Radios For Convoy Use On Club Outings.

[XJ Junkie]

A note on magnetic antennas: They aren’t fun on trails that include trees & tall bushes.

[Michael]

A note on magnetic antennas: They aren’t fun on trails that include trees & tall bushes.

The scratches on the roof of my car can confirm this. Fortunately the car is high, so you can't see them

[XJ Junkie]

The problem with magnetic antenna is that they get knocked off. Plus they tend to be shorter in length.

[Mike Nel]

I like the idea of a club buying the radios for use of their members. I would rent out these radios at say R50 per weekend trip or R100 for a long trip. That way the club gets some money back for the purchases and hopefully some money into the kitty when they are "paid off

The idea of keeping the vehicle behind you at all time doesn't work in the dunes. Just saying.

[ThysleRoux]

On the Mountain Passes trip Martin had one of my handheld radios on ORRA 1 and one of the licence free radios in the lead vehicle. We can check with him but I think it will get seriously tricky trying to drive and monitor 2 radios on the passes. When Peter had his tyre problem and stopped he was close to the back of the convoy and the message that he had stopped never reached the front 4 vehicles. Due to the terrain and distance involved the VHF hand held radios were not up to the required task. 9 vehicles get quite strung out on the winding sand roads in the area, possibly due to dust. In the same area I was listening to two locals that were about 15km from me discussing pulling a bakkie out of mud that it had got stuck in. This was happening on ORRA channel 1 that I was monitoring.

Convoy Driving 101 - Keep the vehicle behind you in sight ............................

Not that easy on the winding mountain roads with the dust. If a vehicle is 100m behind you he can be 3 bends away and in your dust. You need your navigator / passenger to monitor the vehicle behind as the driver needs to concentrate on staying on the road.

I understand the problem, but even on winding, dusty roads the vehicle behind should be visible from time to time. I think Kurt is spot on - people just do not use their mirrors and just do not care about protocol.

Personally, I think radio chatter is very irritating and in a challenging off-road situation, can be as dangerous as using a cell phone in traffic. The use should be restricted to important issues.

[ThysleRoux]

I like the idea of a club buying the radios for use of their members. I would rent out these radios at say R50 per weekend trip or R100 for a long trip. That way the club gets some money back for the purchases and hopefully some money into the kitty when they are "paid off

The idea of keeping the vehicle behind you at all time doesn't work in the dunes. Just saying.

The AWDCSA used to have (might still have) a few radios that they rented out on this basis - the system worked very well.

[Rabbiddog RIP 7/6/21]

The LFR radios that could not communicate on our last trip were the Bosvark and Zartek. The other LFR's could tune into both.

Zartek's are pre-programmed to channels 1 to 16 all with sub tone 10, you can however re program them.
The Bosvark's were pre programmed and locked on channel 1 with no sub tone, but can be re programmed.

If I had known about the Bosvark's I would have re programmed the Zartek's to chanel 1 with no sub tone, and there would have been no issues with the LFR radios.

Both of the above can use external antenna's.

I have done many trips with LFR's with full comm's

[Rabbiddog RIP 7/6/21]

Just to add I had 6 LFR's with me, if the Bosvark's were not locked, or I knew they were and on which channel every one would have had com's.

[Michael]

That is quite strange, my Bosvark works from channel 1 to channel 99... some of my mates go from 1-9 and 86-99

[Rabbiddog RIP 7/6/21]

That is quite strange, my Bosvark works from channel 1 to channel 99... some of my mates go from 1-9 and 86-99

These radios were programmed and locked by choice.

If I reprogram my Zartek's I can lock in channels I want to use. The same as Bosvark. Once locked you are buggered without a laptop and cable, I could not change mine as the cable was in JHB.

[Graeme McConnachie]

I have a Vratvark dual band radio which is brilliant. You then have LF and the ORRA channels. Best of both world!
Cheers
Graeme

[AndreasR]

So after the River Trip, those of us who recently installed radios had a good opportunity to test in real world conditions. I was very impressed with my set up that provided perfectly adequate coverage and definitely assisted I keeping the convoy moving by reducing the amount of time waiting for people to catch up.

If one plans to do regular convoy trips it is definitely a worthwhile purchase.

[Mad Manny]

So after the River Trip, those of us who recently installed radios had a good opportunity to test in real world conditions. I was very impressed with my set up that provided perfectly adequate coverage and definitely assisted I keeping the convoy moving by reducing the amount of time waiting for people to catch up.

If one plans to do regular convoy trips it is definitely a worthwhile purchase.

Agree Fully...

[Paul#25]

The radios worked perfectly when I went to find an escape route around some hectic rocks. I was able to call the rest of the guys that wanted to use the bypass and direct them to find the route without retracing the route I had taken. The range was more than adequate even with some of the the guys antennas not ideally locate on the vehicle. The addition of the extra speaker made a big difference for me as I could hear the calls clearly now.

[Paul#25]

Waking up the dead... When doing an outing and using LFR, why not inform the group to have their radios programmed to Xyz club frequency so everyone is on the same page.

Sent from my SNE-LX1 using Tapatalk

Because almost all of the LFR work on their own unique frequencies for the channels and can't be programmed. This means that you can only talk to someone with the same make and model of radio as what you have and you have to be within sight of person. LFR are for kids to play with in your garden in my opinion. If you want a Xyz club frequency you apply to the necessary authority and pay for a dedicated frequency that you won't be able to tune to with a LFR. One is UHF and the other is VHF.