HF versus Sat Phone

We've travelled with a HF radio since the mid 80's when it was the only communication available especially in remote areas.
In that time we've used it probably a half a dozen times in an emergency for ourselves (a family of five with three small children in the early days), fellow travellers and to obtain assistance for other travellers.
On top of that it's been used innumerable times to obtain mechanical assistance and/or parts for us and others in remote areas.
In the last 20 years it has been used twice by us to organise assistance due to mechanical breakdown, in both cases we also had an Iridium satphone which was next to useless due to atmospheric and local conditions and on both occasions it was easily sorted out with VKS on the HF.
We ditched the satphone about 8 or 9 years ago due to it's ongoing costs with no benefit and now have a Starlink but will still have the HF as a backup.
You still see Police and emergency vehicles with HF in remote areas as it still works when the chips are down, sat comms can be turned off at the flick of a switch by the provider and with the way the world's going it might be the only thing that does work in an emergency.

We used to use a HF radio many moons ago when there was no other form of emergency help if needed.

Back then I was registered with all the RFDS base and would speak with them. The bases then went away of general communications and the world of communications changed for ever.

We then went with an Inmarsat Satellite phone that has performed faultlessly right around Australia with never any dead spots.

The best thing with the Inmarsat, you do not need any credit to keep your number and 000 calls are free.

Also carry PLB and SPOT.


Roll a vehicle with HF and damage your antenna and your are up shit creek without a paddle.


With SPOT and PLB just press your emergency button and you know your massage will get out, and the same with a Satphone, point your antenna to the sky and ring 000

G'day Murray

I am a VKS - 737 network member and have be so for decades, luckily I've never had to use the network or my (old technology) HF radio in an emergency situation in a personal sense.

I was able to relay messages for a VKS member who was having difficulty during an emergency situation, his vehicle had rolled, the HF radio antenna was damaged but he was still able to make an emergency call to VKS but the signal was unreliable, I just happened to be in a relative ' sweet spot ' having a good signal from the poor bugger in strife and a good signal back to the VKS base in Tasmania.

Anyway, after a lot of too and fro-ing over the airwaves things were arranged for the bloke in distress and I was asked if I could remain on channel until an all clear was given ~ this did not happen as airway/radio signal hash, as I call it flooded in from Indonesia at the time.

I boot the Codan 9323 up, every time I head out of town, even if it's just to watch the Sun set or to have cup of Tea.

The VKS member in strife was somewhere along what is known as the Boreline road, inland from Port Hedland, VKS-737 Saint Mary's Tasmania and I just happen to be at a place known locally as Eagle Rock Falls ~ North East of Newman in the Pilbara.

Safe travels : Joe Fury
VKS - 737 Mobile 1709

I have been a member of VKS since 2009 when I did Cape York - had the HFTel function enabled so I could make calls back to home as well.

I have used it in a couple of instances in recent times apart from calling in on the Skeds to give updates as to my location, if all else fails they know where to start looking.

I was on the Canning a few years back and a member of our group broke both rear springs, everyone in the group had Satphones and the numbers they had were Victorian numbers so hardly useful at Georgia Bore, they tried for a while but to no avail, one quick call to VKS and I had about 7 numbers to call, new springs were sent up from Perth to Newman and I collected them on his behalf and drove them back out to Georgia Bore.

Recently my vehicle kept going into limp mode on the first dune heading for the pinnacle trip to the Geo Centres, instead of making a bad situation worse I pulled out and headed south on the Colson Track, did this track many years ago but this time it was overgrown and lost the track numerous times, after about 5 hours I found a spot to pull in for the night. The next morning I called VKS and alerted them of my situation and they tracked me for the rest of the day to make sure I was OK, after removing a pile of spinifex from my Auto Trans Cooler it was OK but I was reassured that they were covering me.

I am about to head into the APY Lands for work, they do have Telstra coverage in the main centres, and made sure that my HF is working, I'm also going out for a take 2 of the Geo Centres next year making sure I go over the vehicle myself instead of relying on the dealer mechanics.

I also carry a PLB / Epirb as a fail safe - life dependency.

cheers

Can you get a hand held HF radio, or is that not possible?

Our first HF was a Codan 6924, worked well and simple to set up, aerial over the highest tree you could throw it over , ground wire out along the ground, clip power leads to the battery and away you went.
Biggest problem was changing the crystals to the required ones for the RFDS bases you were likely to use for each trip.