Channel 5

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hi all,
i just came back to QLD from being at Tamworth NSW for a few days, and i have iam disappointed of the number of people using Emergency UHF channel 5 for personal use flat out, including business while i was there.

there were other repeaters that they could of used that were working well in the area.

call this a rant or something !

[415Tango]

Amen to that, mate. They are actually breaking Federal Law by using the channels for anything other than in case of emergency.

[rochedalescan]

Its the same in QLD and in my opinion it wont stop until they start actually fining people and tracking them down.

[Phantom]

The acma is not fine people for using ch5 - why??

There are more important things to be doing than chasing people on ch5

until they regulate cb radio (never happen) and hold people responsible for what comes out of the radio this will continue

look how many people use more than 5w on the UHF cb side of things

acma have more important things to do - they get better results of getting "pirates" on amateur radio

let's face it - I personally think acma don't care about UHF cb and look if it continues it is the repeaters owner who can shut it down as they are who's it's licenced to

in the case of emergency I reckon people will dial 000 or 112 to get help rather than use the UHF especially with all the idiots on it

I really don't know why people still persist with the old ch5 system. If i want help I personally would dial direct to the source without going thru a 3rd party and risk Chinese whispers. I can get immediate help of the nature I need to help solve the problem

out west I think people would get better results on ch40 - let's face it I think u would find across Australia more people monitor ch40 at all hours the day than ch5. I bet u won't get a response from someone at 3am in Brisbane on ch5

it's an old system and acma have more important things to worry about. If they did then we would not be constantly talking about it

[geoffro316]

I was in Brisbane one day and came accross an accident in the on-coming lane. My mobile was flat so I called up on 5 Duplex and asked if someone could call the firies and ambos for me. I guy came straight back to me and told me to F%$# off and to stop mucking around on the emergency channel! I tried 3 times and got the same response so I gave up! One other day I was in Shorncliffe and heard a person calling for help on ch 5. Turns out they were on a little toy yacht thingy and were sinking. Someone else took their call and called the Coastguard. It worked well in that instance!

Maybe they should go back to making people get a Licence for CB radio. Maybe it would make people "feel" accountable and therefore make them think twice about carrying on like a pork chop! Then again, 3/4's of the users probably wouldnt go get a licence! My old DoTaC CB Callsign was NHG653! Not sure how I remember that coz it was about 20 years ago!

[Phantom]

Yeh - the sooner they make people accountable for what comes out of their radio - the better the CRAP stops ....

Guess why you hardly hear any crap on the Ham side of things ...

Sorry - but ACMA could not really care about UHF CB - so some things will never change ....

[SteveO]

Maybe they should go back to making people get a Licence for CB radio. Maybe it would make people "feel" accountable and therefore make them think twice about carrying on like a pork chop! Then again, 3/4's of the users probably wouldnt go get a licence! My old DoTaC CB Callsign was NHG653! Not sure how I remember that coz it was about 20 years ago!

Funny I can still remember mine QEW 962

[Kevaclone]

QDO757-(1985)
I only had it for one year, and only because I had a visit by the then DoTaC officers responding to a TV interference problem someone was having.

Apparently it was me cause the interference through my old Station Master, the one that had no co-ax connected to it, but I did have a radio in the car and no license. $13 later I had it. Turns out the idiot making the complaint had 4 TVs connected to one antenna and no splitter, he was getting interference from people on the other side of Moreton bay.


As for Channel 5, there are certainly problems, lots of civil construction around Brisbane means all channels are full during the day, and you will find most of the users on 35 not 5, look at all the roadworks sites, which are required by HSSE to use UHF radio for vehicles on site, they have signs up telling you which channel to use, I see lots between 31-38.

No use trying to tell them either(I've tried) since in their contract for the work the radio channel was submitted and they had to stick to that, Getting something like that changed mid contract means a whole lot of work by a whole lot of people through the HSSE processes. So the information should really be forwarded to the people letting the contracts to make them aware that during the tender process the repeater channels(especially 5/35) should not be used for site work and make it a safety issue due to possible interference from pissed off repeater users.

As for the usability of emergency repeaters, they may not really have any relevance around towns but try calling 000/112 when your half way between Miles and Roma, good luck with that
Miles to Wandoan had no service 7klms from either town on Optus or Telstra
but you could always get at least one UHF repeater

[aussiefarmer]

Gday, I know I'm over a decade late for this post but was wondering if any of you still monitor ch5 emergency channel? Cheers, Josh (forrestfieldbase1)