This is probably one of the most informative and almost accurate (i.e maybe a bit oversimplified in places) explanation of UHF and antennas made for non-radio-nerds Ive seen so far.
Great in depth but simple explanation in this video. Also you can extend the range of a handheld if you had to and depending on cable length by using a hand held unit with the appropriate adapter to a bigger aerial. Little 'rubber duckie' types of antennas with like 2dbi mounted on a gutter or roof rack of a 4wd give outstanding performance in mountainous areas when many others are limited. The bigger is better rule simply doesn't apply with UHF. Cheers guys and good luck
Thanks for the PDF. A very handy guide for someone like me who's only a casual user of the UHF when 4WDriving. A copy will definitely go in my glovebox.
Yes would be nice to ask a Truckee if it’s safe to pass on my holidays with kids and nana but nooooo ! We can’t just use it to be safer , French lessons are way better!
Great masterclass video explaining in great detail with simple language the UHF radios and antennas, most important a reminder on how to behave when talking on the various channels. Keep up the great work because it is very interesting.
As a public-safety radio-technician in the states, I have been teaching Law, Fire and EMS users these same principals for many years. I must say you presentation was excellent. Well done !
With UHF, Height is might. With a 5watt limitation, selecting a higher gain antenna can help. For every 3db of gain your doubling your power, so a 6db antenna on 5watts will theoretically transmit nearly 20watts, again 'THEORETICALLY'. Have your UHF installed by a proper communications installer. They will tune the setup, ie. terminate coax to 1/2 wave increments, trim antenna length etc. All these adjustments equate to yourself getting more resonant match and lower SWR (less power reflecting back into the transceiver) than taking it to an auto electrics shop who might not be as experienced in RF. There's plenty of radio amateurs out there with heaps of knowledge too, you could always join a local radio club and obtain your license to take it further.
Good vid. Only comment I have is if there’s a bend radius restriction on the coax, why do suppliers such as GME, Uniden and Oricom bundle the coax so tightly in the packaging?
The bend radius he talks about is during operation more than anything, the signal "falls out" of the coax, or reflects back, neither of which you want. Certainly always avoid a pinch or kink in the coax.
Most of this was correct, however, DO NOT under any circumstance cut RG58 (the cable on most UHF antenna's) and join it. Most people join these antennas with PL259 barrel connectors or with male and female TNC/BNC connectors. There is no way to terminate RG58 down its cable length without the risk of causing damage to the radio or reducing your range to almost none. Every time you terminate RG58 you lose roughly 15% of your radios TX output. Adapters that either change direction or change to different types of connections such as right-angle PL/TNC/BNC adapters or gender-changing adapters, for example, can also cause major damage as cheap adapters often have poor manufacturing standards and create high loads on your radios output. Adapters we use professionally cost hundreds of dollars each as they are manufactured to extremely high tolerances to avoid this. If you increase the resistance in the cable from the UHF Radio you will cause damage to the radio's PA (the part that transmits your voice).
You advice is sound (yes, I was a radio repair tech), however, there is probably more reflected power from improper antenna placement, rather than from a diy cable join. Even with a truley terrible return loss of 3dB (50% power reflected) a 5W PA should not blow up in the short term, but it will get a little hotter hot - all depends on how well your radio is built. 2.5W reflected power isnt much. I had a 100w radio, and made antennas, and made some crazy mistakes also, but never blew it up, but did reccieve electric shocks from the chassis. Good times.
My first rig was a pye mk 3. All valve, vibrator type power supply. Converted to 27 MHz from ex commercial frequencies, VHF. Carbon microphone. Mostly on 27.240 MHz. Way, way before CB was legal . Want to have another channel? Then you have to get two new crystals made. One for TX, one for RX. You get your finger across the final tuning capacitor and you can really smell it. AM only but DX to NZ was possible from Melbourne Australia. Ahhhhh, those were the days. 73s.
few innacurate statements here...But you didnt mention vswr which is 100 % needed not all uhf premade antennas are tuned to below 1.5 believe me i know!!!!...And talking about the 6.5db ground independent the extra metal part of the antenna is the ground part which is usually equals to a 1/4 wave on 477 mhz...And you didnt metion real cb (hf) which is still around in a big way and car to car range is multiples times the distance of crappy uhf!!..
The metal part at the bottom of the ground independant antenna also known as the Elevated Feed creates the extra gain in the antenna. A 1/4 wave antenna gains 3db when mounted on top of a elevated feed base over a ground dependent mounting which it is then known as unity gain or 0db gain and a 3.5db antenna becomes 6.5 or 6.6 depending on the manufacturer. He did mention VHF and HF and as crappy as the long distance range of UHF is, the car to car range of HF is just plain ugly, noisy and at best inaudible. Inaccuracies happen in all videos and a lot of the time with these guys from 4WDSC. They are not professionals in a specified field they are professional salesmen trying to make a buck.
Hey legends, here's the link to download the guide to UHF channels - and it'll print out as a single page that's perfect to keep in the glovebox too! bit.ly/UHFChannelsPDF
Good price on the Oricom unit with antenna. I only see that priced matched by competitors when they have a special on. Hey, where's the pdf channel guide you mentioned?
@@INTHEMIX74 If you think Uniden is any good you're not allowed an opinion. GME's manufacturing is utter crap nowadays. Icom is the only way to go. Japanese made and made to extremely high tolerances. True 5 Watt output radios at the plug. Oricom radios have a bit of RnD to do yet, however, their antennas are fantastic. ANU900 and ANU1200 antenna's have very low impedance resistance compared to GME AE series fibreglass antennas, I have tested it.
Will running other electrical cables such as light bar/driving light power scources next to the antenna coax cause any loss in range or risk interference?
May I kindly offer a suggestion? It would be most appropriate to use the terms "Ground Dependant" and "Ground Independent" when referring to this matter.
Hi mate, Ideally yes, but to avoid them interfering with each other you’d only be able to have one on at a time. Fairly easy to choose if you’re in the Vic High Country or the Simmo! But if you’re driving in flat and hilly terrain on the same trip you’d need to constantly know where your mates were and change radios accordingly. If they drove out of range of your low gain antenna/radio you wouldn’t receive them anymore… if you switched to your high gain antenna/radio antenna and they drove up a hill you’d miss them again. It really goes to show that a mid gain antenna makes sense for most situations - you can always opt for an antenna base that allows you to change the actual antenna if you ever need to! Cheers, Cahn
If your putting radios in cars buy overseas mobile dual band transcievers they're normally 50Watts on UHF then you can make/program your own channels. Very few repeaters on the chicken band in Australia. Old original 27Mhz CB's had a much better range on AM and shitloads better using a SSB radio. Just one thing with this. No radio shops in all of Australia sell them anymore.
Am considering purchasing a 1dbi magnetic aerial for the uhf. Question 1 - am I wasting my money, Question 2 - if used, will it be more efficient in hilly terrain than the standard 3dbi. Than you.
. My question is I am tossing up between GME 5W handheld radio (TX6160TP) twin pack or the GME 5W in vehicle mounted (XRS-330C) unit. Is it possible to have a vehicle mounted antenna which can attached to the handheld radio instead of having a vehicle mounted radio. The reasoning behind this is so when a mate and I go gold detecting we can both use a handheld radio and then when we return to the vehicle I can still use one of the handhelds as the radio in the vehicle. Cheers ;)
How do you up the wattage output of your radio? I‘be heard that the GME 5 watt radios only come from the factory as around 3 watts . How do you program that to nearer 5? Thanks.
Hi Keven, It really depends on which radio you have - find the model number and have a search for the user manual online if need be. The manual should go through the functions included and how they work! Cheers, Cahn
Yeah and people should learn to not transmit in simplex mode on repeater channels 1 - 8 (Repeater output), 31- 38 (Repeater input), 41-48 (Repeater Output) and 71-78 (Repeater Input).
Yeh to much liability and not enough resources. In a grave danger situation people need to rely on other resources that are recommended to them by government authorities such as EPIRB, sat phone, PLB etc....UHF radio would only be useful for emergency coordination when on the ground after the fact.
How does it double the range if the two signals meet at the max. extent of their range? Wouldn't one radio have to be within the broadcast range of the other radio to receive the signal?? Its not like a radio can broadcast a receiving signal.. This doesn't make sense to me. Someone please clarify!
I own a small sedan but travel a lot on highways. I'm wanting to know which antenna would best suit this situation as I am only wanting to know when accidents occur, traffic jams are ahead, where speed cameras are located, and make my travel safe but also interesting. Could you please advise which antenna would be best? Thanks
This was a good vid but you did forget to mention its illegal to have a radio over 5watts there are people out there selling radios that have been boosted and these should be a no go . there is huge fines for using a radio with more than 5watts power output.
Even if you could get the antenae in the US, they are made for a different frequency range (476-477 Mhz) . They may work to a certain extent, but not efficiently.
Dr. Zoidberg you’ve travelled the universe extensively so don’t joke about the shape of the earth - you know as well as I do that earth (and Decapod 10) are both a sphere.
BULLSHIT UHF 80Km...TRY 5Km at best!! (simplex/low humid) on vehicle. NOTICE: IF you need PROPER long distance for Coms, (without licence) and want to talk with experienced 4x4 users/groups, semi/professional users - purchase a new AM/SSB CB!! AM alone with a 5 foot antenna will get you from 50m to 20-30km! Switch to SSB, (double power of UHF) and can get up to 60km+ or even up to.4000km when there is high cloud or skip is about. AM /SSB CBs can be bought second hand on e bay $50-100..or new $200. Check out Face b00k 'Aussie CB 4x4 AM/SSB users' for upcoming vids and further info to why have backup coms (especially in Aust) leave UHF on low on scan, and use AM/SSB CB as MAIN COMs for longest distance and experienced users (no swearing or idiots) who can assist, especially when NO phone signal or heavy cloud preventing Sat phones and PLBs unable to be used.
The best ever 10 minute explanation for UHF, thanks.
This is probably one of the most informative and almost accurate (i.e maybe a bit oversimplified in places) explanation of UHF and antennas made for non-radio-nerds Ive seen so far.
Over simplified for non radio people, where?
Great in depth but simple explanation in this video. Also you can extend the range of a handheld if you had to and depending on cable length by using a hand held unit with the appropriate adapter to a bigger aerial.
Little 'rubber duckie' types of antennas with like 2dbi mounted on a gutter or roof rack of a 4wd give outstanding performance in mountainous areas when many others are limited. The bigger is better rule simply doesn't apply with UHF. Cheers guys and good luck
That was very in depth, well worth the watch. Please make more of these!
Thanks for the PDF. A very handy guide for someone like me who's only a casual user of the UHF when 4WDriving. A copy will definitely go in my glovebox.
The flat earthers would not agree with you regarding the curvature of the earth.
Wow a video with actual good information not trying to sell something. Well done, great video.
I thought I knew a fair bit about my UHF.
I learned something today.
Thanks.
Best explanation of a UHF radio I have ever heard. Well done.
From the point of view of a 'novice', this appeared to be a very well presented and informative piece.
Good work, excellent, thanks.
watch your language on the radio: lol have you ever listened to ch40?
I was thinking the samething XD
haha all of the truckies swearing XD
Yes would be nice to ask a Truckee if it’s safe to pass on my holidays with kids and nana but nooooo ! We can’t just use it to be safer , French lessons are way better!
Great masterclass video explaining in great detail with simple language the UHF radios and antennas, most important a reminder on how to behave when talking on the various channels. Keep up the great work because it is very interesting.
Good video, especially the DB gain explanation. Thanks
Well done guys. There is a lot of mixed information out there on this topic but I feel you've nailed it.
As a public-safety radio-technician in the states, I have been teaching Law, Fire and EMS users these same principals for many years.
I must say you presentation was excellent. Well done !
Thanks for the feedback Rick - glad you enjoyed it 👍
With UHF, Height is might.
With a 5watt limitation, selecting a higher gain antenna can help. For every 3db of gain your doubling your power, so a 6db antenna on 5watts will theoretically transmit nearly 20watts, again 'THEORETICALLY'.
Have your UHF installed by a proper communications installer. They will tune the setup, ie. terminate coax to 1/2 wave increments, trim antenna length etc. All these adjustments equate to yourself getting more resonant match and lower SWR (less power reflecting back into the transceiver) than taking it to an auto electrics shop who might not be as experienced in RF.
There's plenty of radio amateurs out there with heaps of knowledge too, you could always join a local radio club and obtain your license to take it further.
1/2 wavelength increments for the coax is nonsense.
Great presentation and explanation. Thank you 👍
Good vid. Only comment I have is if there’s a bend radius restriction on the coax, why do suppliers such as GME, Uniden and Oricom bundle the coax so tightly in the packaging?
The bend radius he talks about is during operation more than anything, the signal "falls out" of the coax, or reflects back, neither of which you want. Certainly always avoid a pinch or kink in the coax.
Best explanation yet... many thanks for that...
That was epic, well put over and full of information.
I’m in the U.K. so the channels are different, but the DBI, uhf / vhf etc was really good 👌
Thanks a lot for the useful information.
10 National Parks, 18 convoy, 40 highways. In more remote areas ch2,S is used in Munga-Thirri, for example.
I made the last ever operator assisted HF radio telephone call in Australia.
Best video so far guys. Keep it up! Very informative and non salesy
Most of this was correct, however, DO NOT under any circumstance cut RG58 (the cable on most UHF antenna's) and join it. Most people join these antennas with PL259 barrel connectors or with male and female TNC/BNC connectors. There is no way to terminate RG58 down its cable length without the risk of causing damage to the radio or reducing your range to almost none. Every time you terminate RG58 you lose roughly 15% of your radios TX output. Adapters that either change direction or change to different types of connections such as right-angle PL/TNC/BNC adapters or gender-changing adapters, for example, can also cause major damage as cheap adapters often have poor manufacturing standards and create high loads on your radios output. Adapters we use professionally cost hundreds of dollars each as they are manufactured to extremely high tolerances to avoid this. If you increase the resistance in the cable from the UHF Radio you will cause damage to the radio's PA (the part that transmits your voice).
Spot on. Not many people have this important Intel around the cables.
You advice is sound (yes, I was a radio repair tech), however, there is probably more reflected power from improper antenna placement, rather than from a diy cable join. Even with a truley terrible return loss of 3dB (50% power reflected) a 5W PA should not blow up in the short term, but it will get a little hotter hot - all depends on how well your radio is built. 2.5W reflected power isnt much.
I had a 100w radio, and made antennas, and made some crazy mistakes also, but never blew it up, but did reccieve electric shocks from the chassis. Good times.
Always an expert that provides unsolicited advice when the old UHF radio topic comes up amongst 4x4ers....
@@JoshBushwacker Not unsolicited. Professional. Radio technology is my job. Jog on..
@@jordan00191 I bet you feel unique and the world is regarding your unsolicited information.
Absolutely excellent overview - well done.
Great information. Good to have an aussie version of this setup.
Anyone else encounted the knob head in Gympie. Frustrating little turd he his .
Great vid. Cheers for sharing.
yes hes a squeezer
All that went right over my head 😂😂😂
Great video. I learn a lot. Thanks mate.
Excellent vLog. Thanks! Out&About with Dayv
Excellent cover of subject
great video, highly informative, and well delivered. thanks guys.
Very well done video!! Thanks!
Very helpful
My first rig was a pye mk 3. All valve, vibrator type power supply. Converted to 27 MHz from ex commercial frequencies, VHF. Carbon microphone. Mostly on 27.240 MHz. Way, way before CB was legal . Want to have another channel? Then you have to get two new crystals made. One for TX, one for RX. You get your finger across the final tuning capacitor and you can really smell it. AM only but DX to NZ was possible from Melbourne Australia. Ahhhhh, those were the days. 73s.
Great quality content as usual. 👍🏻👍🏻
Much appreciated Malcolm!
Thanks for taking the time to comment and I'm sorry it took me so long to reply!
Cheers,
Cahn
few innacurate statements here...But you didnt mention vswr which is 100 % needed not all uhf premade antennas are tuned to below 1.5 believe me i know!!!!...And talking about the 6.5db ground independent the extra metal part of the antenna is the ground part which is usually equals to a 1/4 wave on 477 mhz...And you didnt metion real cb (hf) which is still around in a big way and car to car range is multiples times the distance of crappy uhf!!..
The metal part at the bottom of the ground independant antenna also known as the Elevated Feed creates the extra gain in the antenna. A 1/4 wave antenna gains 3db when mounted on top of a elevated feed base over a ground dependent mounting which it is then known as unity gain or 0db gain and a 3.5db antenna becomes 6.5 or 6.6 depending on the manufacturer. He did mention VHF and HF and as crappy as the long distance range of UHF is, the car to car range of HF is just plain ugly, noisy and at best inaudible. Inaccuracies happen in all videos and a lot of the time with these guys from 4WDSC. They are not professionals in a specified field they are professional salesmen trying to make a buck.
Great content
Thanks for the video and pdf
Printed and in my glove box
Great presentation thanks.
very interesting
Hey legends, here's the link to download the guide to UHF channels - and it'll print out as a single page that's perfect to keep in the glovebox too!
bit.ly/UHFChannelsPDF
Good price on the Oricom unit with antenna. I only see that priced matched by competitors when they have a special on. Hey, where's the pdf channel guide you mentioned?
oricome are utter garbage stay with gme icom or uniden
@@INTHEMIX74 If you think Uniden is any good you're not allowed an opinion. GME's manufacturing is utter crap nowadays. Icom is the only way to go. Japanese made and made to extremely high tolerances. True 5 Watt output radios at the plug. Oricom radios have a bit of RnD to do yet, however, their antennas are fantastic. ANU900 and ANU1200 antenna's have very low impedance resistance compared to GME AE series fibreglass antennas, I have tested it.
Again, a great presentation. You know your stuff!
Thank you, great help
Great info. Keep it coming.👍
Excellent video, very informative. Thank you
Glad it was helpful!- Ashleigh
Will running other electrical cables such as light bar/driving light power scources next to the antenna coax cause any loss in range or risk interference?
Brilliant. Thanks
May I kindly offer a suggestion? It would be most appropriate to use the terms "Ground Dependant" and "Ground Independent" when referring to this matter.
So would an ideal situation be that you would have two independent UHF radio setups, one for high gain and one for low?
Hi mate,
Ideally yes, but to avoid them interfering with each other you’d only be able to have one on at a time. Fairly easy to choose if you’re in the Vic High Country or the Simmo!
But if you’re driving in flat and hilly terrain on the same trip you’d need to constantly know where your mates were and change radios accordingly. If they drove out of range of your low gain antenna/radio you wouldn’t receive them anymore… if you switched to your high gain antenna/radio antenna and they drove up a hill you’d miss them again.
It really goes to show that a mid gain antenna makes sense for most situations - you can always opt for an antenna base that allows you to change the actual antenna if you ever need to!
Cheers,
Cahn
If your putting radios in cars buy overseas mobile dual band transcievers they're normally 50Watts on UHF then you can make/program your own channels. Very few repeaters on the chicken band in Australia. Old original 27Mhz CB's had a much better range on AM and shitloads better using a SSB radio. Just one thing with this. No radio shops in all of Australia sell them anymore.
Great information, thank you. I learnt a lot.
Looking Fort the Downloadable PDF, good tutorial though
magnificent video on the moutain ridge , where was that ?
Very informative brother!!!
Glad it was helpful!
Isn't the opposite of "ground independent", "ground dependent"?
Am considering purchasing a 1dbi magnetic aerial for the uhf. Question 1 - am I wasting my money, Question 2 - if used, will it be more efficient in hilly terrain than the standard 3dbi. Than you.
.
My question is I am tossing up between GME 5W handheld radio (TX6160TP) twin pack or the GME 5W in vehicle mounted (XRS-330C) unit.
Is it possible to have a vehicle mounted antenna which can attached to the handheld radio instead of having a vehicle mounted radio. The reasoning behind this is so when a mate and I go gold detecting we can both use a handheld radio and then when we return to the vehicle I can still use one of the handhelds as the radio in the vehicle.
Cheers ;)
How do you up the wattage output of your radio? I‘be heard that the GME 5 watt radios only come from the factory as around 3 watts . How do you program that to nearer 5? Thanks.
Great video!!!
Thank you!!
I would like to know more about useing the settings on the uhf if thats possible
Hi Keven,
It really depends on which radio you have - find the model number and have a search for the user manual online if need be. The manual should go through the functions included and how they work!
Cheers,
Cahn
Mind blowing video. Really well done.
Thanks mate! Appreciate the comments!
Cheers,
Cahn
...crikies, the 2W handhelds are about half the price of most other retailers(!).
+the4wdsupacentre where's the UHF Channel PDF?
australiasomuchtosee . com / linked/uhf_cb_radio_channel_allocation80ch.pdf
I was just looking for the same thing thought i was going blind
Are we talking a tweaked Icom 410 pro for more power
They really should enforce the ch 5 and 35 emergency channels. I've heard so many people having a good old chat on them.
Yeah and people should learn to not transmit in simplex mode on repeater channels 1 - 8 (Repeater output), 31- 38 (Repeater input), 41-48 (Repeater Output) and 71-78 (Repeater Input).
@@eaglen00b Yep! This annoys me so much haha. Ch 8 is the repeater where I live and I always hear people yakking on ch 38 lol.
There's always the old BS over embellished story that acma is listening hahaha
@@JoshBushwacker I know qld transport monitor ch 40. But doubt acma monitors what they should haha
Yeh to much liability and not enough resources. In a grave danger situation people need to rely on other resources that are recommended to them by government authorities such as EPIRB, sat phone, PLB etc....UHF radio would only be useful for emergency coordination when on the ground after the fact.
How does it double the range if the two signals meet at the max. extent of their range? Wouldn't one radio have to be within the broadcast range of the other radio to receive the signal?? Its not like a radio can broadcast a receiving signal..
This doesn't make sense to me. Someone please clarify!
Antenna switches do not cause any problems on uhf or vhf.
I own a small sedan but travel a lot on highways. I'm wanting to know which antenna would best suit this situation as I am only wanting to know when accidents occur, traffic jams are ahead, where speed cameras are located, and make my travel safe but also interesting. Could you please advise which antenna would be best? Thanks
Hi there, www.4wdsupacentre.com.au/oricom-uhf380pk-in-car-5w-cb-radio-incl-6-5dbi-antenna-5-year-warranty.html Regards, Madi
This was a good vid but you did forget to mention its illegal to have a radio over 5watts there are people out there selling radios that have been boosted and these should be a no go . there is huge fines for using a radio with more than 5watts power output.
Bring back 27MgHz
Got one in my shed, been thinking of setting it up.
Ha, the good old days.
It’s still running hard...
On 35lsb lol
I’m still not sure why people in 4wd community don’t use 27meg way more.
Even truckies!
landau46t Yeah, UHF has such a limited range compared to 27meg. Beats me.
Is it possible to get these types of antenna in America? Can’t seem to find any online.
Hey, sorry we do not ship internationally. Thanks, Madi
Even if you could get the antenae in the US, they are made for a different frequency range (476-477 Mhz) . They may work to a certain extent, but not efficiently.
Hey wheres the Downloadable PDF with the channel information you talked about in the video....
It's in description name you will see it
Wow Australian " UHF" sounds so much better than boring USA "CB &FRS(our UHF) .
I think I saw shorty for a second
Or get your amateur radio licence for access to more bands and even more range.
PDF
ive chats of over 200 km on uhf lol
That's impossible due to the curve of the earth ;)
But I thought the earth was flat🤷🏻♂️😂
1:46 What's with the round earth propaganda!?
Dr. Zoidberg you’ve travelled the universe extensively so don’t joke about the shape of the earth - you know as well as I do that earth (and Decapod 10) are both a sphere.
Tell this to a flat earther. Lol
Haha have you ever been on a boat and zoomed in u can still see the supposed boat thats gone over the horizon.
BULLSHIT UHF 80Km...TRY 5Km at best!! (simplex/low humid) on vehicle.
NOTICE: IF you need PROPER long distance for Coms, (without licence) and want to talk with experienced 4x4 users/groups, semi/professional users - purchase a new AM/SSB CB!!
AM alone with a 5 foot antenna will get you from 50m to 20-30km!
Switch to SSB, (double power of UHF) and can get up to 60km+ or even up to.4000km when there is high cloud or skip is about.
AM /SSB CBs can be bought second hand on e bay $50-100..or new $200.
Check out Face b00k
'Aussie CB 4x4 AM/SSB users'
for upcoming vids and further info to why have backup coms (especially in Aust) leave UHF on low on scan, and use AM/SSB CB as MAIN COMs for longest distance and experienced users (no swearing or idiots) who can assist, especially when NO phone signal or heavy cloud preventing Sat phones and PLBs unable to be used.
Did you even understand what the video was telling you? 80km with a UHF repeater (Duplex mode).
Flat earthers dont approve this
Dont be a radio warrior
So there's the proof against a flat earth...
If only it were that simple