Anyone Using Codan for Phone Patch???

Hi Steve,
I was reading about this topic the other day...Here is the link in case you have not seen it
Regards,
fosss

Site Link

#WhyUse HF Radio @ ExplorOz

Hi Steve,

Ive been a member of the VKS-737 network for around 6-7 years now and recently joined the HF Club as well.

I mainly use our set to stay in contact with mates scattered around Oz and when i think about it i listen in to the SKEDS of an evening picking up on weather and road conditions.

The HF club have a relatively inexpensive phone patch system whereas you deposit their 'call bank' with an amount of $50 [min] and work off it, accounts are sent out to you when the balance gets to $20, requesting a top up. Charges are worked out at $1 connection plus the 1st minute and .50c per minute after that to a max of 6 mins. [Mobile rates are slightly higher] At present this system is operating through 3 bases around Oz, Casino NSW, Cooladi Qld & Albany WA.

Not sure if the VKS network still do this but a few years back i 'hired' a 2nd selcall number from them for $10 a month and was able to us that selcall to call one desiginated phone number, our home.

HF's are not infallible some times due to atmospheric conditions it is just impossible to get out to a particular station but in the case of emergencies i'd be certain in saying that someone somewhere would hear you. For those venturing into the back blocks I would also carry a personal EPIRB.

Cheers
M&V

Hi Steve,

I have a Codan NGT AR fitted. Have used it a lot for phone patching. Very dependent upon atmospherics, like all HF stuff but have made calls to family etc from remote places and in a couple of instances made contact when even Satellite couldn't do it!

Service I use is provided by Lake Macquarie Communications although I know there are others as well.

Have a look here - Lake Macquarie Communications

Hello - on the thread of the interference - we have been with BushTelegraph for 6 years now - mainly use the Rad Phone service when necessary through Wayne Reids services in Cowra etc. I wonder what the problem is when out back and not near any Electrical cables etc. Maybe I am a bit niave about it all. Looking for more Tech input.
Cheers - Ian & Sally

Hi Steve

i received a reply from the VKS network, cut & pasted below.

[quote]Hi Mick

The Network has been very heavily involved in the BPL debarkle and has made submissions to ACMA as well as working closely with the WIA, ACREM etc.

While BPL has the potential to cause major problems it still has to get off the ground in a commercial fashion against MAJOR competition from far superior methods of delivering internet to customers. Many oversea countries have already banned BPL, in the USA the FCC has started jumping on the power companies and have closed some trials down because of interference to other services. Several trials in the US have been aborted as financially unviable by the power companies involved.

It seems that the only country in the world actively pushing BPL is Australia, Unfortunately BPL needs powerlines to be connected between a grid and the houses to work - how many places in the bush (which is where little Johnny says it will work) are actually connected to a grid system - the maximum distance between repeaters on the power lines is around 500 metres so you would need lots of repeaters for a house that is even 20km from the nearest power grid let alone 100km.

Wireless ADSL systems like those being offered by Internode, Adam, Unwired etc are far cheaper to install and operate, and are infinitely more reliable than BPL.

The BPL people also forget that what gets out of the power line, gets in just as easy - trials in the US have found that a 4 watt CB radio under power lines disrupt the internet service, can you imagine what a 100 watt HF radio under a power line does to the service, can you imagine the results if 5000+ VKS-737 members and 15,000+ radio amateurs with 100 watt radios as well as 10's of thousands of CBers start transmitting and sending selcalls (perfectly legally) next to power lines - I think the BPL suppliers would have some very upset customers; best of all the BPL companies cannot lodge any form of complaint against this form of interference.

I think that HF is going to be around for a VERY LONG TIME, AirServices Australia, the RAAF and the Military have just spent many millions of dollars upgrading their HF services.

Regards

[/quote]

Steve,
Peter James from Melbourne's western suburbs, somewhere around Lara, has been working on a system where using a Codan radio with a GPS connection the radio would send out a message and log your location every few minutes, and anyone who you gave the log on details to could then look up your location on the Internet.

It was also to have a TEXT message system attached to it that would allow 60 character text messages to be sent and ws hoped to be up and operating by April 2006. As always Red tape got in the way and he is still having problems getting the necessary licensing in place to allow it to go into operation.

As for voice calls over the HF, we had it in 2001 and 2002 and it cost about $100 per year to have it connected, then about $6 for a 5 minute phone call. It automatically cut off after that time. The big problem that we found with it was that the person receiving the call took a long time to get used to a one way conversation of a phone call via radio and follwed with OVER before they could reply.

Since then I have relied on the VKS737 network passing on any message to us at the daily Sked times. On our last trip Conrad's daughter put in a message and wanted a phone call reply giving her instructions. As we were hundreds of Km from the nearest phone, VKS737 made the reply phone call for us, and that is all included in your annual membership fees.

If you want Person to Person phone calls then I think a Sat Phone is the way to go.