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The Corroboree
ubza_1234

cb radios for rainbow serpent

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today tickets to Rainbow went on sale and i got mine! Woohoo! Anyway, i had this idea that because rainbow is so massive and its so unbelievably easy to loose your friends and not see them till you head back to camp, i decided to get some lil hand held CB radios. So next time we get lost i just get on the walkie talkie and decide apon a location to arrive at. :)

the other advantage is last year, there were some members from interstate who wanted to meet up at rainbow but when i got there i soon realised, there is no way to do this because of the sheer size of the camp site and festival lol

so ya, closer to the date i will find out what channels are allowed to be used for just chatting and that and some call signs ;) (as i know nothing about CB radios) mine cost me $150 for 2 rechargable hand held CB radios with a range of 7km from autobauhn. The rechargable battery can also be replaced with 4 AAA batteries if i have no way to charge them. (i have a small inverter in my car that can power the charger tho) dick smith sold a similar unit aswell but with i think a 5-6km range and was uniden brand but for $100. Looking back, i should have gone for them. Oh well.

There were some cheapies from jaycar i looked at that used AAA batteries with a 3km range for $20 each but for the extra $$$ i get a charging station, rechargable batteries and over double the range but the options there.

I think it would be amazing to, while waiting in the huge line of cars or if i get bored on the first day after setting up, i can see if i can find other SAB members! Cool!

So anyway, i know i may be posting this well early, but i just got so excited! :D

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If its for rainbow wouldn't they be 2cb radios :P

but in all seriousness, that sounds like a great idea ubza. Should bone up on some lingo 10 4 good buddy

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Ahh short-wave radios are so useful in almost any situation. I remember a couple of mates and I used to use them when we went camping and went on bushwalks etc.

As for the channels, a few of them are emergency only (but if you stay above channel 10 and up you'll be in the clear) and one of them, cant remember exactly which one, and possibly it varies depending on location, is the truckers channel. If you stay off those any other channel is free reign.

But remember, there might be someone listening to you guys so I'd be a little careful with what you say sometimes.

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sweet :D so maybe say, channel 11 can be SAB's cb channel :D and i'm rfealy not concerned if anyone from rainbow hears what i say on the cb. Any other festival yes, but not rainbow ;)

edit i dont believe that if anyone else meets me and my friends at a location at the festival, that that person will be.. Undesirable. One of the things that make rainbow so attractive to me :D

Edited by ubza_1234

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sweet :D so maybe say, channel 11 can be SAB's cb channel :D

 

I'd go a little higher than that just in case. Maybe say 27 or something in that range.

You can use this table as a pretty good guide of which channels to use.

And yes but it is possible that people not from the festival could hear you. Depending on geography and weather these things have been known to broadcast up to 15k's

Edited by dollarjuice

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See yas there, like the radio idea, thats one step above my method for finding lost friends at doofs - each pick an obnoxiously obvious animal noise (I like to be the seal) and just yell out that sound at the top of your lungs wondering around the party til one of your mates replies back with their noise... then find each other...

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Good luck getting people to use them for anything other than fun! Also, sometimes the best things happen when you lose everyone...

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mindexpansion: gold XP hope to see you there! Squaaaarrrrk!

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Good luck getting people to use them for anything other than fun! Also, sometimes the best things happen when you lose everyone...

 

the other advantage is last year, there were some members from interstate who wanted to meet up at rainbow but when i got there i soon realised, there is no way to do this because of the sheer size of the camp site and festival lol

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the little radios only have a 3-5km radius so not many people would be able to hear you unless you use a repeater channel. It should say what distance ya get out of them, what does yours say ubza?

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it says up to 7km on absolute perfect conditions. E.g full battery, no forms of interferience, nothing in the way like trees, mountains, cars etc so if i get 3-4km at a festival as vast and populated as rainbow, i'd be happy :)

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I was using one of those hand held walkie talkies at Rainbow this year, I think it was one of those uniden ones with about 6-7km range... don't know the exact model 'cas they weren't mine.

'Twas mad fun! It actually helped me locate people a couple of times. But what was more fun was when I was in my tent and I started talking random shit on the radio and then other people joined in and we made a whole little random story about weird crap. biggrin.gif

The only thing I had to remember was to switch it off if I was going somewhere where it would intrude on the surrounding ambience, as there were quite a few people using the same channel as me.

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You can buy cheap programmable UHF radios that can use dts/ctcss/dcs codes if you want more privacy or your own channel. Some cover just the CB bands, others go out of band :)

Edited by botanika

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