HF RADIO

More than likely they will be Police or Emergency Service vehicles (Fire and SES etc). Quite a few of the country Highway Patrol vehicles in WA Police have them - both marked and unmarked vehicles. There may also still be some DPaW, Health Dept and Education Dept vehicles running around with them.

These groups have their own frequencies and you may be able to scan them - but is illegal to transmit on them. You need the relevant authority to use certain frequencies - like the VKS737 frequencies. It is not a licence, that is held by the relevant organisation (VKS737) - you only have authority to use their frequencies.

Despite what many say, there is still a use for HF radios, but they are not the be all and end all in remote communications. They have limitations as do satellite phones. I choose to carry both.

Cheers

Anthony

It all depends where you saw them.....

The locals up the cape use the autotune antennas as some sort of status symbol, there are rarely any cables connected to it, and it may or may not be complete.

I have HF in our 2WD Mercedes Sprinter- and it gets used !!

It is probably not very common to see a street car with a hf radio in it, but you don't necessarily have to have a 4 wheel drive to drive in the out of the way places.

What is way out of the way to some, is just home to others that live in such a place.

Cheers

Are you talking about the Codan style HF antennas ?
If so I have used them on various vehicles for amateur radio use.
They work with amateur radio transceivers with a simple adaptor cable.
I now prefer the so called "screwdriver" style mobile antennas, Tarheel / Hi-Q etc.

John