AWQ VHF radio

janny11
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Re: AWQ VHF radio

Post by janny11 » Sat Jul 09, 2022 10:56 pm

thanks for the information. I did the coursework for my radio licence last year but only got around to doing the face to face work and practical tonight.
The presenter did the usual intro/why do you need a licence circuit of the room and after a string of barcrushers and was shocked to hear I needed it to chase tuna off a ski at Portland :lol:
I thought I'd post the most useful thing I learned tonight which actually came from a side conversation with the presenter afterwards. We were talking transmission distance and he said the boaties get 10 - 15nm on VHF with a correctly installed antenna. He said kayaks would be around 7nm and agreed with what GME told me that installing a whip on the back of the yak like Minny has, but hooking it into my handheld would have limited gain on signal and would still be less than what a boatie is getting.
I was telling him how I dropped fully out of comms coverage (no phone or radio) with Jordo and Shane on one of the tuna trips last year and I'm sure they were much closer than 7nm so we were getting stuff all transmission distance on the water.I asked if he had any suggestions and he said we should be using the repeater towers at Portland and Warrnambool for our tuna trips.
I usually read these kind of nrc articles for information.
So basically if we consider our working channel ie 72 has a transmission of 7nm (much less in big swells).
Portland and Warranabool repeaters pickup all transmissions within 25nm of the towers and boost then up before sending them back out Portland to Port Fairy repeater is on channel 81 and Warrnambool back to Port Campbell repeater is on Channel 80.
Legally you have to run a dual watch ie 16 and 72
But he suggested we run a tri-watch 16, 72 and 81.
That way if we drop out of comms on 72, we can switch to 81 and still be heard.
Unfortunately it only works if everyone's radio has the tri-watch function.

dmck
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Re: AWQ VHF radio

Post by dmck » Mon Jul 11, 2022 2:53 pm

Er... I think you better re-investigate what repeaters do...... i've never heard of a repeater on 72.
Repeaters work "cross band" and your radio will automatically use that mode when you switch to a repeater channel. If you want to use a repeater you MUST have your radio switched to that channel....
or.. I have misunderstood your explanation...

"legally you have to run a dual watch"....... never heard that one either....

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re-tyred
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Re: AWQ VHF radio

Post by re-tyred » Tue Jul 12, 2022 8:00 am

All marine VHF operators must maintain a watch on channel 16 if possible. If you have a very old radio that doesn't have dual watch then you are exempt. I have never heard of anyone actually getting in to trouble for not doing it. It is mainly a rule for commercial ships. They have two VHF radios as a minimum. Repeaters use dual channel operation (duplex) They tx on one ch. and Rx on another. The repeat mirrors the channels. So it receives your tx and transmits it back on the Rx channel. You can only talk through a repeater when using the repeater ch. You can't talk directly to another vessel on duplex.
Legal radios in Australia have been passed by AMCA and meet all channel and power legal requirements. For VHF that means they must have all international channels plus be able to switch to US channels. HH radios max 5watts , installed hardwired radios max 25w. Antenna height and antenna gain are the main performance governors. VHF will do a little bit better than the visible horizon.

Emergency buttons. To work you must register the radio with AMSA and obtain an MMSI number. To get one you will need a VHF operators licence. You will also need to have GPS connected to your radio so that your position and ID (MMSI) can be transmitted. If you activate the emergency button, all VHFs within range will put up an alert. This is one of the best ways of getting assistance from boaters nearby. An emergency is something that is an immediate threat to life or injury. If you are broken down in good weather, then you must exhaust other methods of obtaining help, before resorting to activating your VHF emergency button or using an EPIRB. However do not hesitate if you cannot raise 000 or someone via VHF, flashing light, flare etc.
There's nothing . . . absolutely nothing . . . half so much worth doing as simply messing around in boats.
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows (River Rat to Mole)

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