Total new person to this.Wife wants to know, VHF/UHF, CB radios?

[Ryan09]

I want to buy my husband a dual band VHF/UHF radio for our Jeep for off road/back country use along with the hand helds we want to get.
If I were to buy some thing like a Yaesu FT-8900 or FTM350AR can they receive and transmit on the CB frequencies as well?
If not can they be made to work?
We don't have allot of room in our Jeep and I'm the daily user of the vehicle so I'd like something cool as well. (Ry was talking about these radios, that's how I caught the model number!)
Also, the two radios I mentioned? Are they any good?
Will I be able to use them for when I want to know when him and friends are coming back for food and beer when camping?

Jen, Ry's wife.

 

[kd-5-bgt]

Hey Jen !!

Those radios will not talk on the CB band.The radios you mentioned are totally different creatures and to my knowlage they can not be modified to do so

There is a way that you can get the CB band in a radio with VHF and UHF but it is a fair bit more costly.

The Icom IC 706 mk2 has the ability with the proper modifications but is no longer made ..these can be picked up used for around 600 to $700 +/-

The Yeasu FT 857 ....These are current production radios and can be modified for CB ...these radios start at about 800 to 900 new out of the box.....but doing any mods to this radio will void any warrenty from Yeasu...and the places that sell these radios will not to the mods without the proper endorsements to your amateur raido license ( MARS endorsment ) and I have no idea how to go about getting this,but there is a couple of people on this forum that do have that endorsement and I am sure will fill you in on how to get this done

And the two examples that I mentioned are not really good talkers on the CB band for AM mode use but they do work,they do work very well in the other modes though ( ssb,fm,cw )


Are the radios you mentioned any good? that is easy...yes they are both very nice VHF/UHF radios.People I know that own these radios are happy with them ..and if you take the time to look around this message board you will find reviews on both of them done by people on this forum

Can you use the radios you mentioned in your post?Without an amateur radio license no you can not use those radios leagelly... but it is well worth the effort to get!!



I am sure there will be a few more people here that will reply to your questions as well. There are good folks here that I am sure will be happy to help you any way they can....and welcome to the board !!

PS... I just noticed that you are in Canada,the ham radio testing for your country is totally different than in the states...please be sure to look into what is required for the country you are in. There is a member or two on this forum from Canada that has their amateur radio license and they will know what is required for you to do the same

All the best !!

Chris

 

[Moleculo]

I have a Jeep and was able to fit two radios in - a VHF/UHF/HF ham radio and a CB. The VHF/UHF/HF is really more useful for communications out in the sticks, but (at least in the States) a CB is still needed because a lot of the off-roaders only use CB.

 

[Moleculo]

I want to buy my husband a dual band VHF/UHF radio for our Jeep ...
Jen, Ry's wife.

BTW, cool wife

 

[n0zna]

The Yaesu are alot better than the Icoms,hold up better in off road jeeps,hehe...dont like any Icoms,they goofed and made 2 good ones,718 and the ic2 or known also as the rad shack ht202 and ht404...like the saying if the blind hog roots in the mud long enough they find a acorn,hehe 73 de JW

 

[Ryan09]

Thanks guys!

 

[desync0]

As was mentioned, the VHF/UHF radios you mentioned require an amateur ("HAM radio") license.

It's actually not very hard to get in Canada, especially if you have a good memory. It's 100 multiple choice questions. And to use the VHF/UHF (2 meter & 70 centimeter (aka as 2m/440)) you only need to get 70% or better.

Google "ham test online", you can sign up for a free trial to see the kind of questions that are a asked.