Advocate II
- 2,315
- First Name
- Randall
- Last Name
- Treloyn
- Member #
-
5615
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- VK7VWK
Here is my Barrett HF Mobile Outpost Transceiver, next to a familiar object so you can get a sense of the size of the unit.
As you may notice the unit is not the newest but I intend to keep it because it still works and would cost thousands of dollars to replace with a more modern unit.
HF Mobile Outpost radio in Australia is separate from amateur (HAM) radio. The units are "Type Approved" like CB or GMRS but transmit at 125W PEP on SSB to contact the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) or subscriber overland traveller services. The range is very large, covering the whole of Australia. The transmitted signal also incorporates "Sellcall" tone sequences which identify the operator and alert the base stations. If you used amateur radio (HAM) transceivers for this service you would be found out fairly fast, but you could get away with it in a life and death emergency.
The unit is controlled from the remote head and the sensible place to mount the transceiver unit is in the rear of the vehicle (in my case behind the back seat). Often the antenna is placed on the bullbar (you may have seen the whip antennas with large tuners on the base on some Australian cars). In this case, the antenna will be on the rear of the vehicle as the Kombi has no bullbar and very little metal at the front.
The fun begins because as a radio amateur, I'd lie to install a HAM transceiver (perhaps a Yaesu FT-891) in the Kombi as well. but I don't want to run too many coaxial cables from inside to outside (limiting the number of holes) and I'd likely only use one HF transceiver at a time, swapping antennas.
I could use a remote head for the HAM transceiver, but the control cable would be about 4m (13ft) long. The coax swap over point would then be in the back of the van.
The other way would be to run coax from the Outpost unit to the front of the van and have the swap point close to the local control HAM rig. This would result in a double-length path for the outpost unit but easier access.
Do you think there would be any great problem with an 10m (33ft) transmitter feed with an PL259-SO239 join in the middle or the coax going both back and forth in a limited space?
As you may notice the unit is not the newest but I intend to keep it because it still works and would cost thousands of dollars to replace with a more modern unit.
HF Mobile Outpost radio in Australia is separate from amateur (HAM) radio. The units are "Type Approved" like CB or GMRS but transmit at 125W PEP on SSB to contact the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) or subscriber overland traveller services. The range is very large, covering the whole of Australia. The transmitted signal also incorporates "Sellcall" tone sequences which identify the operator and alert the base stations. If you used amateur radio (HAM) transceivers for this service you would be found out fairly fast, but you could get away with it in a life and death emergency.
The unit is controlled from the remote head and the sensible place to mount the transceiver unit is in the rear of the vehicle (in my case behind the back seat). Often the antenna is placed on the bullbar (you may have seen the whip antennas with large tuners on the base on some Australian cars). In this case, the antenna will be on the rear of the vehicle as the Kombi has no bullbar and very little metal at the front.
The fun begins because as a radio amateur, I'd lie to install a HAM transceiver (perhaps a Yaesu FT-891) in the Kombi as well. but I don't want to run too many coaxial cables from inside to outside (limiting the number of holes) and I'd likely only use one HF transceiver at a time, swapping antennas.
I could use a remote head for the HAM transceiver, but the control cable would be about 4m (13ft) long. The coax swap over point would then be in the back of the van.
The other way would be to run coax from the Outpost unit to the front of the van and have the swap point close to the local control HAM rig. This would result in a double-length path for the outpost unit but easier access.
Do you think there would be any great problem with an 10m (33ft) transmitter feed with an PL259-SO239 join in the middle or the coax going both back and forth in a limited space?
