dxermouse wrote:well Ive been watching some youtube videos and like the idea of hiking up the hills. lobbing some massive antenna over some trees to contact people worldwide. what is better for worldwide communication? what is better for Australia wide? CB or vx-8dr?
The short answer is "either or both". Direct worldwide communications are possible via radios that operate in the High Frequency (HF) band (which is the band between 3 and 30 MHz). Radio signals head up into the ionosphere and are bent back down towards the earth, giving HF radios a range in the hundreds to thousands of kilometres.
The kind of radio that you have isn't going to be able to do that. It transmits on different frequencies in the VHF and UHF bands (the VHF band is between 30 and 300 MHz, while the UHF band is between 300 and 3000 MHz.)
Generally speaking, you're looking at a range of tens of kilometres for that handheld radio, unless you use some technology to extend the range. Robbage mentioned IRLP and EchoLink - they are two systems that take signals from devices such as the handheld you've got, and send them to other radios via the Internet. With a handheld radio such as the VX-8DR, it's possible to talk to people all over the world, by using one of these systems. You're not talking "direct" like you do with HF communications, but it's a way of getting world-wide communications on a smaller device not usually designed for worldwide use.
Do I want the best license you can get how much does it cost etc? Is there is something more sufficient and easier/cheaper to get and what device would I need to be able to transmit from 0 - 99999999999 mhz instead of just the ones they give you??
There's no licence in the world that'll let you "transmit from 0 - 99999999 MHz", that just doesn't exist. The radio frequency spectrum is chopped up into blocks, for different uses. For example the air band (used by planes and airports) exist in one block, marine radio is in another block, commercial users (taxis, couriers, security companies, and so on) have another block ... you get the idea.
The entry level amateur licence in Australia (called the Foundation licence) would allow you to use the frequencies between 144 and 148 MHz, and between 430 and 450 MHz which your handheld radio is capable of transmitting on. The Foundation level licence also allows you to use some other frequency bands, but they are outside what your radio is capable of. If you're interested in the whole list of what you'd be able to use, you can see it
here.
I dont mind getting the license and its no hassle but unfortunately Im also extremely busy and time factor is important ie (a semester long course is out of the question.) Is it possible to get it done in a week? Sorry for so many questions but do appreciate your replies
As Robbage has said, you need to sit an exam that covers some basic radio and electronics theory, some practical demonstrations and some actual on-air operating procedures. The Wireless Institute of Australia are the organisation responsible for examination and qualification of amateur radio operators in Australia. Within WA, there are three organisations in who do both training and examinations: the
Scouts have a radio and technology team and conduct training courses for people involved in Scouting, and two amateur radio clubs, the
Southern Electronics Group in the Albany region, and
Ham College in Perth.
Ham College runs Foundation training courses on the second-last weekend of every second month. The first course for 2011 will be the weekend of 22/23 January, and the exam on the morning of the following Saturday the 29th January. It's highly recommended that people seeking to get a Foundation amateur licence purchase the
accompanying manual, either from the WIA directly, or from Ham College.
From the time of doing the course and sitting the examination, licences are usually issued within four to six weeks. All the exam paperwork has to go to Melbourne first, for the WIA to issue you with a Certificate of Proficiency, and then the Australian Communications and Media Authority (federal government department responsible for radio matters in Australia) need to issue you with a licence.
The approximate costs of getting your Foundation licence would be:
$25 for the Foundation Manual
$30 for the Foundation Course
$80 for the exam (including event fee to pay for the venue hire)
$20 for the callsign recommendation from the WIA
$65 for the licence from the ACMA
This comes to a total of $220 if my maths is correct. Ongoing, you just need to pay $65 per year for the ACMA licence.