433 or 459 ????

[Skipper Billy]

Hello all.

I am considering a EZUHF system to give me more range. It looks to my untrained eyes that the kit comes on 433 then via the firmware I have to alter the freq to 459 and hugely reduce the power???

What are the consequences if I 'forgot' to alter it to 459 ?? (The kit is available with aerials for 433 so I am guessing that other people have 'forgotten' as well )

If its relevant I live in the Scottish Highland and Islands - well away from interference sources I would guess...... nearest large town/city 70 miles away.

Thanks in advance.

[Martink1974]

433 easyer to get good antennas

[Skipper Billy]

Cheers - but whats the downside - if there is one ??

[MrBen]

433 works a lot better, range and penetration will be reduced a lot with 459

[Dusty]

I think the OP is asking "what's the worst that can happen?"  Due to the word "illegal" being banded around this hobby.

Well, 433 is used by CB radio users in this country so if you're close by and use 433 at fairly high powers, you'll probably interfere with their broadcasts and block their repeater stations.

They will not like this and if you keep crapping on their bandwidth they'll try to find out the source of the interference, several operators using triangulation techniques can get a good idea of the location of the bad "signal"

You could be reported to Ofcom, who will most likely write you a letter of warning, with repeat offences resulting in further warnings and if you continue to cause a nuisance, there's a possibility of fines being issued.

However, if you're in the middle of nowhere and are not bugging anyone, you should be fine

If you break the speed limit of 70mph on the motorway here in the UK, you've already committed a much more serious "crime" than using 433mhz for RC.

Some UHF systems are running on 435 anyway to avoid being a nuisance

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

[Ratty]

433 also dissables central locking on alot of cars, the key fobs must be on that freq.

[Marklincs]

433 also dissables central locking on alot of cars, the key fobs must be on that freq.

Correct

[Skipper Billy]

Thanks Guys - I am in the middle of nowhere and CorporalB is right on the money - I just need to know the pro's and con's then I can make an informed decision.

Does 435 still use the 433 antennas Does using 435 remove some of the cons like upsetting ham radio users and disabling key fobs?? This looks like a simple firmware job on the EZUHF

Thanks in advance

[Dusty]

I had openLRS with a 433 mhz diamond antenna... but was running 435mhz no problem, got 2km range test through buildings/trees/streets etc.

435 was programmed into the firmware specifically to avoid ham repeaters

[MrBen]

with ezuhf using the 433 fw you can choose in the immersion tools software these frequencies 431-433, 433-435, 435-437, 436-438 or 433.0875-434.7625(DE version) or of course you can use the UK legal 459 firmware which is limited to 100mw, a 433 tuned antenna will work throughout the whole range of standard frequencies no problem

[laters]

433mhz is not cb it is a amateur radio band & the amateurs are only on there as a secondary users with the condition they dont cause interferance to the primary user of the band.
If you cause any interferance you are more likely to bother the primary user and not the radio ham to be honest.

I cant see that you will ever bother the radio hams as they have access to quite a bit more power on 433. (the average rig is 5-25w)
As for the antennas yes 433 are availabe of the shelf but are you getting the most out of them unless you swr or tune them? No!

As for the differance of performance. The differance between 433 and 459 is quite small and both frequencys will work very simular to each other if the power used is the same.

If you reduce the power on 433 or 459 the range will be affected & getting the most out of both would require a tuned antenna.

[Dusty]

who are the primary users of 433 then if not radio amateurs?

[MrBen]

Fpvers lol

[laters]

who are the primary users of 433 then if not radio amateurs?

Acording to my licence the radio hams are secondary users, it doesn't say who is the primary user.
I have held my amateur licence since 1984 and have been active on 432 for some of that time, the rumour amongst the amateurs is\was that the primary users were the M.O.D. but I am not sure.

I will be honest I have done some testing with martink 's draggonlink and one of my 433 tranceivers.
Firstly I couldn't lockout martins dragonlink ever using upto 25w which pleased Martin but the best bit is that I couldn't actually find the dragonlink signal other than the occasional noise so the chances of a uhf control system causing a radio ham any agro is virtually zero.
We eventually put my frequency meter on the draggonlink and could see it reacting to my 433 transmission but neither were really bothered by each other.

It was only a small amount of testing over a afternoon but proved quite a lot.

[Dusty]

that's great info laters, I guess a few hundres mw or even a couple of watts wont really cause an issue for radio hams then, nice to know