WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

Be mindful that the firies may have cut the car up in order to free the (very lucky) occupant. Doesn't take away from the ferocity of the crash though. Trees of that size generally aren't sympathetic to cars!

Yes you still need the MROCP to operate VHF (in fact there's a VHF-only certificate too) but I've heard there's a fair few people using VHF who don't have it. Prosecutions are unlikely: the authorities are happy knowing people are using radio on their boats to increase safety, which is fair enough.

If you're thinking about going for it, I can reassure you that the Marine Radio Operators Certificate of Proficiency (it's a 'desirable' criteria for this job) is not difficult to attain. I did a course as an external student of Challenger TAFE some years ago but only sat the exam in 2004. It's mult...

USB: almost all HF radio 'utility' voice communications are in USB. Depending on which radio you have and how it displays frequencies when you switch to USB, the actual frequency to tune to would be 11397.4 (frequency plus 1.4 khz). Try 8879 (8880.4 khz) as well. The frequency used depends very much...

HR receiver? of course I meant HF receiver!

Now that it's more sensible time of the day (see my previous post), there is still aviation activity on HF. If you've got a good HR receiver and antenna, your best bet is the international traffic - domestic air routes are well covered by VHF these days. Check out Brisbance centre's frequencies at h...

The best place to look is in a document called Enroute Supplement Australia (ERSA) which you can view as an 'indexed PDF' on the Airservices Australia website at www.airservices.gov.au. There's a lot of communications-related information in it, including the HF frequencies for domestic and internati...

Next time anyone from the group's out at the airport, they might like to see if they can see an airport fire appliance and check if it has a VHF low band whip. The vehicles (I recall) have VHF air band whips so the low band whips would be taller.

If you're at the airport you'll often see them moving around the taxiways. The appliances they use are quite different from the FESA units we see on the road, most notably the foam monitors (like cannons) mounted on the roof that can throw up a column of foam. They communicate with the ground contro...

It was outside Perth train station this afternoon.

I hadn't heard of the WA Police getting a new boat. It might be a police boat from another state: WA shipbuilding companies often successfully tender for work for other police services.

If it is for the WA Police: good stuff - it's a top looking vessel!

I've always used a discone mounted on a TV antenna pole, with the pole attached to a side wall with dynabolts. It's the same set-up a TV antenna installer might do, but with a discone instead of a TV antenna. Regardless of what sort of antenna you use, the cable is critical, especially at UHF. Over ...

I think you'll find the Rescue 65, helitac and bushfire air recce contracts are issued to three different helicopter companies (CHC, Helicopters Australia, Heli West).

FESA may well be baulking at the cost per hour of having this helicopter in the air. Nothing about it looks cheap!

That looks to me like a Sikorsky S-62. Looks a lot like a Sea King, especially at the front, but the Sea King is a longer version of this aircraft. The Sea King also has two engines, the S-62 has one. You'll probably find there is not one single mechanical part common to both aircraft. The S-62 was ...