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Cb users?

Camoprough

Camoprough

Active Member (9mm)
My neighbor moved sometime in the past year, he gave me 2 five foot whips and 2 cobra cb radios, I want to put one in my 99 chevy, and one in the garage, just curious with all the ham heads these days, do any of you still use cb?
 
Camoprough said:
My neighbor moved sometime in the past year, he gave me 2 five foot whips and 2 cobra cb radios, I want to put one in my 99 chevy, and one in the garage, just curious with all the ham heads these days, do any of you still use cb?
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what is cb?
 
It would be a rare location, probably highly mineralized canyon, where a 4 watt, 11 meter AM CB would out perform a Ham radio. Even with the 12 watts of a SSB CB, the range is still extremely limited due to the low power and the 11 meter wave length.
That said, I still keep a CB among my collection of radio's, belt and suspenders approach to communications, and some FRS and GMRS radios as well as all my Ham rigs.
 
The only thing interesting on common channel (19?) was the lot lizards trying to lure in drivers.
 
Camoprough said:
just curious with all the ham heads these days, do any of you still use cb?
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Yup. I use it primarily to ask if there are any logging trucks coming down the mountains I have to drive up. I’m primarily on 2m and 70cm ham, FRS/GMRS, and private land mobile.
 
Offroad 4x4 events still require CB communication between vehicles. Easter Jeep Safari, or Hump N Bump in Hurricane are active users.
 
I drove from Florida to Reno with a good quality CB in my truck. Never heard a word. In the old days it was non-stop on 19.
Now I have two 2m rigs in the truck. Like NYECOGunsmith said, Ham is the way to go, especially wandering around off-road where cell service is non-existent.
 
I don’t go 4x4 with the local Reno groups as often as I used to, but it was predominantly CB’s by all because they were cheap and didn’t require a test. And there was a wide difference at the quality of people’s installs that would lead to issues lol.

I punched my ham ticket before I slowed down, and the distance And clarity I can get out of a little Buttfong handheld is mind blowing. And my ticket came as about half the guys on any given run were becoming ham users too (usually overland types in my crowd).

I don’t think your CB will get much play if your ‘99 is just a commuter, most truckers have gone cellular and don’t yammer like they used to. But any radio is better than no radio if you go out in the desert a bit.
 
jfrey123 said:
Buttfong
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That’s the first I heard those radio being called that. They are pretty bad. It kills me when “reviewers” on Amazon, YouTube, etc yammer on about how great those radios are when they are horrible on a spectrum analyzer. Users are transmitting out of band every time they key up.

It’s even worse when the clubs are recommending them to new hams when they should know better.

Higher quality Yaesu FT-70DR radios aren’t that expensive.
 
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I ordered a pair. I couldn't figure out how to use them, and returned them. But I do that with half the electronics I buy. Manuals can't be written in English anymore, and I can't read Engrish or pictograms well enough to bother. They just lose money on me not writing the instructions in real English.
 
I have a CB in my truck along with my 2m radio for local comms. A couple of the local off road clubs use channel 4 when they go out and about.
 
Not sure if they still make them but if they do you could get an all in one unit. Back in the day I had a Galaxy DX88-HL. It had the CB frequencies built into it. I guess that particular radio became illegal due to it being marketed as a CB radio but was actually 10 meter. Don't remember all the specific details surrounding it but an option worth looking into anyway depending on your budget.

http://www.galaxyradios.com/88.html
 
I'm going to use mine mainly for desert coms, and like it was said just good to have in case of an emergency and no cell service
 
Camoprough said:
I'm going to use mine mainly for desert coms, and like it was said just good to have in case of an emergency and no cell service
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Comms are a must for groups in the desert. Will FRS work better then CB? FRS is much more compact. Tried it when it first came out for white tail hunting. With the transmit button beep, and the DNR's restrictions on radio comms while hunting the radio stayed in the truck. The crappie cops in MN were always quick to cite you for something.
 
LASCHRIS said:
Comms are a must for groups in the desert. Will FRS work better then CB?
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IMO FRS audio is better than CB but it’s limited to 2W vs 4W for CB and the antenna isn’t removable so you can’t use a vehicle mounted antenna for better propagation.

On a good day you might even be able to skip your CB signal but they’re both considered line of sight radios.

I use my ham radio if I need a repeater in an emergency but I also got my GMRS license so I can do simplex communications at 50W with family members. The $70 10 year GMRS license covers the entire family and no test is necessary. GMRS repeaters exist but are usually not open to the public and there are far fewer of them than ham radio repeaters.

I know Puerto Rico has started building out a GMRS repeater network for public use since GMRS licenses are so easy to get.

Sorry... I went on a tangent. ?

Short version: CB is better than FRS while operating from a vehicle because of the external antenna.
 
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Harley said:
Not sure if they still make them but if they do you could get an all in one unit. Back in the day I had a Galaxy DX88-HL. It had the CB frequencies built into it.
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I still have my Galaxy DX45MP 10 Meter. It's a great radio. Didn't "come" with CB channels it needed converting, was basically opening it up and moving a jumper from one setting to another. Don't think the new ones allow that.
 
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