If the ionosphere is working in your favour, you can work the world on 10 watts with a wire antenna on HF. I’ve done the Isle of Man to Colombia on 10 watts on a wire dipole set up in my back garden (although that was narrow band digital), and SSB (voice) with only 10 watts to cross the Atlantic too.
Thank you for the posts and @alioth you are right, you would need to be airborne if you have a retractable antenna, but if the antenna is a wingtip to tail fin antenna might this work on the ground?
On a related topic how does a 340 manage HF outside of fitting a Bendix 950? At FL250 cabin pressure is probably around 15 or 16,000 feet, so I guess crew are on oxygen? A diy ham set would struggle unless you hooked it to an ADF antenna?
@Jujupilote I liked the storm window antenna holder in the DA42 video, google didn’t find it. Some ferry pilot’s have their own.
RobertL18C wrote:
At FL250 cabin pressure is probably around 15 or 16,000 feet
In the PA46 you can apparently use the relief tube opening in the hull to let out the HF antenna.
RobertL18C wrote:
Goose Bay, Santa Maria and St John’s will only issue the required IFR clearance via HF, so you can’t take off without HF. Why a satellite phone is not allowed is in the same category as an NDB approach with no GPS allowed.
The oceanic clearance for the North Atlantic region is issued by New York, Gander, Iceland, Santa Maria and Shanwick. They all have VHF alternative frequencies. I’ve flown the Blue Spruce route a few times and that doesn’t require HF or any long range nav equipment.
Hi everyone..! Delighted to see the thread resurrected :)
Someone above asked about my HF antenna installation… well you can read more and see all the pictures on https://www.qrz.com/db/G1AJH (that’s my ham radio callsign)…
I also have a full presentation on our flight to Australia which we present to various flying clubs and amateur radio societies – all on zoom these days – so if you want more info on the radio installation etc take a look, or invite me to present to your group! https://nasunicorp-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/g/personal/ahardy_nasuni_com/EUEVfe5pXaFBjwd7hhDbcFoBp12YLGyUk86dcvJyHHgi2Q?e=kzGXVC
Hope that’s helpful!
Andy
I’m curious to know the hoops you had to jump through to get a modified ham radio rig installed in the panel of an EASA aircraft!
Oh there were plenty of expensive hoops..!
The work was done by for me by Tatenhill avionics… http://www.tatenhill-aviation.co.uk/avionics/
The easy part in fact was the HF transceiver and ATU installation: the HF is NOT installed in the panel, it is in the rear fuselage and has a small lightweight control head which sites ON not IN the panel. This massively reduces the paperwork requirements..!
But the WAY more expensive part that EASA cost me (thousands!) was the ANTENNA installation: the Tatenhill Avionics guys had to submit a full structural engineers report just for the insulator that had to be inserted through the skin of the fuselage to get the antenna signal from inside to outside the aircraft. Under the previous CAA regime, I am reliably informed this was NOT a requirement.
So the radios cost hundreds, the installation cost several hundred more, and the PAPERWORK for bloody EASA cost thousands on top…!
Don’t get me started on the ferry tank issue..!!
Andy :)
Here is the insulation post that cost me thousands, on the left of this picture:
