CB Radio, Ham Radio, or other?

LoyalGatorFan

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Which do you guys recommend as far as easiest to learn but also most effective for communication/other features?
 

Swamp Donkey

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Which do you guys recommend as far as easiest to learn but also most effective for communication/other features?
CB is obviously the easiest to learn. Just go buy one. And instead of typing stupid shtt, you just SAY stupid shtt into your CB.

Effective depends on what you want to do with it. What do you want?
 

LoyalGatorFan

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CB is obviously the easiest to learn. Just go buy one. And instead of typing stupid shtt, you just SAY stupid shtt into your CB.

Effective depends on what you want to do with it. What do you want?

Nothing fancy really …just communicate with others for a hobby or in case one day there is power grid outages to serve as a backup
 

Swamp Donkey

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Nothing fancy really …just communicate with others for a hobby or in case one day there is power grid outages to serve as a backup
to be fair I didn't really formulate the question well, so you did not answer it well. ever give it a shot anyway.

in some areas CB is fairly useful. but in reality for the most part only truckers still use it. off-road vehicles sometimes use it. it's illegal but some people still buy higher power foreign CBs or amplifiers and broadcast with that extending the range significantly.

FRS gmrs and MURS are also part of the equation. some ham equipment can operate in those ranges but it is not actually legal.

with ham, the sky is basically the limit. if you want to talk to other continents you can do it, but HF takes $$$.

if you want to talk from Miami to Seattle on a hand held radio, you can do it with DMR. local ham clubs probably have VHF and UHF repeater in your area. They quickly have them up after a disaster usually, often supplying emergency communications for the more complicated and harder to reinstitute modern first responder radios (Fire police EMS).

The ham test is pretty simple, you could probably download the questions and be ready in a day to take the test. you no longer get tested on Morse code.

the first and last thing you need to know about communications is that the antenna is everything and the antenna height it's probably the most important equation.

to know what is the best equipment for you, we would have to know who you want to talk to.
 

Nalt

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CB is easiest but unless you have a base station with backup generator it could become useless except when/if you are driving around with one mounted in your vehicle.

Ham radio is really easy to get started but more expensive too. You can get a good 2 meter radio and talk with folks quite a ways away even where cell signals are absent. That is why a lot of rescue squads utilize Ham. You can also get helpful advice such as traffic routing and such from Ham operators when traveling.
 

LoyalGatorFan

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to be fair I didn't really formulate the question well, so you did not answer it well. ever give it a shot anyway.

in some areas CB is fairly useful. but in reality for the most part only truckers still use it. off-road vehicles sometimes use it. it's illegal but some people still buy higher power foreign CBs or amplifiers and broadcast with that extending the range significantly.

FRS gmrs and MURS are also part of the equation. some ham equipment can operate in those ranges but it is not actually legal.

with ham, the sky is basically the limit. if you want to talk to other continents you can do it, but HF takes $$$.

if you want to talk from Miami to Seattle on a hand held radio, you can do it with DMR. local ham clubs probably have VHF and UHF repeater in your area. They quickly have them up after a disaster usually, often supplying emergency communications for the more complicated and harder to reinstitute modern first responder radios (Fire police EMS).

The ham test is pretty simple, you could probably download the questions and be ready in a day to take the test. you no longer get tested on Morse code.

the first and last thing you need to know about communications is that the antenna is everything and the antenna height it's probably the most important equation.

to know what is the best equipment for you, we would have to know who you want to talk to.

Thank you very much for all this Donk…it sounds like ham is definitely the way to go over CB…so these abbreviations you threw out…what is DMR, VHF and UHF? I am assuming the latter two are something high frequency?

As far as the antenna height, I would ideally like to talk to anyone in the world but I would settle for just in the US if worldwide got to be too expensive regarding frequencies…
 

LoyalGatorFan

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CB is easiest but unless you have a base station with backup generator it could become useless except when/if you are driving around with one mounted in your vehicle.

Ham radio is really easy to get started but more expensive too. You can get a good 2 meter radio and talk with folks quite a ways away even where cell signals are absent. That is why a lot of rescue squads utilize Ham. You can also get helpful advice such as traffic routing and such from Ham operators when traveling.

Thanks Nalt…really appreciate it…not to get too tinfoil hat on you (shhh don’t tell Donk) but my main goal is just to have as a backup line of communication in the event of blackouts/outages/etc
 

Swamp Donkey

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Thank you very much for all this Donk…it sounds like ham is definitely the way to go over CB…so these abbreviations you threw out…what is DMR, VHF and UHF? I am assuming the latter two are something high frequency?

As far as the antenna height, I would ideally like to talk to anyone in the world but I would settle for just in the US if worldwide got to be too expensive regarding frequencies…
okay. sorry but you can Google some of this stuff and we'll figure it out as you go through a quick course.

DMR is digital Mobile radio. basically it has radio towers, repeater towers, that are linked throughout the country. it allows you to speak farther than you ever would in any conventional ham radio system often just with a handheld radio. DMR can be run on either VHF or UHF.

as for the frequencies we GENERALLY have HF (high frequency), VHF (very high frequency) and UHF (ultra high frequency).

there's a lot to it and many different bands but generally people talking on car radios and handheld radios are talking on either VHF or UHF, often using a repeater mounted on a tower or a hill building or other high ground.

generally the antennas for HF are very very long. we are talking wire antennas that hang from a tower and extend across the yard. the radio equipment is often very large also, generally a desktop type situation although some are mountable in a vehicle. you're talking about $1k -$1.5k (or much much more) to get into HF but you can literally talk around the world with it.

there's a lot going on with radio propagation, some frequencies are ground waves and some are sky waves that bounce off certain levels of the onionosphere. I know enough to say that sentence but not more. I couldn't do it myself but I've helped communication guys set me up. it takes some serious commitment to learn all these things but the hand radio guys are pretty helpful I've been told.

VHF is line of sight only. you're probably talking about 6 to 9 mile range vehicle to vehicle and much less range portable to portable radio (handy talkies). he's off in these repeaters and their repeater may have a range of several counties.

UHF is much the same with shorter distance but better propagation in cities apparently because the radio waves bounce around better.
 

Swamp Donkey

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Thanks Nalt…really appreciate it…not to get too tinfoil hat on you (shhh don’t tell Donk) but my main goal is just to have as a backup line of communication in the event of blackouts/outages/etc
but to talk to who?

people in your neighborhood? first and foremost you all need the same system Cb, Gmrs, ham whatever.

your want to talk to you parents at the farm 100 MI away? totally different radio needed.

talk to your fellow militia weirdos? they use gmrs radios, mostly.
 

Nalt

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Thank you very much for all this Donk…it sounds like ham is definitely the way to go over CB…so these abbreviations you threw out…what is DMR, VHF and UHF? I am assuming the latter two are something high frequency?

As far as the antenna height, I would ideally like to talk to anyone in the world but I would settle for just in the US if worldwide got to be too expensive regarding frequencies…
What Does UHF and VHF Mean? UHF stands for “Ultra High Frequency” while VHF stands for “Very High Frequency.” UHF can range from low band (378-512 MHz) to high band (764-870 MHz) while VHF ranges from low band (49-108 MHz) to high band (169-216 MHz). DMR is Digital Mobile Radio and was developed in Europe.
 

NovaGator

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Dec 10, 2015
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Which do you guys recommend as far as easiest to learn but also most effective for communication/other features?
I always thought two tin cans and a long piece of string was the easiest thing
for me to learn.



00Z0Z_4mVSCMBCv0Yz_0cU05N_600x450.jpg

 
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Swamp Donkey

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). DMR is Digital Mobile Radio and was developed in Europe.
not really.

it is for all intensive porpoises a generic copy of APCO Motorola p25 like all the public safety police and fire used here.
 
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NovaGator

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not really.

it is for all intensive porpoises a generic copy of APCO Motorola p25 like all the public safety police and fire use here.
My research says that the Nazi's developed it in 1942 as an adjunct to their time machine.


00505_1Tz2G1t2To2z_0pO0rf_600x450.jpg


"HOP ABOARD, MEIN FUHRER!"
 
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Detroitgator

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okay. sorry but you can Google some of this stuff and we'll figure it out as you go through a quick course.

DMR is digital Mobile radio. basically it has radio towers, repeater towers, that are linked throughout the country. it allows you to speak farther than you ever would in any conventional ham radio system often just with a handheld radio. DMR can be run on either VHF or UHF.

as for the frequencies we GENERALLY have HF (high frequency), VHF (very high frequency) and UHF (ultra high frequency).

there's a lot to it and many different bands but generally people talking on car radios and handheld radios are talking on either VHF or UHF, often using a repeater mounted on a tower or a hill building or other high ground.

generally the antennas for HF are very very long. we are talking wire antennas that hang from a tower and extend across the yard. the radio equipment is often very large also, generally a desktop type situation although some are mountable in a vehicle. you're talking about $1k -$1.5k (or much much more) to get into HF but you can literally talk around the world with it.

there's a lot going on with radio propagation, some frequencies are ground waves and some are sky waves that bounce off certain levels of the onionosphere. I know enough to say that sentence but not more. I couldn't do it myself but I've helped communication guys set me up. it takes some serious commitment to learn all these things but the hand radio guys are pretty helpful I've been told.

VHF is line of sight only. you're probably talking about 6 to 9 mile range vehicle to vehicle and much less range portable to portable radio (handy talkies). he's off in these repeaters and their repeater may have a range of several counties.

UHF is much the same with shorter distance but better propagation in cities apparently because the radio waves bounce around better.
:lol: that got a smile
 

jeeping8r

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FRS needs no license but it's limited to .5 watt, GMRS requires a license, no test but last I knew it was a $70 fee. MURS is like FRS but different frequencies.
These services along with 2 meter, 70cm ham are FM, fairly noise free. CB and most HF is AM... static
I've witnessed a hundred buck used HF radio with a roll of wire antenna 6" off the ground talk to Australia.
Conversely I sat behind Lake Weir high near Ocala in my truck with a bone stock CB with an 8 foot whip antenna and chatted with a guy in upstate NY...... All depends upon the conditions
 

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