Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong here.....

I have a VHF radio, with a licence from ORRA. As I understand this, ORRA stands for "Off Road Radio Association" and to me that means that 4x4 owners and/or 4x4 club members can make use of these frequencies supplied by ORRA to us, paying, licenced members.

Now my question.... why are there security companies, and loads of people whose language I cannot undertand, and therefore cannot figure out from where or which company they are from, using an OFF ROAD radio frequency?

What rights do we have with regards to this. Can anyone, I suppose licenced or not, just use ORRA 1, ORRA 1T, ORRA 2, ORRA 2T. Can I jump in and tell them to $%$#^%*$&U(%# (sensored to protect the inoccent )???

I'm just fed up listening to all UN 4x4 related conversations between some control room and some donkey screaming that his soccer team has won.

Do I have the right to keep clicking my mic repeatedly, will it make a difference on his side?

BTW A lot of the chatter is in and around the Alberton area, but seems to be almost everywhere when travelling outside the Alberton area too.

The frequencies (currently two of them) are not exclusive to ORRA and may well be licenced to other users too. So no, you may not purposefully cause interference to other co-users on the same channels.

To help control this problem, all radios I supply are programmed as follows:

Ch1 = ORRA1 - No Tone
Ch2 = ORRA1 - with Tone
Ch3 = ORRA2 - No Tone
Ch4 = ORRA2 - with Tone

The interference is usually heard on either of the "No Tone" channels. i.e. Channels 1 & 3. The channels with tone (3 & 4) still receive the interfering users but the audio is killed before it can reach the loudspeaker. The only means of communicating with another user is if his radio is programmed with the same operating frequency & tone as your radio.


-F_D

Miskien is dit dan beter om op 29MHz te bly - jy hoor niemand anders daar op nie!

Thanks F_D,

I guess we will have to learn to love it....ha ha.

I thought about going the 29 MHz route, but figured the trend was moving towards the VHF side.... It's a bit of a mission to run 2 different radio's ..... .... oh well, such it life.

VHF is the 'preferred' way to go. 29MHz AM radios are just too expensive for what they offer.


-F_D

I'm thinking of getting a handheld VHF - will be much easier to use during Club events than one in your vehicle.

The Kirisun PT4200 is a good choice for that. We also have 12v chargers for this model.


-F_D

In the cape most guys have 29MHz so it's fine for talking to the other guys in a convoy.

I've also found some security firms here in Pretoria using the ORRA freqs, but I turn my radio off if they bother me. Actually, I only turn the radio on when I want to chat to someone!

Kobus, the only reason the 29MHz frequencies are so quiet is because nobody is using them any more!!

At the recent Rust de Winter trip we had 7-8 vehicles with VHF radios (including two handheld VHFs), so comms between the vehicles worked exceptionally well. I do know that Peter's vehicle (Bundu trail organiser) also had an HF radio - maybe that's reserved for visitors from the Cape?

Christo, as jy daai ouens wat ons frekwensie gebruik kan identifiseer, laat weet my want ORRA sal hulle by ICASA aangee.