The Ham & CB Radio Thread

I'm kinda surprised to see that the Jeep community is using CB's rather than FRS (Family Radio Service) or MURS (Multi-Use Radio Service) radios. Is it more of a historical hold-over from earlier days? Besides using it for coordinating off-road activity with fellow Jeep enthusiasts, is there much other traffic to listen to?
 
Bill Erickson said:
I'm kinda surprised to see that the Jeep community is using CB's rather than FRS (Family Radio Service) or MURS (Multi-Use Radio Service) radios. Is it more of a historical hold-over from earlier days? Besides using it for coordinating off-road activity with fellow Jeep enthusiasts, is there much other traffic to listen to?
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CBs are cheap old-school AM technology that works well. It doesn't really have drawbacks to Jeepers where they would feel the need to look for anything better. Those of us who use CB are happy with how well it works. In fact, I use my CB 99 times for every single time I use my 75 watt 2M ham radio which operates on FM.

FRS etc. is FM that operates at a much higher frequency that, without the ability to use repeaters like ham radios can, is strictly limited to line-of-sight range which is not an issue at the much lower frequency that CB operates at. FRS is great for keeping the family in touch when at Disneyland etc. but it's not really suitable for the typically uneven/mountainous terrain our Jeeps are used in.

Not to mention low frequency AM radio stations (which CB is too) haven't gone away. All cities still have tons of AM broadcast stations and why all of our car radios are AM/FM and not just FM. :)
 
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Bill Erickson said:
Thanks for the background, Jerry. I've got a spare Kenwood TM-V71a dual-bander that I was thinking of putting into the TJ, but it looks like a CB would make more sense...
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It's never a bad idea to have both. I sometimes run with a particular group who only runs 2m ham radios on the trail.

This is how my Uniden CB & Yaesu 2m ham radios are installed, they're handy installed like this. They're clean in that photo because that was right after installing them. They're so filthy now it's amazing they both still operate like new. :)

CIMG3873.JPG
 
Bill Erickson said:
How do you handle 2 antennas? I noted your earlier discussion on the CB antenna — where do you put the 2M one? Any issues with interference beween the two?
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Nope no interference between them, the rollbar would affect the antennas more. My CB antenna is on the driver's side, the 2m is on the passenger-side.

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Jerry Bransford said:
Yes I have both ham (2m) and CB in my Jeep. Don't use your ham callsign on your CB which would technically be illegal, and CB 'handles' went out with bell bottom jeans. We just use our names on the CB while Jeeping. :)
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10-4 Bandit. Put the hammer down and keep smokey off your back door. Snowman out! :D
 
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well I have my ARRL book and reading up on the information for the test. Some of this stuff is Greek to me. ha. I also met with a local Ham club last night and learned some stuff. They are having a field day the last weekend of the month and Im taking my test then ( for the first time ha ) I did buy a pretty cool tool for my computer, its a RTL-SDR so its been cool messing with that. but i can see my little hand held radio probably will be replaced with a digital unit one day.
 
i thought most emergency and law ran digital. I like to hear whats going on in bad weather. I really dont know enough to talk much about it yet. but im learning. im sure ill be with this hand held for a while till im educated enough to know what to buy. i dont know why some towns think its cool to be secretive about their frequencies.
 
For good reason, LEO doesn't want the bad guys to be able to easily listen in so they know if they're about to get busted. Many crooks are very tech savvy now.
 
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yep i guess they are. I used to have a scanner only and i could listen to weather spotters and fire dept. I didnt really listen to police. hey are most of the frequencies people run on FM or NFM ?
 
Eddie Greenlee said:
i thought most emergency and law ran digital. I like to hear whats going on in bad weather. I really dont know enough to talk much about it yet. but im learning. im sure ill be with this hand held for a while till im educated enough to know what to buy. i dont know why some towns think its cool to be secretive about their frequencies.
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@Jerry Bransford. What are your thoughts on hand held vs mounted units? I have read over this thread a dozen times and I'm think that I may want to dive off into this Ham thing.
 
The power thing Eddie mentioned is a big benefit to a permanently mounted unit over a hand held... permanently mounted radios put out 60-75 watts, handhelds only 5 watts on average. Also, handhelds were always a lot more difficult to program in my experience. And there's a lot of programming needed to get a ham radio to work with repeaters, which are used to communicate over wider areas and longer distances. My first 2m radio was a handheld and it wasn't long before I got so frustrated with it that I bought a permanently mounted radio. I no longer even own a handheld radio.
 
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JP98 said:
What are some good solid starter mounted units?
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At only $187 or so, it's real hard to beat the Yaesu FT-2900R. It puts out 75 watts, is built-to mil-spec so it's nearly bulletproof, and is fairly easy to program. Not to mention it has a front-facing speaker. It's also easier to program than my previous ICOM IC-V8000 radio was that was in my stolen Jeep.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WKH00M/?tag=wranglerorg-20
 
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yep in order to program my hand held i ordered a aux cord for my radio and downloaded CHIRP and boy did that make it a lot easier. I started reading how to program it using the radio and quickly ordered the cord.
 
@Rob5589 "10-4 Bandit. Put the hammer down and keep smokey off your back door. Snowman out! :D"
Off topic but, CB radio references in some songs:

CW McCall...... Makes you think of the song "Wolf Creek Pass"

Classic song from the genius of Manheim Steamroller.

"Breaker-Breaker 19, ...... This here's the rubber duck!"

Or another classic CB refrence:
The man in black:
"I got it one piece at a time and it didn't cost me a dime......!" The end of the song. "What year is it? Well it's a 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, automobile...."



Oh but I guess I'm dating myself having grown up in the era of when CB was the "Internet" of it's day.

I digress,

Rick
 
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