With the growing reliance on 4G internet, WIFI Access and constant social media exposure, its easy to forget that once you leave town your ability to communicate to others, even those in the next car, can be immediately severed!

A UHF radio is an indispensable tool for remote area communication, and in the right circumstances, offers you the perfect way to get a hold of the emergency services.

What to look for in a UHF radio?
With a whole market full of varying output units, with differing specifications flashing lights and price tags, its hard to make up your mind about the best unit for your trips away! So here are a few things to look out for!

Handheld vs Vehicle mounted
With the versatility and out of the box use, a handheld unit like a pair of Oricom UHF2190 units, can offer one of the quickest ways to stay in touch with the convoy, however without the massive power output and additional Gain assisted reach offered by a vehicle mounted unit like the Oricom UHF380PK you can be severely limited in range.

WATTAGE!

Whilst wattage doesn’t determine range, it determines transmission signal clarity. In Australia 5W is the highest output a UHF device can output without requiring a broadcasting license, luckily most of the 4WD mounted UHF units like the Oricom UHF380PK offer a full 5W of broadcasting power.

Meanwhile handheld units offer anywhere from 0.5W-2W comfortably, which offers significantly weaker signal clarity and transmission power!

GAIN

Gain is one of our most crucial factors when deciding on an antenna. Whilst you could splurge and buy the highest gain antenna you can find, or head out in search of the longest whip on the market. However the dBi measurement of the UHF antenna, is more critical than any other factor to determining your vehicle mounted UHF radio’s maximum range.

But it isn’t all about range… when you are looking for an antenna it pays to know what gain does to a transmission signal.

The transmission emitted by your UHF at a gain of 0dB would propagate in a perfect sphere around your vehicle (even upwards into the sky) where a 20dB signal would be sent out with the exact same impulse strength but with a projection pattern that resembles a disc, meaning the signal will travel much farther, however if your vehicle is on an incline the signal will not be able to be received by other UHF units that are across the valley or even extremely close by but resting on a different axis.

In our experience higher gain antennas (9dB) are perfect for desert use on the open plains, whilst lower gain antennas (4dB) offer a much more spherical pattern, making them ideal for use in the hilly country but limiting in range!

The Oricom UHF380PK kit offers the best of both worlds with a 6.5dB antenna which offers a nice blend of long range, whilst retaining the wide angle of signal propagation required in hill country.

With this versatile combo of 5W transmission and 6.5dB antenna you can expect ranges of up to 20km in ideal circumstances, making communications with the convoy flawless and clear no matter where in Oz you end up!

DUPLEX – No not a type of house…

Out of all the features you should pay attention to on your brand new UHF, Duplex is it, get familiar with its usage and exactly how it works because this could save your life!

Duplex is a special mode that allows you to transmit on one channel and receive on another, allowing you to take advantage of UHF repeater stations. By using your Duplex function on these emergency channels you can reach a passive repeater tower, this will allow your signal to be able to be received over 100km away even from a handheld unit.

We mentioned earlier the ability to communicate with the authorities using a UHF, this is through the pre-designated emergency UHF channels, Channel 5 and Channel 35.

Whilst you have 80 channels on any modern UHF unit, you should know that you cannot communicate on all of them, and if you use some of them inappropriately you can be hit with heavy fines and even a jail sentence so unless it is a real emergency don’t jump on the emergency channels.

Hopefully you have a better idea about what makes a UHF unit tick and what boxes you need to tick to make sure you choose the right UHF and antenna for your 4WD setup!