I'm not sure of the model JC, but I have one of the small Uniden ones (about 3-5 km range) I use for trucks/roadworks etc nearby, also as a back up for passing vehicles if I break down and can't get mobile reception etc. 40 Channel, works well.
I don't know how, but one day I was sitting in my lounge room at home in a Perth Suburb testing the phone, and picked up a bloke in the USA talking to another in Bunbury (200 kms south of Perth) to each other on their radios. Must have been freak atmospheric conditions as this is not supposed to happen......they couldn't hear me though. Maybe a communications satellite passing overhead?
I don't use it around the city or built up areas too many DH's on it, foul language etc.....
-- Edited by Duh on Wednesday 13th of March 2013 05:31:49 PM
I'm not sure of the model JC, but I have one of the small Uniden ones (about 3-5 km range) I use for trucks/roadworks etc nearby, also as a back up for passing vehicles if I break down and can't get mobile reception etc. 40 Channel, works well.
I don't know how, but one day I was sitting in my lounge room at home in a Perth Suburb testing the phone, and picked up a bloke in the USA talking to another in Bunbury (200 kms south of Perth) to each other on their radios. Must have been freak atmospheric conditions as this is not supposed to happen......they couldn't hear me though. Maybe a communications satellite passing overhead?
I don't use it around the city or built up areas too many DH's on it, foul language etc.....
-- Edited by Duh on Wednesday 13th of March 2013 05:31:49 PM
Yes, strange things will happen with the right conditions but have not heard of it with UHF.
The old CB/SSB were noted for it, the side band would go half way around the world with the right sun spots/conditions. I have used the same SSB with a standard ant & spoke to people from the tip of the bight in SA to mid Vic, also from NT to Mid north coast , NSW. I have also heard on CB AM from Tassie to here as well.
Never know where you are going to be heard.
JC,
__________________
Be your self; there's no body better qualified ! "I came into this world with nothing , I still have most of it"
I've still got an ripper of an CB radio with side band ( Uniden Grant ) what I used when I lived in Sydney, used to talk all over the world including all parts of Australia with that one. had an 9 meter high aerial for it was good fun that time but a lot has changed , now we use internet this days but the mongrel is so big no place to fit in the car
Low frequency radio waves can bounce off a layer in the atmosphere called the ionosphere. Distances travelled vary with time of day, frequency used and sunspot activity. This was called "skip" in the old 27 Mhz Cb days.
UHF CB operates on too high a frequency to reflect back to earth and just punches through the ionosphere into space.
I would think you heard someone in Perth retransmitting the audio from an internet relay. Google IRLP. This one exists for ham radio operators, but CBers use a similar system.
Hope this answers some questions....
Thanks Chris,
The two people were asking where the other was located, that is how I know one was in Bunbury and the other in the US.
The US bloke was telling the other he had to talk quietly as his wife and kids were in bed and he didn't want to wake them, I assume this was because of the time difference (ie; night and day etc) between the US and Australia.
-- Edited by Duh on Friday 15th of March 2013 01:16:27 AM
I don't know how, but one day I was sitting in my lounge room at home in a Perth Suburb testing the phone, and picked up a bloke in the USA talking to another in Bunbury (200 kms south of Perth) to each other on their radios. Must have been freak atmospheric conditions as this is not supposed to happen......they couldn't hear me though. Maybe a communications satellite passing overhead?
-- Edited by Duh on Wednesday 13th of March 2013 05:31:49 PM
Low frequency radio waves can bounce off a layer in the atmosphere called the ionosphere. Distances travelled vary with time of day, frequency used and sunspot activity. This was called "skip" in the old 27 Mhz Cb days.
UHF CB operates on too high a frequency to reflect back to earth and just punches through the ionosphere into space.
I would think you heard someone in Perth retransmitting the audio from an internet relay. Google IRLP. This one exists for ham radio operators, but CBers use a similar system.
Hope this answers some questions....
__________________
Cheers, Chris...
"The problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you're finished" - Benjamin Franklin
