Thank you for the offer for a free stubby cooler. Since I live in the USA shipping would be too much. Enjoy a beer or two instead. 🍻

Would love to see a video of how you plan a trip, what products, maps, etc you use. Also how you navigate whilst you're on a trip, with the Hemas and paper maps.

On the topic of soldering and heat shrinking, I can't believe more people don't know about Solder Sleeves. They are by far the most convenient connection between two cables. It's a heat skrinkable sleeve that has a layer of solder on the inside of it. Apply a heat gun, the solder melts into the wires, and the plastic shrinks and seals over the top. We used to use them on F/A-18 Hornets in the late 90's. They're amazing, and easy, and cheap.

For alternator buzz, you can wrap a "ferrite choke" around the cable. It's basically a doughnut shaped chunk of iron, molded into a ring through which you run the cable. Because it's iron, it has inductance, and that inductance is tuned to filter out interference of that alternator frequency. Check out your ham radio suppliers.

That meme really hit home... I was up at the powerlines the other week in my 60 series and I was the only one in the 8 car convoy with no radio... Felt more isolated than during covid!

Request for a show: what goes into and how to plan for a long outback trip.

Absolutely loving this style of video, always love the tips from Harry since I'm a cook fanatic 👍 well done Ronny and Torbs, having a beer on the Gold Coast for ya all.

"Or a smart man" oh man that's got me in stitches!!! Best 🔥. You boys have good banter 👏

I've just come across your channel and subscribed. Really good stuff guys. Cheers

Great job! thanks for the video

Another great show with you two, was not only very entertaining but very informative. Thanks guys 👍👍

Good stuff, like coverage of Harry, it all looked so good! Good tip too!! Stone IPA is San Diego, Ca. Good stuff, Lived in SD the past 20 years.👍😎✌️🍺🍻🤘

Answer to the thinner/thicker aerial question. Yup, on rough Aussie roads (where the corrugations are the size of small hills and go on for hundreds of kilometres - only a very small exaggeration) the thin ones just snap. We had this happen a few times before we moved to thicker ones. Oh and cans Vs stubbies, cans don't break anywhere near as easily. Nothing worse than having one stubbie go off and taking a few of its mates with it. Even though I'm not that interested in UHF, still this was the best episode so far :) Good one guys.Harry, you aren't going to have Broome to yourself any longer, the tourist hordes are on their way :) Last bit - never angle an antenna to look cool, absolute vertical is always best - even on a boat which is where we see a LOT of angled antennas.

Great info thanks!

Really interesting video, covered so many of the differences I’d been wondering about to uk/European CB radios and the ham radio set ups, the licence free 5w uhf CBS you guys run sound really user friendly.

great vid Ronny and Torben, some interesting Q&A

Another great show! I learned a lot, as always. Topic suggestion: All about bull bars - is alloy any good? how much do they weigh, and how much does steel weigh? is one design better than another? if you hit an animal, do you need a new bar? Does the car crumple zone come into play if you hit a bull, meaning you need a new car anyway? how do you know if you are going to be overloading your front axle? have you guys ever hit anything, and what were the consequences? Any insurance considerations? Does it void your manufacturer's warranty? Are some bars better than others for fitting a winch?

Great video, thanks for the info

you guys have inspired me, inspired me to crack a beer. thanks R & T

Love your informative vids guys, thanks, I have learnt a lot regarding making good choices in gear. Your co-op vids are getting better, less awkward pauses and more natural conversation. Great work, One thing - who does the camera shot changes in your vids? It’s the only thing I think detracts from your vids. Random change of shot with you no longer into camera. Thanks again and look forward to your next vids.

I really enjoy these shows. I can listen to them at work.

STONE! From my hometown of Escondido! Bravo!

Hey Ronny, figured you might want to know that at the beginning on your main topic cut screen it’s from S1 E2 cheap off-road gear. Keep up the great work, love the content!

Man its very soothing listening to these guys 😂

How is Harry's back doing? Thanks Ronny, you and Torbs have a great entertaining and informitive show!

thank you for great detail video

Great video very informative as always! Would you want to do, or have you already done, a video with pros and cons for different winch mounts? E.g. permanent fixed vs receiver hitch/towball mounts?

Next time try to use a propper glass when drinking quality beer. Do you drink a good wine from the bottle too? And another thing, how danish are you two? I´m a huge fan of you guys and from denmark, we dont have any terrain for our 4x4's, so i love to follow your trips.. Cheers

The AM and UHF radios both operate on the citizen band ( CB) a frequency allocation has been provided by ACMA on 27mhz and 477mhz spectrum for unlicensed operation. It drives me crazy when people say its not a CB it's a UHF...

Stone is good beer, very good beer. Also good people there. Thanks for the show and info.

Thanks good video ronny

Supporting Australian owned and made. Awesome.

I bought the GME XRS with the controls in the handpiece. My vehicle, whilst nice to drive, is too car like in many ways and options to mount stuff in the cabin are virtually non existent. Probably overkill for what I will ever need but I am more than happy with the quality, the fact that it is an Australian product with good warranty protection and a great reputation. Thanks for the video guys.

you should do a detailed video about repeater operation networks providing your communications to your UHF radio. show people what commercial repeater site looks like and all the equipment. have a radio technician explain or the ins and outs. explaining how does cavity filters and duplexes work. and what repeater controllers they use.and what coax cable systems they use. and antennas. it wheel be a very interesting video. for your channel. do a full detail video on a uhf repeater site. looking forward to seeing a professional video..👍

Love STONE Brewing Co.!!! I have been drinking them since I was 15 years old lol and I even made a trip to their original Brewery near San Diego California.

Hi Ronny, thank you for this video, and since you encouraged people to ask for the topics, here is one - I would like to hear about the video editing SW you use.

Thanks lads for the video. Great info. The missus and I moved to Adelaide a year ago and are planning on doing some road trip round SA before the end of the year and then more round Aus once all the borders open. I was thinking it would be good to get a plug n play uhf radio. What would be the best way to run the magnetic antenna to the roof and do you think it's ok to keep on while driving in the hayways? Cheers.

Nothing like having a few tumblers of 4 Roses Bourbon while watching Ronny and Torbes. Great video boys! Do many guys use HAM radios in Australia? A lot of guys in the States are switching to HAM. Much longer distance, and the test is pretty easy and the license doesn’t cost that much. Cheers!

Some alternator noise comes in through the power wire for the radio, you can get an in line filter that can reduce the noise quite a lot.

I'd love to see some in depth topics comparing different brands or types of shocks/suspension setups :). It's probably one of the few things you have briefly touched on, but maybe not in a more in depth sense. Also the root of my question stems from the fact that most people in the states, if money isn't an obstacle, go for Fox, Kings or ICONs but I don't really see them used else-ware as much. Would also be interesting to compare lowing your tire pressure with stock suspension vs not airing down with set of really high end shocks (Like a mid travel setup from Accutune). Im assuming people on a tight budget like me would get the best results from a compressor and airing down. Awesome video, love the content!

my favorite episodes. seriously how can you give this a thumbs down.

In the US our "CB" band in the 400Mhz band is defined as General Mobile Radio Service. It's a 5 watt max service that requires a US$50.00 license that covers all family members. 27mhz CB is a 4 watt service that requires no license.

No one ever mentions antenna cable quality (different size cable, thickness, materials used in the manufacturing process) great video very informative

Yellow tongue was simply derived from the tongue and groove of floor sheeting, yellow tongue just happened to be the right thickness and free for tradies at any building site.... any name thereafter is due to it being manufactured for what was common use in the day.

Good vid as usual boys! One question I'd love an answer to is the best way to route cables from outside to inside the cabin especially in wagons - I currently go thru the corners of the doors but it's not ideal. I've seen through the snorkel but that doesn't seem to be too easy so I'd love your input 👌😁👍

Some great questions and answers. I started off with the GME Plug & Play unit and it worked well until the antenna got knocked over by low hanging banches. Easy fix obviously but can be a bit of a problem at times. Ive since upgraded the antenna and built the unit into my vehicle with a 6db antenna on the bull bar and love it. I am considering moving the antenna to the roof and putting the smaller 3DB antenna on. I have also considered a switch to run both but after this video I think I will ditch that idea. I keep a 1w GME handheld in the glove box too for spotting etc. Other than listening to the radio is there any other need to upgrade the AM/FM antenna? I cant stand the radio and the crap that passes for music these days, Maybe Im getting old.

On beers, I feel I am a pretty good beer conousuer. I am not a huge IPA drinker, but every now and then get in that mood. What I can say, in my experience, there is great beer everywhere. I make it a point to ask for local beers when I travel. It is akin to experiencing the local culture including but not limited to food. I want to remember the taste of the beer for that area. It's like an olefactory sense thing that reminds me of the area. It is also part of what draws me back to that place. When I do return, I'm like a coke fiend needing my fix of local beer.

You can zip tie over electrical tape and it won't fall off ever. Mini cables ties are fine. I saw stereo installers using that method, especially when just removing the sheath/not cutting the main wire

In regards to the size difference between antennas in the US vs Australia, its also because we're running in the 476-477mhz UHF spectrum and US radios are still running in the 27mhz bands, which requires different antenna designs.

May I suggest when testing your beers, begin with the weaker strength (abv) and follow it with the stronger beer. Enjoy. Lenny

Man - you guys are over-regulated even in radio! I thought the FCC was bad over here in the US but not any more :) Running 50w multi-band mobile ham radios only requires a simple test. Cheers and 73! K7ECH

@ 11.00 we have the fiberglass whips here too. There are some local guys in my area that will make you custom ones for your needs. And do you have any problems running duals on different channels so close? Yes leave glass for home if you have a swig its difficult to clean up glass once broken. Squelch is a filter basically and dont leave it same check it every session. It may affect interference if you kink it in a door for example. I may have done some tests with high watt cb. 2k is enough to do bad things to your electronics. And your neighborhoods. Around 150 200 i feel like is the sweet spot with good antenna. On cb. Which i think is not a very efficient band.

Also: Antennae mounted upright mostly produce & receive vertically polarised radiation. However it is common for drivers using portable radios to hold them at an angle or even horizontal. Their ability to receive and be received reduces by half and a lot more.

Hey Ronny further to the chap who asked about alternator noise through the uhf , he can coil a wire around the charge cable near the uhf this coiled cable around charging cable will absorb electromagnetic field and reduce the noise on the uhf the thicker the cable the more it will absorb but harder to wrap

How to reduce alternator whine: proper grounding, well shielded coax, ferrite beads on the coax at the radio side, and a LC filter on the radio power connector at the radio side.

Smoke machine is well worth it. Funny everytime just to see Ronny react.

Torbs has gone red faced after the beer 🤣 must have been a heavy hitter for sure 👍

Made the stuff up at the bottleo the other day. Grabbed the carton to take away for the long weekend . Hoped in the foundry and the carton rattled bugger I grabbed bottles not cans . Was not happy but I couldn’t take them back , couldn’t do that to them late at night.

Hey guys great video. My question is which is better for a winch rope or cable.

Appreciate the answer to my question 10:46 - wonder if we can get your aerials imported to the US and start a new trend?

Ive only ever used GME and RFI, I would definitely use GME purely based on the longevity of their spring bases. I have found that my personal RFI became soft after about 3 years and the work one was soft on a 6 year old ute.

Your SWR meter reads the reverse energy in a coax, and converts that number into a value called the “Standing Wave Ratio”. That number has very little meaning. The value is when you convert that number back into what it measured in the first place, which is the percent of returning energy. That is why you need a SWR meter. It called a “Standing Wave Ratio” meter, not a SWRer meter

Two radio's comes in very handy on Perth repeaters lol otherwise you will never be heard,some random dude I've never heard in my life I've lived in Wanneroo for just over 30years just moved past Busselton,i live down south now....blokes on blokes,3m flathead, world record holder

I'm looking at putting an antenna on my headboard of the ute, what part of the antenna emits the signal? Is it the tip or the whole antenna?

Ronny you guys need to do a FULL taste testing episode would be fun to watch i think.

Got a topic 1 Old fateful gear. Vs new gear. 2 what do you do with old gear. Trays radio's seats ect Do you try and recycle broken gear (turn rims into firepits ect)

Another addon for the portable uhf in the car, get one with a removable antenna and you can mount a bigger external antenna onto it

Coolio. Thanks guys.

Just a suggestion Ronny, maybe consider doing another take of the beer of the show intro with Torbs, felt kinda weird when it was his turn to go to the fridge, he gets up then it cuts to you going to the fridge. Also, as a keen IPA fan and home brewer, it is hard to judge any beer right after having a strong hop heavy brew.

In the states. Cb radios or am 11meter. Is pretty much the only comes u can have with out a license, also murs channel, frs. But have to be 5wat or less. But some of us use the uh/vhf freq with out a license because they don't really monitor them

Ronny, the reason the Americans use thinner antenna is down to the frequency, the US use hf at 27mhz and I believe you in oz use uhf which is 400 MHz

ICOM is Australian owned but made in Japan very good quality .

Hey there Ronny and Torbs Agree whole heartedly with taking cans into the bush over bottles as stated stack easier , are lighter and crush down easily when finished so easy to cart out with the rest of your rubbish. One big draw back have you looked at the price difference cans over bottles. Why are cans so much more expensive?????

Oi Oi fellas love your show and tips.. Any advice on AM/AF antenna? My Patrol has a window antenna and it's driving me up the wall. I have been looking at a GME AM3.. and mounting it on the bull bar. My UHF is also mounted on the bull bar. Do you think I will have any issues mounting and running the cable on the same side as my UHF antenna. I am worried about possible signal and interference issues on both? Should I use extra screening? My reasoning is, it is easy to get the cable it through the fire wall. Also the roof is not an option as I take my roof rack off to reduce drag and petrol costs as my truck is my daily driver. Should i both the bullet and most on the opposite side? Cheer fellas Jamie ..

A point on hand held radios. Technically they are classed as a mobile device (in nsw), and a police officer in a bad mood can book you for it if you are using it while driving and holding it in your hand.

The problem with kinking an antenna cable is two fold. The obvious is if the inner core is pushed all the way through the insulation, it can touch the braided layer and short out the signal. But even if it doesn't get pushed that far through the insulation, it will create a spot of reduced capacitance between the inner wire and outer braid, affecting the impedance of the cable. Whenever impedance is mismatched, some standing wave signal strength is effectively reflected back to the transmitter in the radio instead of making it out to the antenna to be radiated outwards. This can damage the radio.

antenna length is a function of the frequency you’re transmitting on. I think width is for strength

Yellow tounge comes from flooring so its duel purpose 👌🏻

Hey Ronny and Torbs Enjoyed this episode as always, watched it somehow delayed however. Radio electronics and installations seem to be things where there are lots of myths and lots of errors made, therefore I think it could have been great to have a wheeling radio amateur assist you live in this show. I'm not wheeling unfortunately because I'm from a country where there is no reasonable possibility for it but I'm a radio amateur, let me therefore add my 2 cents: - Cable length question: For some applications in high frequency electronics it is essential to use an exact certain length of coaxial cable but simply connecting a radio and antenna at UHF frequencies generally shouldn't be one of those. It is correct that you shouldn't have more cable joins than necessary, ideally just one at the radio and another one at the antenna. Therefore it may be necessary to learn how to solder antenna connectors properly to do the ideal installation, depending on the situation. - Performance of different style antennas: As long as mobile antennas with different shape have the same gain you shouldn't notice a lot of difference, however the directional characteristic might be different and of course the situation on the vehicle will have an influence too. - Antenna question from the American guy: I think the most important thing to point out here is that you Aussies have UHF cb at 477 MHz while in most of the rest of the world there is only 27 MHz cb if at all. The length of the antenna is indirectly proportional to the frequency, the higher the frequency the shorter the antenna. This is the main reason for different kinds of antennas used. The prototype antenna for mobile use is the quarter-wave whip which is 2.75 m long at 27 MHz and roughly 0.16 m long at 477 MHz. You see the point here, at 27 MHz this quarter-wave whip is already too long for many applications and must be shortened by loading with a coil, while at 477 MHz it can even be made longer for additional gain. I guess the thicker kind of GME antennas usually seen on your vehicles (called radome) are collinear antennas, if you built one of these for 27 MHz it would be roughly 18 m tall if it was the same construction as the GME ones that are about 1 m long. If they are collinear there isn't just a wire inside, should you ever have a snapped antenna it would be very interesting to take it apart to see what's actually inside. I do not deny that GME antennas may be more rugged than others, at least they should be at their price. - Alternator whine: This often comes from the dc supply to the radio, especially if you also hear it from the speaker of your own radio. The easiest thing to try is put a suppressor (filter) in the dc line. These are made for this very purpose, in case GME don't offer them try searching online or ask a local radio shop. - Kinking the antenna cable: I disagree here, normally coaxial cable manufacturers say to what smallest radius a certain cable can be bent and any smaller radius would have to be regarded as a kink and would require the cable to be replaced. No system is perfect in reality but kinks should certainly be avoided at any cost. Even if the cable does not look damaged from the outside the distance between the inner conductor and the shield can have changed at the kinked spot and the cable therefore will not have its 50 ohm impedance any more. This can be permanent even if the cable is bent back straight and will lead to signal loss in the end. - Put the antenna in the middle of the roof: You're right, the questioner most likely referred to a lower frequency antenna like a 27 MHz CB or HF or 50 MHz amateur one where ground is very crucial. You're also right that the upper part of the car will shade the radiation to the rear if the antenna is mounted on the bull bar. With UHF frequencies it can be taken as a rule of thumb that line of sight usually determines where the signal goes and where not. - Handheld radios: Because any car with a metal body is a Faraday cage the transmitted signal from a handheld will be attenuated considerably outside. Therefore the range, that is already shorter with a handheld, will again suffer considerably. If you had a handheld radio with a detachable antenna (don't know if this is common with Aussie UHF cb handhelds) you could install an external antenna only and connect the other end of the cable to the handheld and use a mic like Torbs showed.

Antennas Traditional fibreglass core, Woumd Antennas are tougher for rollovers (if they have a spring base) than the external "cased" fibereglass antennas, but the heatshrink can get damaged on tracks... - best of both worlds would be- solid fibreglass core - wound loading coils and fibreglass/kevlar outer casing...with a "corrugation busting", shock relieving, rollover-damage-reducing - - spring base NB, dB "gain" can be designed to be whatever one wants in any style.. The fat ones also look tougher - for those who go for looks... BTW - antennas and feed co-ax should be used in tuned lengths - buy from the factory tuned - though, coax in random lengths only (ok I haven't got a radio test chamber) may reduce the Transmit / Receive signal, a badly tuned antenna could destroy some radios (more important with high power radios -5W uhf, not so much) if you transmit badly tuned. (SWR still exists. lol.) Old 40 channel UHF CB's are still legal to use in Australia. Just can't buy new any more.

Nice job Ronny setting up that automated camera dolly thing on what, barstools? 😁👍

Can I get a external roof mounted aerial for a 5wat handheld device

We've got a local brewery here in town. Where can I send some for you to review?

Content idea perhaps... What tips/trick/techniques would you give to those of us that would like to videograph a trip? I mean the logistics of setting up shots and keeping the convoy that is traveling with you on-board with the stop/starting etc. I know it is more of the photog side of off-roading, but just wondering how you handled it in the beginning and evolved over the years? Hope to see you one of these days in my hometown of Flagstaff if you come back for the Expo. Cheers!

stone brewing all there beers are great they make even stronger ones then that 6.9 ipa your drinking good stuff

I think you will find the reason why the US and Australia have different aerials is because the US are still using 27 meg radios and we use UHF. Dont know what your experts are on but CB radio is 27 and UHF. its the system that has been made available for the general citizens to use. At one time you had to pay a license for 27 and UHF. If they were to allocate frequencies in the VHF band to the citizens then that to would be CB radio. I think from memory in New Zealand in the 1980s they had CB radio on VHF. Your dad in his day used Side Band CB radio which was an addition on the AM 27 meg CB radio. Yes buy good electrical tape. Im with Torbs.

The radiation pattern of the antenna is influenced by its position on the vehicle. Up in the clear on the roof probably give good circular coverage, whereas a bull bar or mud guard of vehicle the antenna will radiate more one direction than the other.

I reckon you should only plug Aussie beer. 👍

Hi guys, the Southwest is just one part of the country for sure. More wide open, a great range of 4 wheeling for sure. There are other parts of our country that are very wooded, mixed with steep off camber, loose quagmire of sharp rocks and moist mossy muddy areas. Some would argue more challenging. Other areas are sandy, boggy yet in tight wooded and scrub confines. The US is varied, but not all areas get the You Tube coverage that is warranted. I live in areas that are normally over vegetated as described above. Still people run thinner antennas. Usually with a spring mount or the magnetic whip variety, so it can be easily removed. As for the fiberglass variety, I have a Firestik brand. They have been around for a long, long time. Do you have any experience with them. Also, most recommendations are to use an SWR meter to tune in the system, given variances in overall system, cable, antenna size, mounting position, etc. Please comment.

Can you compare the supacenter laser 8.5 inch to your lights

I'm curious if Aussies have started adopting FM/digital ham radios yet. I'm running 50 watts, and have gotten 70 miles line-of-sight simplex. And when I hit repeaters (duplex), that's extended considerably. And finally, I routinely talk to Japan, the Phillippines and other corners of the world on D-Star, where the repeaters are internet-connected. The western US 4-wheelers all use ham radios, and the eastern US guys tend to use AM CBs, with about a 6 mile range. Once you have heard the signal quality of digital ham radio comms, with a punchy signal and literally no noise at all, there's no going back. I tested for my ham license in a weekend, and can legally talk around the world now. So much fun. You tag along leaders might give ham a try for your back channel comms.

you (or your experts!) should have mentioned, that UHF antennas don't (really) need tuning because of the wavelength you're working with. other than the "old style" 11m CB band, where antennas are by a multiple shorter that it's wavelength. just for people to understand.

Thanks for the answer on the question- The last one was meant to say what is the maximum height your allowed to have on your 4wd from the top of the roof in WA? (height difference from the top of the roof to the maximum height of the antenna?)

Ronny ! IPA ?! In a can.... you Must be very thirsty... to drink that stuff. TAB or bottle is the best. Cheers

hey Ronny, a bit off topic but how is your dad and his jeep? I haven't seen him in a trip with you guys in quite some time. any future trips with him? as a fallow up. if you ever come back up to the states in the mid California range (for the rubicon or something) let me know. I live in the middle of the craft beer and wine country oasis. would be fun to do a pub crawl and talk about rigs.

With IoT, the tail will be able to hack the temp. of the fridge lead.

What is the website link to that Australian CB radio company?

"CB" in Australia GME UHF (Ultra High Frequency) is 477 MHz , "CB" in America is HF ( High Frequency ) is 27 MHz!

Just giving you the heads up. Although hand held, handy talkies, HTs are useful. Backing in the caravan etc. It is illegal to use one while driving in west oz. Same as a phone. The radio must be fitted to the vehicle.

Hi Ronny I have been wondering what’s happened with Wayne De villers. Also you said a while ago you were going to design your own awning is that still happening. Cheers Darryl