Communication Afloat – is it “Good to Talk”?

[Nickhlx]

The foundation licence permits 5 watts on most bands using propriety equipment. .....

 

Actually it is 10 watts, which as you know at VHF / UHF goes quite a respectable distance with simple 1/4 wave , half wave or 5/8 wave magmounts

 

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446 MHz seems to be the most common equipment in use which is restricted to 5 spot frequencies between 446.0MHz and 446.1MHz thus maybe we could all agree to select ch5 as the one to listen on for other boaters e.g. when approaching locks?

 

There are 8 frequencies in the PMR446 band - there are other frequencies interleaved between, for other users the reason I suggested chan 8, is that it is the furthest away from Chan 1 ( default on some sets at switch-on and kids use) and the other interleaved frequencies, not that I have ever heard anyone on them...

 

Nick

Edited April 10, 2009 by Nickhlx

[RobinR]

QUOTE (RobinR @ Jan 1 2009, 06:48 PM)

The foundation licence permits 5 watts on most bands using propriety equipment. .....

 

Actually it is 10 watts, which as you know at VHF / UHF goes quite a respectable distance with simple 1/4 wave , half wave or 5/8 wave magmounts

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

446 MHz seems to be the most common equipment in use which is restricted to 5 spot frequencies between 446.0MHz and 446.1MHz thus maybe we could all agree to select ch5 as the one to listen on for other boaters e.g. when approaching locks?

 

There are 8 frequencies in the PMR446 band - there are other frequencies interleaved between, for other users the reason I suggested chan 8, is that it is the furthest away from Chan 1 ( default on some sets at switch-on and kids use) and the other interleaved frequencies, not that I have ever heard anyone on them...

 

 

Nick

 

Re point 1, most low power commercial tranceivers run 5 watts - 10 watts is approximately 3dB more at the receiver and relatively few current rigs have a 10 watt output maximum. As the licence permits 10 watts, it also permits 5 watts!!

 

Re point 2, channel 8 is most conveniently selected by depressing channel down from No. 1. How much closer can you get? I suggest 5 is actually furthest from 1 by requiring 4 depressions up or down from 1! 1 is generally the power on default.

[Nickhlx]

Re point 1, most low power commercial tranceivers run 5 watts - 10 watts is approximately 3dB more at the receiver and relatively few current rigs have a 10 watt output maximum. As the licence permits 10 watts, it also permits 5 watts!!

 

Re point 2, channel 8 is most conveniently selected by depressing channel down from No. 1. How much closer can you get? I suggest 5 is actually furthest from 1 by requiring 4 depressions up or down from 1! 1 is generally the power on default.

 

 

Not quite sure of the point you are making ( or why....) so I will be more explicit...

 

1) The (foundation) LICENSE allows ( permits ) you to use UP TO 10 watts on the designated bands... This does as you so correctly point out mean that you can use low, medium or high power on sets that can output up to 10 watts max.....

Some sets have been "restricted" from their higher powers to only be capable of producing only 10 watts to comply. Some handhelds do produce more than 5 watts etc etc ....

 

My point is that the LICENSE permits you to use ( up to ) 10 watts, whereas your post seemed to suggest that the limit is 5 watts.

 

 

2) It is quite common that when you use the up / down channel buttons the sets step through channels one to eight and then wrap around back to channel one again, in either direction.

The point that I was attempting to make here was that channel eight is furthest away from channel one - the channel that many sets default to on switch on, or if the battery is removed ( some do stay on the channel it was last on when switched off) and what some people / kids use

 

With the sets that wrap around their channels it is true that the next number that comes up if you scroll down from Ch 1, is CH 8. For those that may not know what this means, it is a numerical representation of the frequency you will be transmitting and receiving on.... I list the channels and their corresponding frequencies below......

 

Chan 1 446.00625 MHz

Chan 2 446.01875 MHz

Chan 3 446.03125 MHz

Chan 4 446.04375 MHz

Chan 5 446.05625 MHz

Chan 6 446.06875 MHz

Chan 7 446.08125 MHz

Chan 8 446.09375 MHz

 

You will see that the frequency of channel 8 is "furthest away" from channel 1, thereby being least likely to cause or suffer interference from traffic that might be nearby on chan 1. Moreover, Chan 5 has TWO adjacent channels, and is therefore more likely to have interference from ( either of) the channels it is situated next to. Chan 8 only has one neighbour in the PMR446 band.

 

Hope that has been more explicit and cleared any doubts...

 

Nick

 

Edited April 13, 2009 by Nickhlx