Why stickied? Because, just like long shelf life food, water, and ammo, this is something everyone here has EASY access to, and radios are not that expensive. Learn it, know it, just in case
I'll start with the fact that I didn't know CB and HAM were different. I've been wanting to get into it for a while but have absolutely no clue where to start and whether HAM or CB. Just a hobby to get into.
No, don't worry about a license (I'm sure the HAMS here will be pissed) when it's an emergency. When not IF the SHTF this will be a primary carrier of information in real time. Disinformation can be crushed quickly because reporting is in real time and there are no MODS. You can get a HAM / Shortwave set at a good price right now. A Baofeng UV-5R VHF UHF Dual-Band FM Ham 5W Portable Two-way Radio Walkie Talkie is like $25.00!! Get one and buy a better antenna for it, learn how to use it and how to utilize local repeaters. It's a cheap and effective radio that will at least get you information.
A lot of options, look up the baofeng radios, they're cheap, not the greatest, they never match that output Watts they say they have, but in an emergency they're good.
Ah, things have changed indeed. When I was doing this stuff, long long ago, in high school, the monitoring station was 3 blocks from my home. I remember feeling this vague sense of nervousness every time I passed by it. There were stories of them raiding illegal transceivers and making people pay fines etc. They were more feared than the CIA these days, lol. Not sure if these were just urban legends but we were quite terrified of them!
nice nice, I never reached off world ever, but I did catch some crazy sounding signals - I always thought it was my wonky coil, but who knows it might have been from of world!
I seem to recall that my old boss with a pair of antennas (one mounted on either mirror) would occasionally hear transmissions from thousands of miles away (aforementioned skipping)
These days I don't hear much except the occasional transmission in Spanish. The Canadian experience may vary.
I will give you a better answer haha. I hear guys on the cb channels around my area on sideband a lot, not just on the upper frequencies but any of them
Baofeng UV-5R is cheap ham and has a ton of bands. I bought both of mine for around $30 bucks and got a giant antenna. There's a ton of videos on youtube on how to set up and use. I would scan and find your channels and save them.
You need to get a license to talk on it or FCC will come after you. They give you your handle id after exam and fees. I have the book but still haven't taken exam. Figured I would use it if shit hits the fan. I listen to police and fire channels then and again.
Its Free to listen
Taking license info. You can get your license online these days.
I have all the weather bands programmed and all the local channels. I wrote the frequencies down on paper, then added them to chirp and uploaded to baofeng with its data cable.
I got a longer antenna and a battery shell replacement to use 6 AA's. This is just so I can power it if we lost power since you can't charge with now power.
I got 2. One in a faraday cage and one outside LOL.
The UV-5R covers the 2m (VHF) and 70cm (UHF) bands. Propagation at these frequencies is mostly line-of-sight, which depends hugely on the environment. With the built-in antenna at ground level in an urban area you'd probably only get a few tens of miles. On top of a hill you could get hundreds. If you plugged it into a 14-element Yagi on a tower you'd do very well indeed, but nobody uses a hand-held for that.
On these amateur bands it's common to use repeaters, which receive on one frequency and re-transmit on another, to improve range. They're usually sited on a nearby hill and are run by local amateurs for no profit.
Good point. And its also probably a good idea to study this material so you don't get yourself killed (unlikely with handhelds; very possible with rigs that are any larger)
Lol. :D I don't know much either and would also like to hear what experienced people have to say. I asked this one time, myself. What I did learn is that you need classes and a license to operate a ham radio. I think anybody can operate a CB. Hams are also quite pricey. I think cb's are more affordable, but you might not have the range - that can depend a great deal on the terrain and the weather, too though. So there's what I know. I hope more people post about it.
You're right that most new ham radio transceivers are much more expensive than CB radios because they're expected to operate on multiple bands, multiple modes and have very high performance receivers with features like digital noise reduction and variable filtering. However there are still options for cheaper equipment: older, used equipment can still be very good, and there are some compelling cheaper options from China (understandably might not be popular on this site!). You can even modify some CB radios to operate on the 10m band.
Lots of good comments on here, some are inaccurate. CB's are still used here in the US, as a professional driver I use mine everyday. Having been interested in, installing and using CB (since I was 14, almost 45 years) and as an Extra class amateur radio operator, I can tell you that the most important part of your system is the antenna. Get a high quality antenna and coax, make sure it has a good ground.(counterpoise) High power is good and will help you talk farther, but not a major necessity and requires larger gauge of power cable. I recommend a Cobra 29 Chrome, it has a built in SWR meter and talkback. (helpful to have to ensure your microphone is working properly) Also, most stock CB microphones don't sound all that good on the air, so I recommend a Road King 56. (RK56) Very intelligible on the air and recognized by professional drivers, this is a purchase you will NOT regret. Some people will tell you to get an Astatic, however I think they sound too "bassy" and not all that good if you want to be understood at long distances. It really depends on what you want to do. Do a search for local amateur radio clubs if you want to get into Ham. There are a LOT of very helpful individuals out there and a lot of good Hams. Just my $.02.
Hello Saline, I just researched the FM addition to CB which was news to me. Apparently AM will not be going away, and FM modules have been available in the past to convert AM radios to FM capability. (I have personally installed them along with many other types of mods). So don't worry about having to "nerf" your AM rig. It will be interesting to see how well AM and FM coexist on one frequency, for example Ch. 19. I have heard people with export radios transmitting on channel 19 using the FM mode, mostly people who own these big expensive export radios who really only know how to use about 3 controls on the front panel. Listening to someone transmit using FM just sounds like an undermodulated AM signal with distortion. It should be interesting......good luck.
Oh well, looks like I have to do what I did when I was in highschool and the big wigs wouldnt share their rigs with us - build a crappy one and hope it can reach atleast 30-40 kms.
Even better, start a private pirate station!
I bought a mini transmitter on Amazon for about 70 bucks.
On the low setting (the only one I was able to get any non-transmitter object to work with) it transmits about 1.5-2 miles out the window. On high, it's 7x the power, so it could in theory hit about 10ish miles on its own.
Goes on FM frequencies so you can get the word out anywhere.
About 35 years ago i used CB and i do believe a lot of truckers still use it for police traps and stupid drivers. Channel 16 is band that most would use to report. They would switch to another channel for chit chat.
Not very many skilled truckers on road today. Most of the young bright drivers are not even aware of their tail gate distance when at 80k lbs. Full 40 ton tractor and trailer.
My advice is to always stay big distance from any tractor trailer.
With the advent of satellite radio, cell phones and podcasts drivers haven’t kept them on for easily 10 years now. So if your around a big town all your gonna hear is the most vile crap you can imagine.
Now if you still want to try a CB and have a good radio, a lot of guys would buy 10 meter radios, Galaxy's and such, and have them retuned for CB frequency’s.
Don’t know much about HAM, but that would be the direction I would suggest.
Good hobby? get into ham (amateur radio). It’s changed a ton since I started 44 years ago. License lapsed a decade ago but looking to get relicensed. Back in the day I spoke to the King of Jordan and many very important and famous people. CB? You get to talk 5 miles +/- Ham? Anywhere in the world :)
Uhhhhh actually you "can"... but it's not legal. Most HF radios have a mod for MARS "military affiliated radio service" which opens up the tx capabilities...
Many amateur transceivers can be easily modified ("widebanded") to transmit on the CB band. While not technically legal, many people do it with no consequences. It's the same signal going to the antenna, after all - nobody would know.
Back wayyyyyy back in the mid to late 70's you wanted a base station with a nice tall linear antenna. At that time there were several decent base station radios out. Pioneer, JVC were 2 that my friends and I owned. A friend of mine by the handle of Apple Jack had a shortwave set up that reached Australia from AZ... I know that this isn't a lot of info but it's a start... Cheers my Frens...
So CB "citizens band" basically low frequency AM "Amplitude Modulation" It is authorized 40 channels between 26.965 MHz and 27.405 MHz. There is sort of more channels if your radio can do side band. Legal output power is 4 watts. For emergency use I would recommend a walkie-talkie with a rubber ducky antenna, to start. If you get into it move on to better antennas base station and linear amplifiers and swr meter. Look for a walkie-talkie with 40channels and a digital channel display. Should be cheap. Cobra makes some good radios. Car radios are ok but you can't carry them with you like a walkie-talkie. Walkie-talkies probably have a range of 1mile or so without obstructions such as hills. That can be improved with getting to higher ground , radio tends to rain down . AM also tends to have less interference at night. Range can also be improved during solar maximum due to more power from the sun energizing the ionosphere, this is called skip.. When changing antennas swr "Standing wave ratio" matters and I'd the antenna is not tuned for the cb frequency range it can damage the radio. You can learn more by learning about swr meters. Channel 9 is the universal CB emergency channel. In most areas, it is monitored by local law enforcement at all times, so please keep random chatter off this channel. Channels 17 and 19 are commonly used channels by truck drivers. 19 is often used by drivers going east or west; 17 by drivers going north or south. Hope this helps!
My dad used to be an over the road truck driver, but he's mostly local now. They don't really use CBs anymore. Their trucks are all tracked with GPS and they have company cell phones.
I will say, some people I know who live out in the country more so have one and all their neighbors got one so that they can all communicate if there's an emergency or SHTF.
Since this seems related to prepping, consider what they're for. There are three ways radio transceivers can come in useful:
Local comms within your group, within a couple of miles. Very useful even if there's just a local power outage and cell service is down and you want to co-ordinate with family members around home or town. PMR (Europe) operates at 446 MHz (UHF), has a legal power limit of 0.5W and is completely licence-free. Because of the high frequency (= short wavelength) the antennas can be very small, so handheld PMR radios (walkie talkies) are great for pocketable local comms and can be had very cheaply (e.g. Baofeng BF-V8). In the USA there's FRS which I believe is very similar to PMR.
Regional comms: communicate about what's going on in your area or with friends/family nearby. CB radio, which is at 27 MHz (the top end of the HF band ("short-wave"); yes there are other CB bands but they are very rarely used) is good for this and tends to have a longer range than UHF but requires larger antennas (the higher the better). Handheld CB transceivers are also available but tend to be bulkier than UHF radios and their compromised antennas mean that sometimes they don't do much better than UHF. When conditions are right (high solar activity), skywave propagation is possible on the CB band allowing worldwide communication, but this is much rarer than on the lower HF bands.
World comms: find out what's going on in the world. Only the lower HF bands and below are consistently suitable for this, and transmitting here legally requires an amateur radio licence. You don't need a licence to receive, though, so you might consider at least having a short-wave receiver to listen to AM broadcasts or amateur transmissions. I wouldn't consider this a prepping priority because in a SHTF scenario broadcast stations might still be just propaganda, and amateur radio transmissions might still be just talking about what radio they're using, what antenna they have and knee and back pain.
Note that in a SHTF scenario, radio transmissions may attract unwanted attention: someone might want to triangulate your position, to "acquire" your stuff, because if you're prepared with a radio you probably also have food. In such a scenario you would have to think carefully about whether transmitting is worth the risk.
Finally, a couple of notes about radio culture.
CB radio has a culture of unlawfulness. In the UK, CB radio became popular before it was legal. As such, there's a culture of freedom and unregulatedness that some people really like. People transmit power levels way over the legal limit and nobody seems to care unless it's interfering with someone else. Amateur radio tends to have a more regulated, polite and orderly approach to everything, so attracts more "band police" and rule lovers. Orderly behaviour is somewhat important, however, when your signals can go all around the world!
Some people start out on CB and move to amateur radio, some stay on CB. Amateur allows you higher power (400W in the UK, 1.5kW in the USA) and access to very many bands (LF, MF, HF, VHF, UHF and beyond) so there's loads of versatility and plenty to do. Morse code (CW) and interesting digital modes are used on the amateur bands (these are good modes when signals are weak) whereas CB, PMR, FRS etc. are only voice.
Since amateur radio has bands that cover every part of the radio spectrum, it seems there's little reason to use unlicensed services (CB, PMR, FRS etc.), so why would you? Because:
They're more free. Swearing and politics are not really allowed on amateur radio. You do hear some sometimes but it's frowned upon.
They're more accessible. Anyone can just go and buy a CB, PMR or FRS radio and start using it. No licences, no exams, no faff. And that means you might talk to other people on there who've just bought one too and haven't got a clue what they're doing. Some people hate that. I think it's fun.
Some good info here on getting started. For many a top question is range, or how far will a radio transmit. To help set expectations, here are some typical examples:
Baofeng or CB using “rubber duck” antenna: 1 mile under average conditions, a few miles under ideal conditions.
CB with tuned antenna(s) mounted properly on vehicle: 5 miles average, 10 miles ideal conditions.
CB with tuned base station antenna on tower or roof, and good ground connection: 15-20 miles average, 50 or more at night, under ideal conditions.
Baofeng with tuned base antenna on tower or roof, good ground connection: 10-20 miles average, 50-100 under ideal conditions.
Baofeng and other portable ham rigs can be boosted through use of an amplifier (legally if you have ham ticket). CB can also use an amp (not legally). Using higher wattage and tuned high and in the clear antenna, ranges can be extended somewhat further.
Ham base station rigs on any of the HF bands, with good antenna and ground (like above) and typical 100 watts transmit: 500-1000 miles minimum, at night, world wide range is common.
To recap, factors influencing your transmit range:
Frequency and time of day (ham HF bands at night are the best by far). Baofeng does VHF/UHF only, which does not travel far. CB is technically near upper end of HF so longer distances (>100 miles) possible but not dependably so in most cases.
Antenna tuned for transmit frequencies and mounted high and in the clear, along with a good ground connection.
Transmit power in watts output. Can make a big difference but only with 1 and 2 already implemented.
As an after thought, repeaters can also extend range, doubling it or better, as they are usually installed by expert hams with optimum location and antenna, and retransmit both sides of a conversation. There also are ham satellites, which take this idea to an extreme. :)
CB radios are pretty cool today. Easy to mod for extra feqs & power.. Most have built in freq counter, cut two pins apart and plug in a connector inside, get freqs below CH1 & above CH40 up into the 10 meter band, plus 50 watts+ output. First 100w does the most,.. check out the Galaxy DX86V its small and does allot.. some stores even mod it for you
When my friends and I were messing around with c.b.s in the late 80s I would leave the ground ring loose on my antenna and it really helped for some reason. I didn't think I was getting through to the truck stop until my sisters boyfriend imitated a female jogger, that really got them going😂 My friend had a killer setup with an echobox that would play music. I'd love to find one like that but I haven't seen any.
OP for cb just find a trucker radio store near the interstate with good reviews. They'll make sure you get the right length of antenna and the connections are all good. Probably help with troubleshooting too. Best brick and mortar experience I've had in awhile. For starting ham get a baofeng and don't hit transmit, just listen. Tons of instructional vids online on manual or computer programming for the setup.
Coming back to this post for research, and wondering who the heck would downvote a post asking for CB advice? Lol, did some shill go to all your stuff to downvote? Hahaha
Why stickied? Because, just like long shelf life food, water, and ammo, this is something everyone here has EASY access to, and radios are not that expensive. Learn it, know it, just in case
CB is easy. HAM is the complex one. What issues are you coming across?
I'll start with the fact that I didn't know CB and HAM were different. I've been wanting to get into it for a while but have absolutely no clue where to start and whether HAM or CB. Just a hobby to get into.
HAM radios can communicate across countries. However you will need license. Not entirely sure if license will be a problem during apocalypse.
Like the FCC won't find away to harass someone even in the event of a collapse/disaster. The gubmint likes their fines.
No, don't worry about a license (I'm sure the HAMS here will be pissed) when it's an emergency. When not IF the SHTF this will be a primary carrier of information in real time. Disinformation can be crushed quickly because reporting is in real time and there are no MODS. You can get a HAM / Shortwave set at a good price right now. A Baofeng UV-5R VHF UHF Dual-Band FM Ham 5W Portable Two-way Radio Walkie Talkie is like $25.00!! Get one and buy a better antenna for it, learn how to use it and how to utilize local repeaters. It's a cheap and effective radio that will at least get you information.
That's far cheaper than I thought.
A lot of options, look up the baofeng radios, they're cheap, not the greatest, they never match that output Watts they say they have, but in an emergency they're good.
Ah, things have changed indeed. When I was doing this stuff, long long ago, in high school, the monitoring station was 3 blocks from my home. I remember feeling this vague sense of nervousness every time I passed by it. There were stories of them raiding illegal transceivers and making people pay fines etc. They were more feared than the CIA these days, lol. Not sure if these were just urban legends but we were quite terrified of them!
Do you just make up a callsign?
kek
nice nice, I never reached off world ever, but I did catch some crazy sounding signals - I always thought it was my wonky coil, but who knows it might have been from of world!
They cancelled it? Why, were they getting messages?
Talk all over with cb too, shooting the skip.. needed for ham radio also. diff freqs go farther than others.
Thanks, fren! That's some great info
12 watts if you use single side band AM
I seem to recall that my old boss with a pair of antennas (one mounted on either mirror) would occasionally hear transmissions from thousands of miles away (aforementioned skipping) These days I don't hear much except the occasional transmission in Spanish. The Canadian experience may vary.
We are coming out of a solar minimum. Over the next several years the skip will greatly improve.
It's been many years for me. Are channels 35-40 still single side band (SSB)?
Lol! I think that rule was changed in the 70s, but I could be wrong !
Well that could be. That's about the last time I keyed it up.
I will give you a better answer haha. I hear guys on the cb channels around my area on sideband a lot, not just on the upper frequencies but any of them
Baofeng UV-5R is cheap ham and has a ton of bands. I bought both of mine for around $30 bucks and got a giant antenna. There's a ton of videos on youtube on how to set up and use. I would scan and find your channels and save them.
This guy has all you need to know here: https://www.youtube.com/c/HamRadioCrashCourse
You need to get a license to talk on it or FCC will come after you. They give you your handle id after exam and fees. I have the book but still haven't taken exam. Figured I would use it if shit hits the fan. I listen to police and fire channels then and again.
Its Free to listen
Taking license info. You can get your license online these days.
https://hamradioprep.com/how-to-get-your-ham-radio-license-made-easy/
Are the Baofang radios unlocked for FRS/GMRS transmit?
I have all the weather bands programmed and all the local channels. I wrote the frequencies down on paper, then added them to chirp and uploaded to baofeng with its data cable.
I got a longer antenna and a battery shell replacement to use 6 AA's. This is just so I can power it if we lost power since you can't charge with now power.
I got 2. One in a faraday cage and one outside LOL.
The UV-5R covers the 2m (VHF) and 70cm (UHF) bands. Propagation at these frequencies is mostly line-of-sight, which depends hugely on the environment. With the built-in antenna at ground level in an urban area you'd probably only get a few tens of miles. On top of a hill you could get hundreds. If you plugged it into a 14-element Yagi on a tower you'd do very well indeed, but nobody uses a hand-held for that.
On these amateur bands it's common to use repeaters, which receive on one frequency and re-transmit on another, to improve range. They're usually sited on a nearby hill and are run by local amateurs for no profit.
Tens of miles is theoretically possible in this environment, but realistically maybe a few blocks.
Language here was like when I first began studying comp sci lol
This is pretty much the info I was looking for! Thanks!
Show up at your truck? :)
If it was an emergency and only an emergency and you can.
If not welcome to fines and jail time if they hear you and FCC fines. Amateur radio license has all this info in the study guide.
Good point. And its also probably a good idea to study this material so you don't get yourself killed (unlikely with handhelds; very possible with rigs that are any larger)
Lol. :D I don't know much either and would also like to hear what experienced people have to say. I asked this one time, myself. What I did learn is that you need classes and a license to operate a ham radio. I think anybody can operate a CB. Hams are also quite pricey. I think cb's are more affordable, but you might not have the range - that can depend a great deal on the terrain and the weather, too though. So there's what I know. I hope more people post about it.
You're right that most new ham radio transceivers are much more expensive than CB radios because they're expected to operate on multiple bands, multiple modes and have very high performance receivers with features like digital noise reduction and variable filtering. However there are still options for cheaper equipment: older, used equipment can still be very good, and there are some compelling cheaper options from China (understandably might not be popular on this site!). You can even modify some CB radios to operate on the 10m band.
Thank you for that info.
My baofeng was under 30 bucks. If you want a base station that's another story.
Hmm.
Lots of good comments on here, some are inaccurate. CB's are still used here in the US, as a professional driver I use mine everyday. Having been interested in, installing and using CB (since I was 14, almost 45 years) and as an Extra class amateur radio operator, I can tell you that the most important part of your system is the antenna. Get a high quality antenna and coax, make sure it has a good ground.(counterpoise) High power is good and will help you talk farther, but not a major necessity and requires larger gauge of power cable. I recommend a Cobra 29 Chrome, it has a built in SWR meter and talkback. (helpful to have to ensure your microphone is working properly) Also, most stock CB microphones don't sound all that good on the air, so I recommend a Road King 56. (RK56) Very intelligible on the air and recognized by professional drivers, this is a purchase you will NOT regret. Some people will tell you to get an Astatic, however I think they sound too "bassy" and not all that good if you want to be understood at long distances. It really depends on what you want to do. Do a search for local amateur radio clubs if you want to get into Ham. There are a LOT of very helpful individuals out there and a lot of good Hams. Just my $.02.
Hello Saline, I just researched the FM addition to CB which was news to me. Apparently AM will not be going away, and FM modules have been available in the past to convert AM radios to FM capability. (I have personally installed them along with many other types of mods). So don't worry about having to "nerf" your AM rig. It will be interesting to see how well AM and FM coexist on one frequency, for example Ch. 19. I have heard people with export radios transmitting on channel 19 using the FM mode, mostly people who own these big expensive export radios who really only know how to use about 3 controls on the front panel. Listening to someone transmit using FM just sounds like an undermodulated AM signal with distortion. It should be interesting......good luck.
10-4 good buddy
Get a 40 channel CB and antenna, then get yourself a good handle.
Thank you, fren. I'm gonna start looking into exactly that.
u may not want to use the one you've got here just sayin
I could use mine
By the way, dont use the term "good buddy" on the CB. It means "gay" in trucker slang.
I know you've heard it on Smokey and the Bandit, but its not the same anymore.
Unless you are gay, then use it all you want!
Lmao
Mine is a Cobra, but Motorola, Midland and even Craig used to be good back in the day.
Radio shack made a great one back then too.
Forgot about those!
OP, watch a few episodes of "The Dukes of Hazzard" for more CB radio etiquette.
Shepard to lost sheep, Shepard to lost sheep...
Do you just make up a handle and start using it? And so could change your handle on a whim?
That's a 10-4. You got the 'Wizard' here.
I just talked to a friend who is well versed in Ham and CB Radios... He told me which CB radio to get.
Gonna get it and start using it soon...
You gonna tell us which ones?
He's a very knowledgeable gadget guy....
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QKMBN4H/ref=cm_sw_r_oth_api_glt_i_B29F0KTJ34ZGM16MKYQB?psc=1
Oh well, looks like I have to do what I did when I was in highschool and the big wigs wouldnt share their rigs with us - build a crappy one and hope it can reach atleast 30-40 kms.
Awesome. Wish I had a buddy like that but I forgot I've got lots of buddies here lol
Even better, start a private pirate station! I bought a mini transmitter on Amazon for about 70 bucks. On the low setting (the only one I was able to get any non-transmitter object to work with) it transmits about 1.5-2 miles out the window. On high, it's 7x the power, so it could in theory hit about 10ish miles on its own. Goes on FM frequencies so you can get the word out anywhere.
Look, I'm walkie and I'm talkie. Now you walkie and talkie, general!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A194vDpXzyA
About 35 years ago i used CB and i do believe a lot of truckers still use it for police traps and stupid drivers. Channel 16 is band that most would use to report. They would switch to another channel for chit chat.
Not very many skilled truckers on road today. Most of the young bright drivers are not even aware of their tail gate distance when at 80k lbs. Full 40 ton tractor and trailer.
My advice is to always stay big distance from any tractor trailer.
Do you think the way their schedules have been tightened over the years has anything to do with that? I've heard stories...
I saw a driver other day on freeway going through rush hour here in dallas doing 20 mph and everyone was moving around him.
I could tell he was max limit , but was amazed how careful he was. Would have loved to talk to him.
Just do not see that kind of driving anymore.
I think the experienced drivers, drive safe. Schedule go to hell.
The inexperienced try to make schedule at all cost.
I've seen a lot drivers who I am surprised can even back into the loading dock.
Very little English.
Really wouldn’t waste time with CB.
With the advent of satellite radio, cell phones and podcasts drivers haven’t kept them on for easily 10 years now. So if your around a big town all your gonna hear is the most vile crap you can imagine.
Now if you still want to try a CB and have a good radio, a lot of guys would buy 10 meter radios, Galaxy's and such, and have them retuned for CB frequency’s.
Don’t know much about HAM, but that would be the direction I would suggest.
Good hobby? get into ham (amateur radio). It’s changed a ton since I started 44 years ago. License lapsed a decade ago but looking to get relicensed. Back in the day I spoke to the King of Jordan and many very important and famous people. CB? You get to talk 5 miles +/- Ham? Anywhere in the world :)
Uhhhhh actually you "can"... but it's not legal. Most HF radios have a mod for MARS "military affiliated radio service" which opens up the tx capabilities...
No. Cb is very useful for short range communication only and ham can be both short and long range.
Many amateur transceivers can be easily modified ("widebanded") to transmit on the CB band. While not technically legal, many people do it with no consequences. It's the same signal going to the antenna, after all - nobody would know.
I don't think people are just going to drop all their AM stuff because FM is now legal. Best bet, get a radio that can do both.
What do you want to know?
Where to start and good resources that experienced users know of.
Go buy a radio and an antenna. Hook them up either in your vehicle or your home. Then start asking Questions. Have fun.
Then get a sick Cobra that has been modified. add a linear amp and a real antenna. (shh)
You are still in your vehicle at this point.
Now get a base station and spend a month building an antenna...
At this point you go full Radio nerd. You will get a real radio, probably your 2nd radio will be an old one.
Next you bounce signals off of a full moon.
Oh and then we have radar fun...
The hole is deep.
Also just get a radio and hook it up. Start asking Questions. Meet people. Listen. Ask Questions!
Back wayyyyyy back in the mid to late 70's you wanted a base station with a nice tall linear antenna. At that time there were several decent base station radios out. Pioneer, JVC were 2 that my friends and I owned. A friend of mine by the handle of Apple Jack had a shortwave set up that reached Australia from AZ... I know that this isn't a lot of info but it's a start... Cheers my Frens...
So CB "citizens band" basically low frequency AM "Amplitude Modulation" It is authorized 40 channels between 26.965 MHz and 27.405 MHz. There is sort of more channels if your radio can do side band. Legal output power is 4 watts. For emergency use I would recommend a walkie-talkie with a rubber ducky antenna, to start. If you get into it move on to better antennas base station and linear amplifiers and swr meter. Look for a walkie-talkie with 40channels and a digital channel display. Should be cheap. Cobra makes some good radios. Car radios are ok but you can't carry them with you like a walkie-talkie. Walkie-talkies probably have a range of 1mile or so without obstructions such as hills. That can be improved with getting to higher ground , radio tends to rain down . AM also tends to have less interference at night. Range can also be improved during solar maximum due to more power from the sun energizing the ionosphere, this is called skip.. When changing antennas swr "Standing wave ratio" matters and I'd the antenna is not tuned for the cb frequency range it can damage the radio. You can learn more by learning about swr meters. Channel 9 is the universal CB emergency channel. In most areas, it is monitored by local law enforcement at all times, so please keep random chatter off this channel. Channels 17 and 19 are commonly used channels by truck drivers. 19 is often used by drivers going east or west; 17 by drivers going north or south. Hope this helps!
THANK YOU
I came back here to make notes and research, and this is the best landscape summary in the whole thread.
My dad used to be an over the road truck driver, but he's mostly local now. They don't really use CBs anymore. Their trucks are all tracked with GPS and they have company cell phones.
I will say, some people I know who live out in the country more so have one and all their neighbors got one so that they can all communicate if there's an emergency or SHTF.
u/#Conspiracy
Since this seems related to prepping, consider what they're for. There are three ways radio transceivers can come in useful:
Local comms within your group, within a couple of miles. Very useful even if there's just a local power outage and cell service is down and you want to co-ordinate with family members around home or town. PMR (Europe) operates at 446 MHz (UHF), has a legal power limit of 0.5W and is completely licence-free. Because of the high frequency (= short wavelength) the antennas can be very small, so handheld PMR radios (walkie talkies) are great for pocketable local comms and can be had very cheaply (e.g. Baofeng BF-V8). In the USA there's FRS which I believe is very similar to PMR.
Regional comms: communicate about what's going on in your area or with friends/family nearby. CB radio, which is at 27 MHz (the top end of the HF band ("short-wave"); yes there are other CB bands but they are very rarely used) is good for this and tends to have a longer range than UHF but requires larger antennas (the higher the better). Handheld CB transceivers are also available but tend to be bulkier than UHF radios and their compromised antennas mean that sometimes they don't do much better than UHF. When conditions are right (high solar activity), skywave propagation is possible on the CB band allowing worldwide communication, but this is much rarer than on the lower HF bands.
World comms: find out what's going on in the world. Only the lower HF bands and below are consistently suitable for this, and transmitting here legally requires an amateur radio licence. You don't need a licence to receive, though, so you might consider at least having a short-wave receiver to listen to AM broadcasts or amateur transmissions. I wouldn't consider this a prepping priority because in a SHTF scenario broadcast stations might still be just propaganda, and amateur radio transmissions might still be just talking about what radio they're using, what antenna they have and knee and back pain.
Note that in a SHTF scenario, radio transmissions may attract unwanted attention: someone might want to triangulate your position, to "acquire" your stuff, because if you're prepared with a radio you probably also have food. In such a scenario you would have to think carefully about whether transmitting is worth the risk.
Finally, a couple of notes about radio culture.
CB radio has a culture of unlawfulness. In the UK, CB radio became popular before it was legal. As such, there's a culture of freedom and unregulatedness that some people really like. People transmit power levels way over the legal limit and nobody seems to care unless it's interfering with someone else. Amateur radio tends to have a more regulated, polite and orderly approach to everything, so attracts more "band police" and rule lovers. Orderly behaviour is somewhat important, however, when your signals can go all around the world!
Some people start out on CB and move to amateur radio, some stay on CB. Amateur allows you higher power (400W in the UK, 1.5kW in the USA) and access to very many bands (LF, MF, HF, VHF, UHF and beyond) so there's loads of versatility and plenty to do. Morse code (CW) and interesting digital modes are used on the amateur bands (these are good modes when signals are weak) whereas CB, PMR, FRS etc. are only voice.
Since amateur radio has bands that cover every part of the radio spectrum, it seems there's little reason to use unlicensed services (CB, PMR, FRS etc.), so why would you? Because:
This summary of CB and amateur radio deserves its own post and a thread in preppers.
Some good info here on getting started. For many a top question is range, or how far will a radio transmit. To help set expectations, here are some typical examples:
To recap, factors influencing your transmit range:
CB radios are pretty cool today. Easy to mod for extra feqs & power.. Most have built in freq counter, cut two pins apart and plug in a connector inside, get freqs below CH1 & above CH40 up into the 10 meter band, plus 50 watts+ output. First 100w does the most,.. check out the Galaxy DX86V its small and does allot.. some stores even mod it for you
When my friends and I were messing around with c.b.s in the late 80s I would leave the ground ring loose on my antenna and it really helped for some reason. I didn't think I was getting through to the truck stop until my sisters boyfriend imitated a female jogger, that really got them going😂 My friend had a killer setup with an echobox that would play music. I'd love to find one like that but I haven't seen any.
OP for cb just find a trucker radio store near the interstate with good reviews. They'll make sure you get the right length of antenna and the connections are all good. Probably help with troubleshooting too. Best brick and mortar experience I've had in awhile. For starting ham get a baofeng and don't hit transmit, just listen. Tons of instructional vids online on manual or computer programming for the setup.
We have 6 of them here. I've never used them. I'll get the manuals out.
Just go with 10-4 good buddy and shit like that
Coming back to this post for research, and wondering who the heck would downvote a post asking for CB advice? Lol, did some shill go to all your stuff to downvote? Hahaha
Lmao I have lots of shill haters
Are truckers still using CB radio? Last time I turned on a scanner, I heard nothing.
Correction: I have just found out that it's possible to unlock even the newer UV-5Rs using the method shown in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sg3RJf1ZEA