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I can't use ham to replace cb

If I'm broke down in the middle of the desert, my life is worth more than $700.

Besides, after all the money you spend on axles, lockers, lift kit, tires, recovery gear, winch, transfer case, etc....$700 isn't all that much to spend for a guarantee to be able to call for help.
 
If you're able to get to a hilltop, then any frequency would work for emergency. Perhaps 2 meter fm is good if you can find a repeater. Or CB, or whatever you prefer.

But if you're stuck in a valley with no way to get the radio higher, then perhaps NVIS on 40 or 80 meters is the best shot, "cloud warmers". Because the signal is going nearly vertically straight up, its fine to run in a valley. the range is typically 100 to 250 miles.
 
what there saying is if you have a taxi cab business you cant use the amatuer band for that purpose and they dont want you tying up the repeaters with the same crap. I talk everyday on 75 meters to the same group and if what you were thinking was true then we would all have to use CB or cellphone we talk radio repair car repair whatever like said you just have to ID (callsign) every 10 minutes or atleast close to
 
QRN said:
What's the CB and a 16 pill going to cost you? A lot more than $700-800 I'll bet and you still have only one band to use.
Click to expand...

well thats why i put MAYBE at the end.not sure if id ever put that much
power in a mobile.point is any mobile with a 102 whip and a 16 pill or larger
is going to get very good.listen to ch.6 sometime
 
hotrod said:
well thats why i put MAYBE at the end.not sure if id ever put that much
power in a mobile.point is any mobile with a 102 whip and a 16 pill or larger
is going to get very good.listen to ch.6 sometime
Click to expand...


I don't care if it has a 128 pill installed,when the skip is hammering your receiver at 20 dB over S-9 you may as well call it quits. Or do you think that Billy Bob on Ch.6 is going to give a damn about your plight? That is if he can stob yammering long enough to hear anyone other than himself. In the aforementioned conditions of wilderness travel, CB is NOT the answer.At all. Period. Like moleculo said, if after spending all that money outfitting your set of wheels you can't afford a decent communications system that may save your life then you really can't afford the hobby and should not have spent your last dollars getting 3/4 of the way done.Effective communications in the wilderness can be the differance between life and death. Heck, even when I go ATV'ing in territory I grew up in I always have at least two differant means of communications with me. One is a cell phone and the other is a dual band HT with an antenna rolled up and stored away just in case. I know I am always in phone range where I go but what if...........I wouldn't even consider CB because of the noise factor when skip is in and the lack of users here.
 
Very True..

as good as CB is for hobby..
when skip is rolling it is near useless for emergency scenarios

back in early 80's i called out for help on CB
( from upstate ny)
and instead of local police...i got Texas police..
took me 10 minutes to convince them to call ny police to send out help to me....
when NY state police showed up 45 mins later..
i was asked if i was the dummy who called texas police for help..

even though i got the help in the long run
it was then that i realized i needed reliable communications beyond CB (there were no cell phones back then....and even in todays time decades later..that area was extremely remote and today likely has poor coverage at best,via cell phone ) were needed...
 
I am new to this board, but 30 years in ham radio...
To me the best set up is the one you can have the options with.
CB has it's uses, but when out in the woods you need a bit more than that.
VHF and UHF with some extra power and a good antenna, and HF with either several ham sticks or a good screwdriver; a well tuned CB , GPS to give your exact location if needed, a cell phone, even if it is to hold in memory the numbers of whomever you can get to come and help you.
 
speedycat said:
a cell phone, even if it is to hold in memory the numbers of whomever you can get to come and help you.
Click to expand...

Good point. Since the invention of speed dial and cell phone address books I actually have no idea what a persons phone number is past the speed dial location or their name in the address book.

I can see it now, I'm in the woods broke down and I finally reach someone on the radio and the only contact name and number I can give them is Mack43 Speed Dial 3.
 
Marconi said:
I agree with 9C1Driver. This is more or less what I meant when suggesting that Kane find another hobby. There should be plenty of room in Ham Radio for everybody, but you will get a lot of grief from some (maybe many) ham operators if you guys just want to ham it up a bit on the air.
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LOL have you ever listened to 75m.
 
Highlander_821 said:
Sure, you can talk all over the world on the internet. You can do that with a telephone, too. Big whoop. In both instances, you are using other people's equipment. Using HF Ham radio to do the same, you are using only your own equipment at your own location. That's about 10 million times cooler than the friggin internet!
Click to expand...

Then echo link and packet is not friggin cool, I think those voip's and repeaters are sort of cheating.
 

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