There appears to be a little confusion over which uhf channel to use.
If you use the group scan button on the radio, select  channel 40 for the trucks, press memory, select 18 for the vanners, press mem again, then select the channel you want to use as priority,18 or 40, then press scan, this will scan the two & you wont miss anything. Just add other channels if needed.

Alternativily, use open scan, select the channel you want for priority & press scan, this will give you the 40 channels. Often use this in country areas & can hear other travellers,  farmers, even air craft working on properties. this gives you an idear of who is around if there should be an emergency where phones dont work.

Well done justcruisin01 you made that so simple for all uhf user's all caravaners sould have no trouble with that mate

-- Edited by howdrink on Wednesday 24th of November 2010 02:27:46 PM

My UHF is a fairly basic one (GME) that doesn't have of lot of options for scanning such as group scanning so I have it set to bypass the repeater channels (1 to 8, 31 to 38) and the data channels 22 and 23.

I usually set the priority channel to 40 unless I'm travelling in convoy in which case I set it to whichever we're using for the convoy channel.

I never listen to the repeater channels around town as there is only so much intelligence insulting even my limited intelligence can handle.

-- Edited by jimricho on Wednesday 24th of November 2010 06:19:21 PM

Jim, my set is about 20yrs old so nothing fancy, just a uniden. It has a on/off button for the repeater channels which are used in rural areas to cover the distance.
I still run the old AM/SSB unit as well, some times I can have a chat to interstate.Have spoken to guys in central Vic from the nullabour, mid north coast from NT.just adds a little interest.

As a WA accredited pilot driver - operator, I would strongly advise to use ch. 40. All the trucks, pilots etc use that channel. It can be quite frustating when trying to call up a vehicle with a caravan only to find out eventually they are on another channel.
By all means talk to the pilot or truck if you need information regarding dimentions of an oncoming load.
I do know the language can sometimes a bit rough, however in the interests of road safety, try and bear with it!

I can give more advice on piloting matters if required!

Good point there Thommo. By taking the advice of people such as yourself we can improve the liaison between Truckies and GNs