Does anyone use a HAM radio in their TJ? They seem to be very popular overseas with off-roaders and the distance they can cover is impressive. A good functioning one is triple the price of a good CB. The license looks likes a breeze. I asked about and read about the actual utility of CBs (not just during a trail run) and it seems they aren't much use. I have no idea but would really appreciate your experience and opinions. Thanks and Happy Holidays!
Ham (not HAM) radios are handy in Jeeps, they can cover more area for a couple reasons. First, the types of ham radios we use in our Jeeps put out a lot more power than CBs do... typically 50-75 watts vs. the 4 watts CBs do. Plus they can connect to what are called repeaters which will pick up your signal and rebroadcast it over a larger area with more power. There are many thousands of repeaters all over the US so you'd want to know which repeaters are in your area so you could take advantage of them.
It's definitely not hard to get a ham license at its entry-level class which is called the Technician Class. There's something like 30 questions on the test and they're pretty easy to learn the answers to. Nothing too technical, they're mostly there to insure the ability to operate properly and not interfere with others.
The website at
http://www.arrl.org/ is the main organization for hams, you'll see a couple links on it for explaining what ham radio is and how to get your license. There are a lot of good training course available that will teach you the test. Gordon West's courses are the best and how I got all of my various levels of ham licenses. Here's one at
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0945053924/?tag=wranglerorg-20&tag=wranglerorg-20
The Technician Class is the easiest test to pass, the next step would be General Class. General Class also gives you access to the lower frequencies that allow you to talk literally around the world. I've used my larger ham radio to talk with hams in Russia, Japan, Pitcairn Island, Germany, and 50-75 other countries. All on an inexpensive wire dipole antenna. The test for General Class is harder and you have to definitely study more for it but it opens up what ham radio is really all about. The Morse code test is no longer needed, a good thing for most people. I barely passed my Morse code test, it was difficult for me lol. I did talk with hams using Morse code but it left me sweating afterwards each time, I stopped using it as I was never all that good with it.
Finally, get a CB first for your Jeep as 99% of Jeepers use CBs on the trail. I have both a CB and ham radio in my Jeep and I always use the CB every time I go offroad, the ham radio is used far less frequently. There are some times I absolutely have to have my ham radio so they're both needed at different times. I could live without my Jeep's ham radio but not the CB.
Here are my two ham radio setups... in the Jeep, the top radio is my Yaesu 2 meter (145-150 MHz) radio and the CB is on the bottom. On my desk at home, my Kenwood radio puts out 150 watts.
My ham radio callsign is N6TAY.