UHF protocol

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Out here every farm house has one of these:

A UHF radio.

These work on different channels & have a differing range depending on the quality of the set & the location of the user - usually 10 kms or so. They are always kept somewhere in the living area & are a great source of communication /gossip/ emergency contact for all on the channel. Ours is located above our fridge & we share the channel with a few different neighbours, so it's interesting what you hear at times!



Anyway, the other day Dave & I were moving our sheep (yep all 11 of them!). We asked Zai to come & help us do this, but left Ellie & the twins in the house.... sheep are very silly & even a 2 year old will cause them to turn in the correct direction....or more likely incorrect!!!! We did however take our portable UHF radio & told Ellie to move a chair over to the fridge & call us on the house set if there was any emergencies.


About 20 mins later I returned to the house to check on the kids (I know I'm brave to leave them, but I was really only about 500m away at the most & could see the house the whole time.) Anyway as I walked in I could hear Ellie talking...so I raced over to find her sobbing into the UHF receiver..."my brother, my baby brother" - now both boys were with her looking fine, so I grabbed the receiver as our neighbour on the other end said " I'm coming right up". Of course I told him that all was fine & thank you, but not to bother.
He said she had been asking for "Renata", but that's all he could understand except for the bit about her brothers.
After I got off I asked Ellie what the emergency was. She replied " My baby brother (she still can't tell the twins apart) threw a toy car at my head"!!!!





She now knows an emergency constitutes of lots of blood or death (they already know our immediate evacuate protocol in the case of a fire.).

But then at least I should be glad that she knows how to use the radio!

And as for why we weren't getting her through......well let's just say the person holding the portable unit was on channel 1....not our normal channel.
And I'm not telling who that person is, but he's taller than I am & older too & really handsome!!!! LOL

15 comments:

Christy said...

Great blog Renata! Lucky you caught her in the nick of time!! LOL! Oh the joys of farm life....

Kate said...

You've given me the giggles now.... :) xo

Anonymous said...

Good to know that your neighbors will respond in an emergency!!! Actually, I guess it's important that they do know how to operate it in case of an emergency - just sorting out what the emergency is! Anyway, did you get those sheep moved successfully? Has the handsome, taller, older one learnt to operate the radio now (Better not let him read this or I could be relegated to least fav m-i-law! lol)
Love to all
Mumxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Anonymous said...

ps Do you reckon she'll still refer to them as her baby brothers even when they're 6ft tall???? I remember Nan used to call her 6'2" son her baby even in his fifties!!!!!)
Love you all xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Cassandra said...

Haha, too funny, i dont want to imagine what my kids would do with it lol

Anonymous said...

Poor Ellie-belle,
to think that baby brothers would cause her so much trouble. My baby sisters still cause me trouble....
Miss you all, wish I could visit you soon,
luv
sel

Anonymous said...

that is very funny Renata!!! i hope your well!! love martine

Brandi said...

Oh my word! The poor dear. I am so glad you got there in time. Mine called 911 one day when we left ehr with the sitter. Her reasoning for calling a number she knows is only for emergencies...."She thought they'd have my cell phone number."

Bobbie-Jo said...

Oh poor thing! Hope your neighbour is understanding.

You might want to put puke on the emergency list. I did, anyway!

Anonymous said...

Ah, the drama. Ellie and Bee would get along famously.

debi9kids said...

OMGosh! How funny! Love that she now has to know that an emergency is "lots of blood or death" LOL

Hmmm, tall and handsome...wonder who that could be. haha

Great post!

SF said...

Oh Renata, this was a great story, and such a pretty photo! Thanks for making me laugh out loud tonight!!! Ellie is a scream. :) She and Saraya would get on famously!

Mummy McTavish said...

Oh, the poor little darling. Cars to the head do hurt.

Good thing you got it figured out before you saw a frantic neighbour coming up your driveway!

16 blessings'mom said...

I suppose when you're that age and your baby brother throws a car at your head, it is an emergency....but thankfully it wasn't a REAL emergency, or that handsome man would be in BIG TROUBLE!

Kimmie said...

As she was talking into the unit, was there a sheepish grin on her face. I'm thinking there might have been...excitement on the farm...how fun!

Kimmie
mama to 7
one homemade and 6 adopted

Blog Widget by LinkWithin