WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

In our brigade we have 5 vehicles fitted with a combination of 3 different radios, supported by 2 different handheld units. Our 2 newer appliances were delivered with only WAERN Green radios installed, and our older appliances originally fitted with black radios have now had a WAERN Yellow radio added. We have the old Tait handhelds (VHF-Mid) and have just been supplied with the new Vertex handhelds (VHF-High).

Firstly, i have printed off several A4 copies of both of the new radio Channel Guides (red & blue), placed them back to back and laminated them, and placed one in each of our vehicles for quick reference.
Secondly, our brigade FCO went straight to the SES Communications Support Unit (CSU), and asked them to deliver a WAERN radio training session specifically for our brigade. This was a great session with direct hands on opertional training and the SES CSU is a great source of information.
Thirdly, we are recommending to our brigade members to use the new VHF-High band channels as much as possible, so as to become familiar with the new 3 digit channel numbers, knowing that they can fall back on the old VHF-Mid band 2 digit channel numbers if they need to.

At this stage i prefer to use the following setups;
a) When in a vehicle with a black and yellow radio, have the black radio on the mid band channel for that area and the yellow radio in single receive on the linked high band channel. Turn up and use whichever radio has the strongest signal. Take both handhelds in case either a mid or high band simplex channel is allocated.
b) When in a vehicle with a green radio, have the radio in dual recieve/single transmit, with the paired mid and high band channels for that area selected. Use the band with the strongest signal as the foreground radio*. Take both handhelds in case either a mid or high band simplex channel is allocated.
*This proved very effective at the recent Ellensbrook/Prevelly fires. Due to the constant moving up and down hills and in and out of valleys, the signal strength of the mid and high band channels fluctuated. Being able to switch between the paired channels was quick and efficient.

The main thing to remember is there are actually 2 changes occuring simultaneously. The first is the move from VHF-Mid band to VHF-High band, which requires members to learn a new set of channel numbers. I am simply telling my fellow brigade members that the old system has 2 digit numbers and the new system has 3 digit numbers, and for most of the old 2 digit channel numbers they know there are new linked(paired/connected) 3 digit channel numbers that will eventually replace them.
The other change is the installation of new radio heads. An overwhelming majority of FESA volunteers would not have come across the concept of one radio head actually controlling two different tranciever units. Understanding that the WAERN green and yellow head units are actually controling 2 different trancievers is the biggest hurdle. Apart from that it is all about learning which radios use which bands and what the buttons and functions do. I think that is where much of the confusion is occuring and where most of the training needs to be directed.

auntys_eyes wrote:In our brigade we have 5 vehicles fitted with a combination of 3 different radios, supported by 2 different handheld units. Our 2 newer appliances were delivered with only WAERN Green radios installed, and our older appliances originally fitted with black radios have now had a WAERN Yellow radio added. We have the old Tait handhelds (VHF-Mid) and have just been supplied with the new Vertex handhelds (VHF-High).

Firstly, i have printed off several A4 copies of both of the new radio Channel Guides (red & blue), placed them back to back and laminated them, and placed one in each of our vehicles for quick reference.
Secondly, our brigade FCO went straight to the SES Communications Support Unit (CSU), and asked them to deliver a WAERN radio training session specifically for our brigade. This was a great session with direct hands on opertional training and the SES CSU is a great source of information.
Thirdly, we are recommending to our brigade members to use the new VHF-High band channels as much as possible, so as to become familiar with the new 3 digit channel numbers, knowing that they can fall back on the old VHF-Mid band 2 digit channel numbers if they need to.

At this stage i prefer to use the following setups;
a) When in a vehicle with a black and yellow radio, have the black radio on the mid band channel for that area and the yellow radio in single receive on the linked high band channel. Turn up and use whichever radio has the strongest signal. Take both handhelds in case either a mid or high band simplex channel is allocated.
b) When in a vehicle with a green radio, have the radio in dual recieve/single transmit, with the paired mid and high band channels for that area selected. Use the band with the strongest signal as the foreground radio*. Take both handhelds in case either a mid or high band simplex channel is allocated.
*This proved very effective at the recent Ellensbrook/Prevelly fires. Due to the constant moving up and down hills and in and out of valleys, the signal strength of the mid and high band channels fluctuated. Being able to switch between the paired channels was quick and efficient.

The main thing to remember is there are actually 2 changes occuring simultaneously. The first is the move from VHF-Mid band to VHF-High band, which requires members to learn a new set of channel numbers. I am simply telling my fellow brigade members that the old system has 2 digit numbers and the new system has 3 digit numbers, and for most of the old 2 digit channel numbers they know there are new linked(paired/connected) 3 digit channel numbers that will eventually replace them.
The other change is the installation of new radio heads. An overwhelming majority of FESA volunteers would not have come across the concept of one radio head actually controlling two different tranciever units. Understanding that the WAERN green and yellow head units are actually controling 2 different trancievers is the biggest hurdle. Apart from that it is all about learning which radios use which bands and what the buttons and functions do. I think that is where much of the confusion is occuring and where most of the training needs to be directed.

Sounds about the same setup and also what we have been told and your explanations makes a lot more sense now I have just read what I posted earier (sorry I was a bit tired when I posted it), can I just emphasize one thing though about having both the High band and Mid band radio's on the same linked channel that if anyone is instructing members to do this make sure not both are turned up at the same time as during training we have had so many members sending themselves half deaf from feedback especially as on our older appliances they have placed the speakers on the rear pillars next to the occupants heads, not nice.

Thanks for your advice on the SES training, I will pass the info on to our training officer and hopefully we can get something arranged.

I have disabled Duel band TX and RX on our units to keep it simple. The problem that I am dealing with is the amount of information I need to deliver. Once everyone has got the concept then do some training with the local CFM and also the ICV.

As for the 2 radio's and 1 unit head, I am not even going to tell them that as they just don't need to know.

In wanneroo, we have Tait TM8250's in Mid-band, TM8255's in UHF for the MPT1327 City of Wanneroo network, Tait 8260's (green head) VHF mid band and VHF high band, tait orca VHF mid band portables as well as Vertex VX829 (i think - dont quote me on the model number) VHF highband portables.

Hmm seems like a few people do not know how to use the WAERN radio properly.....

Hats off to the operators at ComCen. I think it is amazing how well thay keep thier cool.

My guess would be that the person at Neebrup was using duel tx and rx and did not realize.

Done that before,

The proximity of the swap to alt tx/rx button to the PTT button on the radio heads means it's easy to accidentally change from UHF to VHF.

When I did this I got a response from Comcen along the lines of "SES XXXXX 01, you are coming through on 6AR"

Sounds like -the dualband feature is causing more grief.

yes, just goes to show that everyone needs more training.

Has anyone used the dual TX/RX or crossband repeat function operationally ? they could be awesome features to have at hand, but seem to be causing more bad than good. as said befor, it all comes down to training, or lack of.
I know our brigade has barley touched on these functions. most people struggle with changing bands.

The 2band rx/tx really should be used by the sector comm, icv, IC to get messages across like a red flag warning.

As for switching between the bands just press and hold F1 to get it to single band rx/tx then press F3 once to switch between the two. Easy and simple.

We used the cross band repeater last year when we responded to the thunderstorms in the wheatbelt.
On the first day, the control point was at FESA in York and they only had access to VHF radios. We used the radio in the vehicle as a cross band repeater, that way we could talk among ourselves using UHF on the handheld radios but still communicate with the control point on VHF

nra555 wrote:Has anyone used the dual TX/RX or crossband repeat function operationally ? they could be awesome features to have at hand, but seem to be causing more bad than good. as said befor, it all comes down to training, or lack of.
I know our brigade has barley touched on these functions. most people struggle with changing bands.

we have been told and its also stated in the WAERN manual that X-Band repeter is not to be used. its one of the rules of WAERN same as scanning. we are told about, only to disable it just incase someone has enabled it. told it could cause a lot of problems on the network

Only advanced users are allowed to use the xband, but only if told so by the IC