Satellite Phone Vs HF SSB Radio Operating Costs

The following information compares operating costs of HF SSB Radio to Satellite Phone.

• VKS-737 subscribers DO NOT require an Outpost Mobile Licence (RFDS licence) to operate on the VKS-737 Network
frequencies.

...............................................................................HF SSB............Satellite Phone

Vehicle to Vehicle Communications...............................Free..................Charged
Vehicle to Base Station Communications........................Free..................Charged
Position Reporting & Safety Logging..............................Free..................Charged
Message Handling to Family & Friends...........................Free..................Charged
Daily Weather Reports.................................................Free..................Charged
Daily Road Conditions & Closure Reports........................Free..................Charged
Medical Calls...............................................................Free..................Charged
Emergency Calls to Family & Friends.............................Free..................Charged
Emergency Calls & Breakdown Calls..............................Free..................Charged
Medical Emergency Calls..............................................Free..................Charged
General Telephone Calls.............................................Charged..............Charged

• An Outpost Mobile Licence (RFDS licence) DOES NOT permit operation on the VKS-737 Network frequencies. VKS-737 HF Radio-Telephone Network versus Satellite Telephone in the Outback Message and Radio-Telephone Services The VKS-737 Radio Network has facilities to provide either free of charge, or charged, message and radio-telephone interconnect services for subscribers. Radio-Telephone services are provided by HF-Tel.

No Charge:
• Messages to subscribers from family and friends.
• Calls to Emergency Services, either by Operator Connection or Selcall Pre-Dial.
• Urgent telephone calls to family, friends etc.

Charged:
• Selcall calls to a single pre-set telephone number are available for $13 per month per telephone number; this includes 10 minutes worth of calls. Excess calls are charged at $1.30 per minute. A $13.00 set up fee per number applies for the use of
this service. This limited “short-term” service is subject to spare pre-dial numbers being available on radio-telephone interconnects.

• Direct Dial Radio-Telephone calls to any fixed or mobile telephone number within Australia is available for $13 per month and includes 10 minutes worth of calls. Excess calls are charged at $1.30 per minute. A $13.00 set up fee per number for the use of this service. These provide easy to use radio-telephone facilities for VKS-737 subscribers.
* The Direct Dial service is only available on Telcall equipped radios such as:
Barrett 250, 550, 950 & 2050, Codan 8528, 9323 & NGT, Icom F7000, Q-Mac HF90 or radios fitted with Jenal SC-2 microphones.

HF e-mail Services
Data transmission on HF radio is slow by comparison with the 56k dial-up and ADSL (broadband) services most people are familiar with. Data rates ranging from 0.6 to 2.4k are typical via HF radio and are dependant on radio conditions and the quality of the modem used. At best, these data rates are suitable for text based emailing (no attachments or web surfing).

HF SMS and GPS Services.
As a cost-effective alternative, Bcon has developed an Internet based messaging and vehicle location system. Bcon Messaging is a SMS style text messaging service using HF radio. It is not an e-mail service. It has the advantage of using existing HF radio features without requiring additional expensive ancillary equipment.
Features of the system include:

• Short messaging (SMS) of up to 62 characters to and from HF radios.
• Logging of GPS locations by the vehicle.
• Vehicle location from the Internet.

Which radios are supported?
• Bcon Messaging and Bcon Positioning (Auto) currently supports Barrett 2050, Codan 9323, 9360 9390 & NGT radios.

• Bcon Positioning (Manual) supports manual position reports from Telcall compatible radios such as: Codan 8528, Barrett 550,
950 & Q-Mac HF90.

For further information check out the Bcon website at: bcon homepage
 
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