Everything I am about to write refers to an expensive load of
electronic junk which you probably don't want to know anything about
and, just like your First Aid kit, it will remain exactly that until
the day it saves your life. On that basis it is worth making a little
time and effort to research what is best for you.

Let's start this discussion about radio communications with a brief
overview of map coordinate systems.

Many people in the Australian bush have died or suffered considerable
hardship because they didn't know where they were. You may remember
the sad case of the 15 year old boy who died near Sydney in 2009 when
emergency service telephone operators refused to believe he was lost
in the bush because he couldn't tell them where he was although he
was only about 15km from civilisation. It is no good having a
sophisticated communications system if you cannot provide your
location for a rescue party.

Where am I?
By international convention the surface of the planet is divided into
an imaginary x and y grid called latitude and longitude (lat and
long). For many years, hundreds, a latitude and longitude coordinate
has been quoted as degrees, minutes and seconds but with the advent
of GPS systems the use of decimal degrees has become more common and
has the advantage that it is simpler to quote and understand
especially over a poor radio connection. If you can provide a lat and
long coordinate to emergency services they will know *exactly* where
you are.

To summarise: I *strongly* recommend you use latitude and longitude in
decimal degrees for your location reference.

A decimal degrees reference looks like this: -37.8159, 144.9569
The minus sign indicates it's a southern hemisphere reference. Four
decimal places provides 11m of accuracy and is more than sufficient.

Just occasionally governments do really good things and this is one
of them:

https://d28rz98at9flks.cloudfront.net/102240/Map_reading_guide_v4.pdf

The "Map Reading Guide" by Geoscience Australia is an outstanding
source of information for people seeking to learn the basics of
mapping. It is a free download or only a few dollars for the printed
version which is well worth buying. Read and learn.

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Communications: Do you need them?
In Australia, yes, you do. A better question is what type of comms do
you need?

If you never venture more than 1km or 2km from the bitumen and
generally stay in caravan parks then a mobile phone and, ideally, a
UHF CB radio will be adequate for 98% of your journeys.

If you go into more remote areas then good comms is a very sensible
precaution and this is where things start to become involved. The
following are the main options for land travellers in Australia:

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HF radio
Advantages:
Will work under dense tree cover and in any weather
Has a world wide range
Does not depend upon a satellite system
Does not have a significant on-going cost
All basic use is free
Can be heard by people who may be nearby
More sophisticated sets can send SMS and e-mail
Can chat with other bush travellers

Disadvantages:
Requires an elaborate antenna system
Requires basic technical knowledge
Expensive to buy
May be affected by atmospheric conditions
Should be installed by a professional

----

Satellite telephone
Advantages:
Allows direct communications to anyone on the telephone system
Easy to use, no technical knowledge required
Can be used for SMS and e-mail (check with provider)

Disadvantages:
Expensive to buy and use
May not work under tree cover or with poor satellite geometry
Will be cut off if you don't pay the bill

----

Mobile phone
Advantages:
Everyone has one, if not they are cheap to buy
Allows direct communications to anyone on the telephone system
Easy to use, no technical knowledge required
Can be used for SMS and e-mail
Relatively cheap to operate

Disadvantages:
Very short range in the bush - maybe 50km at best
Only one viable service provider for bush use (Telstra)

----

UHF CB radio
Advantages:
Widely used by bush travellers - almost all trucks have one
Relatively cheap to buy
Easy to use, no technical knowledge required

Disadvantages:
Very short range in the bush - 1km to 150km conditions dependent
Should probably be installed by a professional

----

HF (27MHz) CB radio

No longer a useful system for most bush travellers

----

EPIRB or PLB
Advantages:
Sends an immediate "Life at risk" message to search and rescue
Sends a GPS acquired location to search and rescue
Fully self contained and robust
No ongoing costs

Disadvantages:
May *ONLY* be used if there is a discernible threat to life
Expensive-ish

----

Spot Messenger
Advantages:
Sends an immediate "Life at risk" message to search and rescue
Sends a GPS acquired location to search and rescue
May be used to send three levels of message - OK, Help, Emergency
Can send e-mail and/or SMS to predetermined recipients
Fully self contained and robust
Relatively cheap to buy

Disadvantages:
Ongoing costs are now significant
Messages are predetermined and limited

----

Amateur Radio
Advantages:
Access to a huge area of radio spectrum
Virtually guaranteed of voice contact 24 hours
E-mail and SMS are possible
Will work under dense tree cover and in any weather
Has a world wide range
Does not depend upon a satellite system
Does not have a significant on-going cost
All basic use is free
Can be heard by people who may be nearby
Can chat with other bush travellers and friends

Disadvantages:
A technical examination required for use
Requires an elaborate antenna system
Requires basic technical knowledge
Expensive to buy
May be affected by atmospheric conditions

----

Carrier Pigeon
Advantages:
They make a nice "coo"ing sound
A good companion when alone in the bush
Very low on-going costs
Can be useful if the food runs out....

Disadvantages:
Will only deliver one message to one location
Slow
Prone to hanging around statues
No use at all in the mating season

----

I'll extend the above comments as time permits and I'm sure others
will have contributions too.

However:
-------
Keep in mind that communications is not a get out of jail free card
for stupidity and also that simply because you press the button on an
EPIRB there is no guarantee that S&R will get you to a hospital
before snake venom has killed you - in reality, if you're well into
the bush then they probably won't!

Thanks Mike, great info.

Aussie Paul. 

Hewy54 wrote:

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Could include a comment on the Inreach text communicator.

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 So could you :)

Mike Harding wrote:

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Hewy54 wrote:

---

Could include a comment on the Inreach text communicator.

---

 So could you :)

 

---

 Thought it would be better for you to have included it in your summary, but if not, here is my summary.

The Inreach satellite communicator can send and receive text messages and has an SOS button which will put you in contact with emergency services via text, while sending coordinates of your location. Current cost is $519 but we managed to get one on special for $300. Costs $19.95 per month while activated, or $6.95 per month while not active. You do not have to use preset messages, and can be linked to an ipad to make messaging easier. When we arrive at a remote location we just send a text to my daughter to say we have arrived. She then gets the message along with a map of where we are. Anyone wanting to get in contact with us can contact my daughter, get the phone number, then send us a text. we have been using it for 2 years now with no problems. 

HF Radio:
Let's expand on my brief summary above.

The range of radio frequencies we call "HF" cover 1.8MHz to 30MHz. In
days past we commonly called them the "short waves".

HF radio has been used in Australia for bush communications for many
decades; Flying Doctor, School of the Air homestead to homestead etc.
It is used less these days as satellite and microwave communications
have a much greater bandwidth although that comes at a price both
financial and in complexity.

Nevertheless HF radio will be with us for many decades to come and
whenever there is a major catastrophe (eg. the Indian Ocean tsunami)
HF radio is often the only form of communications working.

For our purposes we will be considering a radio which is suitable for
use on the Land Mobile System, a set of HF frequencies licenced by
the ACMA, and in the main we are looking at vehicle mounted radios
which, essentially, means two suppliers Codan and Barrett. Both
produce well designed and well made radios and there's not much to
choose between them - although the Barrett is better because a good
friend of mine had a big hand in their design :) I should also
mention Icom who are a more recent entrant into this market.

Modern land mobile HF radios are sophisticated items and the more
expensive ones are capable of making telephone calls, sending e-mail
and SMS in addition to voice communications. However in order to make
all this magic happen you will need someone to communicate with at
the other end and for most users that means one of the radio "clubs"
such as VKS737, HF Radio Club or HF-Oz - there may be others too. You
will need to check exactly which services they offer and their costs.
I'm not sure of current prices but I think VKS737 is around $120 a
year membership and telephone calls are charged independently.

http://www.vks737.on.net/
https://hfradioclub.com.au/
http://www.hfoz.com.au/

HF Land Mobile radios are not cheap and most people will need to have
them professionally installed and for a new high end radio with
autotune antenna that will come to around $4000. Ouch.

There is another option; buy a secondhand unit (usually around $700)
and use either a multi-tap antenna of a dipole thrown up in the
trees. Installing the radio is not a trivial task and somewhat
different to fitting a CB but it's not inherently complex and if
you're handy with tools you will be able to do it.

Let's briefly talk HF antennas:
Three options:
1 - Codan or Barrett autotune
2 - Tapped whip (Bushcomm and others)
3 - Home made wire antenna

Option 1 - Autotune - is convenient and expensive. It automatically
tunes to the frequency you select on the radio - fit and forget.
However vehicle mounted vertical antennas are inefficient at HF.

Option 2 - Tapped whip - is less convenient but much less costly. This
antenna has a flying lead and plug and it's necessary to manually
change the plug to another tap on the antenna when you wish to change
radio frequency. Not a problem if you're in camp but tiresome to do
at 100kph on the freeway :) Also inefficient at HF.

Option 3 - wire dipole - is really cheap! $20 or so. However you will
need to tie it up into the trees (or use a squid pole) and each of
its two arms will be around 9m long so you definitely won't be using
the radio when on the move.

Interestingly; option 3 is by far the most efficient of the above
antennas and even if I had an autotune I'd definitely be using the
wire dipole for preference when in camp.

Finally, I should say that it is not essential to actually *install*
a HF radio in the vehicle. If using an antenna such as a wire dipole
then one can set the radio up on a table, connect the antenna and a
battery (best not to use the vehicle battery) and chat to the world.
Although I do have a HF Amateur radio installed in my 4WD the above
is exactly what I do with a second HF Amateur radio because I want to
sit by the camp fire when I'm chatting and not in the drivers seat
but then I do spend an hour plus on the radio most days.

PS. As I don't own a land mobile and am not a member of a radio club
perhaps others will expand or correct the above.

MH

More excellent info, thanks Mike.

Aussie Paul. 

Hey Mike.

The HF Marine we used on boats.
with 2 Insulators to separate 30 ft of backstay. Tail down to set.
(0 to 30 basically).

I took my old Kenwood Commercial out with us. with a 30 ft wire.
laid out straight on a coupla tall s\s pegs tapped into ground.
worked fairly well, (depending on time of day of course..)

I used it for chatting with mates at sea.
but good for Airport Weather etc.

As rec only now just a short wire. Mike in van locker shhhh.
My licence ran out 20 odd yrs ago
we used as a DF too.
Bearing to known position Airports, less coastal deflection.
Cross ref with other coastal points. B4 GPS, Satnav, etc.

Guesswork was "very" interesting closing land at night in s--t weather

if you didn't carry current Admiralty "List of lights (k)".