jump onto BOM site for weather frequencies/times
Give a man a mask, and he'll show you his true face...
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Everyone's just winging it.
meglodon
Posts: 5981
Date Joined: 17/06/10
I'm not sure but do you need a licence ?
You need a licence for VHF (according to ACMA) but I don't know if you need one for HF it would be and idea to find out and think about doing a course in HF radio operation.
carnarvonite
Posts: 8627
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Licence
You will need a licence for the HF but they are discussing doing away with the need for VHF licences.
4125 is all you need and if you require a weather report I think Perth radio do them on the half hour though you will have to chase it up to be 100% sure.
roddo
Posts: 482
Date Joined: 16/10/09
Great thanks for all the
Great thanks for all the info
Swompa
Posts: 3786
Date Joined: 14/10/12
Everything that you need to
Everything that you need to know is said above.
The boat must be fairly big to have HF radio?
After spending a month at sea you miss the crackle and constant beeps and squelch from a HF. Certainly not the clearest form of communication, but from the Abro's, we were talking to boats off Dampier.