AMSA takes over HF monitoring

This is really interesting, maybe an acknowledgement that reliance on beacon alone is bull**** in Australia.
Now if they did position reports twice a day on 2 and 4 mhz we would be back to what we had in 1975.
Although they don't say what stations are listening so might need to make sure 6 and 8 mhz are working.
VMC is fair way from the coast.

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lydia said..
Lucky I have 2 spare HF sets in the shed.

I'm looking for one in case you're interested in selling.

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shaggybaxter said..
Is it wrong to think HF is still kinda cool?
Awesome capability with a knowledgeable operator.

From someone who uses HF almost daily for work, I can't understand why we are still using it. Often I wish I was carrying a pigeon with a note around its leg to throw out the window.

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saltiest1 said..

lydia said..
Lucky I have 2 spare HF sets in the shed.

I'm looking for one in case you're interested in selling.

Hfradio.com.au
Has 2nd hand marine sets for sale.
The older Conan are my favourite and built to a different Standard to the newer icom.
But installation is everything.

If anyone has a HF and can't get out work here is what has worked for me over 30 years in different boats even where we have ended up the relay vessel in extreme rescue situations for emergency services.

The power lead to the set is direct from the best battery, no switches no fuses but a integral fuse built in to the lead (carry a spare but never had to use it) ie no joins anywhere.

Put the auto tuner directly under the antenna so the leads is as short as possible (10 cm max) not metres away at the nav table.

Use car distributor lead cable as antenna cable (high quality wire with max insulation) Some I know wrap the antenna cable in foil and put in a pvc conduit between the set and the tuner.

Have the longest ground strap you can fit in the boat. (No a fan of ground plates)

Have had best results with Moonraker 6m antenna rather than backstay antenna (understand antenna length and what the tuner does and why it matters for each frequency)

Not sure about this one as Shaggy will explain differently so might be a wives tale make sure there is a lanyard in the lifelines especially is using 6mhz or above.

It is also the only electrical system on the boat which I clean the contacts regularly each year.

others will have different views but the only right set up is the one that work for your boat you just have find it as all boats are different.

So for our upcoming winter cruise from NSW to the Whitsundays and hopefully the Swain Reefs would you guys go HF or Satphone? I'm thinking Satphone because I don't have a Hf license and even if I still have the old hf set somewhere it needs installation and new frequency crystals iirc

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MorningBird said..

Chris 249 said..
So for our upcoming winter cruise from NSW to the Whitsundays and hopefully the Swain Reefs would you guys go HF or Satphone? I'm thinking Satphone because I don't have a Hf license and even if I still have the old hf set somewhere it needs installation and new frequency crystals iirc

If you get in trouble you will use a beacon so HF or satphone are only a communication tool. HF is an unreliable communication method and you can't call home with it.
I used a satphone to Lord Howe each time. Rang my wife or sister daily to get a weather report and let them know where we were/conditions etc. They could leave messages for me to call if needed, although we didn't need to.

Actually you can call home with the right HF unit but its a bit clunky.

Other than that, I agree with the rest of MB post. If you are considering one or the other I would have the sat phone. The HF may be expensive to buy and free (its not really) to operate whereas the sat phone is cheap to buy and expensive to operate, the overall operating cost of the sat phone may well be cheaper.

Up along the East coast on the winter pilgrimage, there are so many boats you'll almost always get someone on VHF..

Was the only source of communicating when I was racing . No mobiles ,ais,mmsi back then. Second nature to use.
God I'm old. Great comfort factor knowing someone will hear you but not sure thesedays if other vessels don't have them . Do commercial ships listen to them still?
BTW I meant to advise few years back there was talk that you needed a current radio licence that includes knowledge of mmsi etc. to get an mmsi number. Wrong. My ROCPR ,which includes hf/vhf etc, issued in the seventies was accepted by amsa

Yep, grew up with the Penta Comstat days.
On deliveries always had evening drunks at sked time.
Still have copies of the Penstat Radio books

That is what people don't understand with HF, you can be too close or not far enough away,
That is why the Hobart Green Cape rule is bull****.
Spoke to a experienced commercial HF operator who did the 1998 Melbourne Hobart, once, he told be about trying to get a signal out at the height of the gale they had south of Maatsuyker with incredible atmospherics.
8 mhz plus, engine full revving trying to get more transmission power, backstay aerial gleaming in the darkness.
It is not what signal you sent out but where you land it.

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duncansayers said..

lydia said..
That is what people don't understand with HF, you can be too close or not far enough away,
.

For context, I was a radio operator on Her Majesty's Australian Submarines. Agreeing with Lydia - specifically, it's all in the bounce off the ionosphere. Some days exercising off Cape Jervis you'd expect NAVCOMSTA Canberra would be the obvious (nearest) option for HF ship-to-shore, but get Darwin instead. And often less power is better, not more. Then at night, everything changes after sunset as the ionising effect from the sun is reduced, changing the atmosphere's layers. In other words, HF requires a bit of skill to understand its quirks - good fun if you like tinkering. But give me a satellite phone or router any day, to keep things simple and (mostly) reliable.

Cheers, nice to have such high level support.
I had given up trying to explain what you just said to yacht race organisers years ago.
But I grew up with it so am still very fond of it.
there was the ritual of waiting for for the sun to go down and the world come alive.
Still a kick when you do the impossible.
One year for a while we could run a sked for boats returning from the Osaka race from Manly Qld when they were in a cyclone south of Guam.

On a different issue you would be surprised how you can bounce a 27 mhz signal as well.

I will get a pic tomorrow of the "Dover Radio" "inverted V" antenna that uses an old Dragon mast to hold it all up.
impressive kit!
Jeremy and Penny run HF skeds (at request) for the Southern Ocean and to Patagonia from their house just up the road.

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Chris 249 said..
Great info and it confirms that we'll go for the satphone option.

We have sat phone as well but only one person gets to listen.

Although the one we use as a great function, two key strokes to send position to an assigned group of numbers.

Always nice to know who is nearby though notwithstanding AIS

Was a Pentaconstat member now TAS Maritime - RG 590
Out.

This may be of interest.

www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/bundaberg-central/other-electronics-computers/codan-9323-hf-radio/1288305703

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duncansayers said..

lydia said..
That is what people don't understand with HF, you can be too close or not far enough away,
.

For context, I was a radio operator on Her Majesty's Australian Submarines. Agreeing with Lydia - specifically, it's all in the bounce off the ionosphere. Some days exercising off Cape Jervis you'd expect NAVCOMSTA Canberra would be the obvious (nearest) option for HF ship-to-shore, but get Darwin instead. And often less power is better, not more. Then at night, everything changes after sunset as the ionising effect from the sun is reduced, changing the atmosphere's layers. In other words, HF requires a bit of skill to understand its quirks - good fun if you like tinkering. But give me a satellite phone or router any day, to keep things simple and (mostly) reliable.

I flew Grumman Trackers from 1973 until 1984. Were you on O boats or Collins?
It wasn't uncommon when operating in the East Australia Exercise Area to get Clark USAF base in the Philippines or a station in Hawaii and nothing in between. The ionosphere or maybe a ground wave rules what reception you get.

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lydia said..

On a different issue you would be surprised how you can bounce a 27 mhz signal as well.

The HF frequency range is from 3 - 30MHz, so yes not surprising.