Air band transceiver

Re: Air band transceiver - got one

erm .... do you have the licence to use it ? if not it is probably worth less than 31 p /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
Re: Air band transceiver - got one

Landaftaf . . .

The use of ANY frequency or transmitting equipment by ANYBODY is legal in an emergency, a point that has been made in previous threads.

Balchis - welcome aboard Trevor, about time . . . how's it hanging? When are you going in the water?

Strangely enough it would probably be perfectly legal for me to chat on airband frequencies as I did the relevant course and obtained a licence when getting my PPL. The PPL may have lapsed due to lack of hours, but the VHF license is for life. This means I could legitimately chat to aircraft just to (e.g.) ask them to report my position. The unit operates on two frequencies, an emergency and calling frequency (like 16) and a second channel which can be used to 'chat' on.

The battery is a non-rechargable lithium battery with 8+ hours life if used 10% transmit, 10% receive and 80% standby. The batteries are sealed (i.e. unused) but past their shelf life (expired 2003 and 2004).

If an EPIRB malfunctions or the battery expires before the rescue services make contact the airband transceiver can be used to talk to any aircraft in visual range. In other words, if you see an aircraft you can talk to it. The transceiver can be left switched off when no aircraft is in sight, so will last almost indefinitely. Well worth the £31 IMHO, and a big saving on the £870 new price. You can also get rechargable NiCads for it if these are still available - I will e-mail TRON and find out, as I got a charger for these with the unit but no rechargeable batteries.

- Nick
 
Re: Air band transceiver - got one

if you are carrying one of those without a licence and you are audited I am pretty sure you will be in the shite. imagine every tom dickhead and henrietta with an airband radio - its bad enough now on marine vhf in the channel and meddy with 'ok come over and have something you have been waiting for' crap on channel 16 and other port working channels, let alone on aero ........ the mind boggles /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

on commercial vessels you need an effing good reason to be granted a license for one of these, are you suggesting recreational boats are able to carry one without a license, not an operators license but a boat/ship/vessel radio license. do you need to register and license your boat vhf ?

maybe you are/are not - always willing to learn some new nugget of info to store away for future use. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
Re: Air band transceiver - got one

landaftaf, you are I feel being unnecessarily alarmist and I intend to ignore all your advice on this matter.

All epirbs broadcast on 121.5MHz anyway to enable rescuers to home in. This device was made especially for this purpose . . . essentially it is a SART with a voice facility.

I have an operators license . . . and if my ship's license (shortly to be free anyway) doesn't cover it then too bad . . . I am sure I could add it to the ship's license, but as it has only been purchased for a trip way beyond the remit of the UK authorities I doubt if I wil bother - we will not be carrying it in UK coastal waters unless we are heading offshore. As I can legally carry one of these about anywhere in the UK (including under the flight path of an airport) I find it slightly obscure if it is somehow illegal because it is on a boat.

- N
 
Re: Air band transceiver - got one

whatever /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

I wont loose any sleep over you or anyone else having one .... I will just wait to read about it in the papers ........ like there is a mayday hoaxer now near barnstable on ch 16. 3 call outs in 3 weeks apparently

extrapolate that to air frequencies as well, only takes a few to grind the system to a halt /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
Re: Air band transceiver - got one

Thanks Ian,

I will of course be arrested, fined more than the boat is worth and thrown into jail, but never mind eh?

Just got a Navik at less than half the new price from a very nice man who I almost know as well . . . I think it's been my Ebay month!

- Nick
 
Re: Air band transceiver - got one

I know this is an old thread but I just logged on to the new Ofcom portal and noticed you can apply for a license for 121.5 and 123.1 Aeronautical SAR equipment. Passenger ships are obliged to carry radios operating on this frequency (I only just found this out). So yes it seems you can get a 121.5 Pilot emergency radio and use it under your ships radio license to assist is SAR, other than the SOLAS "communicating using any m
eans possible" provision when your own vessel is in distress.

Here is mine http://billlions.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/soviet-era-1215mhz-am-transeiver-and.html

And my receivers for 121.5 beacons http://tuioyster.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/man-overboard-beacons-and-recievers.html
 
Re: Air band transceiver - got one

German sail training vessels had to carry one from the mid 2000's, was thought to help in SAR situations. No one though had received special training....
 
Re: Air band transceiver - got one

SAPurdie said:
My airband handheld also has a VOR navigation system, sort of like the old RDF, which is independent of GPS satellites should they all get switched off/obscured by volcanic ash/jammed.

Cost about £250 IIRC.
Click to expand...

That's very interesting, I looked up VOR. As it is VHF I assume it will only be 10s for nm from the station, and that may be a way in land. I remember using marine and aircraft RDF on medium wave to get really bad fixes when I was young. Do those MW aeronautical beacons still exist?

It would be fun to try VOR if see such a radio going cheaper, but my fall back for GPS failure on coastal approach is to use Radar. If that didn't work for some reason (maybe your volcanic ash cloud) my fall back in low visibility would be the echo sounder, and at that point I think I would appreciate VOR!

If anyone is interested here is the sort of thing we are talking about https://www.amazon.com/RHP-530-VOR-...F8&qid=1474705552&sr=1-1&keywords=airband+VOR

Icom and Vertx/Standard Horizon/Yaesu make them too and some are waterpoof (maybe very wet planes)

Here is a Yaesu
https://www.amazon.com/Yaesu-FTA550...rd_wg=duiif&psc=1&refRID=BG23SXMQP92GBYGPZE34

And this is what the VOR display looks like
 

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Re: Air band transceiver - got one

All SAR assets carry 121.5 MHz equipment because you use it for DF on an EPIRB, 406 is crap for DF, hence all PLB 's and EPIRB's transmit on both.
 
Re: Air band transceiver - got one

Colvic Watson said:
All SAR assets carry 121.5 MHz equipment because you use it for DF on an EPIRB, 406 is crap for DF, hence all PLB 's and EPIRB's transmit on both.
Click to expand...
Quite right.

More specifically EPIRB's 406 signal is a burst of phase modulated data every 50 seconds. It is fine for the Doppler location used by LEOSATs but not useful for ordinary direction finding, especially manual methods.

I have a 121.5 directional receiver on board see my blog http://tuioyster.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/man-overboard-beacons-and-recievers.html

If you are interested in what the 406 and 121.5 signals sound like this French ham has audio files of both http://f6hcc.free.fr/decodsarsat.htm (and instructions to make a decoder). If you have a UHF ham radio or scanner you can hear the EPIRB test signal, If you have a decoder and the EPIRB, PLB or ELT has a GPS (and it has acquired a position) you don't need to DF it as it tells you where it is.
 
webcraft said:
The range of a handheld airband transceiver is the same as a hand-held marine VHF except that . . . aircraft remain above your horizon for a very long time, so the range is as good as conditions permit - potentially a long way.

We already have a good quality waterproof handheld vhf - but it can only communicate with ships over the horizon, so has a much more limited range. GPS EPIRB seems like an expensive luxury compared to a standard 406 EPIRB - a five mile radius in mid-atlantic is close enough, particularly if they only come looking for you once the EPIRB has stopped transmitting.

Satphones are stil ridiculously expensive, both to purchase and in terms of airtime. Recent posts on here from ARC participants indicate that mid-ocean communication is patchy at best, with the signal being dropped on a regular basis.

SSB is insanely expensive if you are on a low budget. It requires a difficult to fit ground plate, an expensive set and expensive training and licensing.

So maybe not such a waste of £200 . . . air to ground range of a handheld airband VHF can be fifty miles or more from personal experience, and of course you can use it in scanning mode to pick up chatter from passing aircraft.

- Nick
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SSB is a nice to have. It is not necessarily that expensive if you look out for a second hand set. My ancient Furuno set cost me £300 a few years ago. It was nice to chat to an informal net whilst crossing the pond this time and it is usurul to get weather information whilst in the Caribbean and keep in touch with people you have met. The best device for safety and general comms IMHO is a Delorme Inreach. We used ours to keep in touch with friends and family whilst on route and get weather information. Once in the Caribbean 3g sim is the way we go but you do end up with a box of sims for each country
 
Re: Air band transceiver - got one

webcraft said:
First ever real bargain for us on Ebay - £31 plus postage for a TronAi

(And it's got a spare battery. Unfortunately both are out of date, but still sealed so probably good. What is the REAL shelf life of lithium high power batteries? The manufacturer gives a 4 year shelf life, but what happens after that?)

- Nick
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I just replaced Lithium 9v batteries (Ultralife U9VL-J) in some Sea Marshall MOB beacons. The manufacturers give a shelf life of 10 years. Some had been in 16 years and were still over 9v but the self test signal was clearly weaker. Some had been in 14 years and were reading 9.48v same as the new ones. Of course they may not have the same mA hours as originally but I was impressed by the voltage. The right way to do this would be to take a larger sample and then decide what risk of not working you tolerate and use that to decide when to change them. My point though is that unlike the Duracell bunny claiming that their alkali batteries last longer, lithium batteries really do last upwards of 10 years and are worth twice the price
 
geem said:
The best device for safety and general comms IMHO is a Delorme Inreach. We used ours to keep in touch with friends and family whilst on route and get weather information.
Click to expand...

Another vote for Inreach here, I also use mine for safety when in the mountains, the fact that it's two way comms makes it better IMO than spot. I carry a PLB too but it'd be nice to have confirmation help is coming.
 
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