Handheld CB

[camaro1]

Just did some more reading, the F region can be used to reflect high HF low VHF freqs at the solar maximums and during the day. Which means yes, if someone in South America has their ant at the right take off angle, they could in theory get several thousand km out of their CB. High HF and VHF operate principle on LOS and Direct wave propagation, which tells me that unless you have your ant horizontally polarized and using NVIS to communicate, you really shouldn't have a problem with interference from other skywaves. A Vertically polarized ant with a very low take off angle should be fine for LOS comms. Also thermal ducting is possible with high HF and low VHF, I stand corrected.

daytime, some times at night, horizontal antenna, vertical antenna, it doesn't matter 11 meter skip goes on every day, we are at the solar peak in 2013. I don't know why you keep saying the cb band it to high of freq for these conditions,, 10 pm here now and I can here NewZealand on CB RADIO

 

[triggerhappy2006]

daytime, some times at night, horizontal antenna, vertical antenna, it doesn't matter 11 meter skip goes on every day, we are at the solar peak in 2013. I don't know why you keep saying the cb band it to high of freq for these conditions,, 10 pm here now and I can here NewZealand on CB RADIO

Like I said before, I'm going off book knowledge here, and from what I've read there are only two ways to establish long range comms, reflection off one of the levels of the Ionosphere, or through thermal ducting. Ionospheric reflection is generally limited by the MUF, which is greatly dependent on the time of day but usually around 20mhz. Thermal Ducting while an amusing novelty in lower freqs is best used for mid-VHF to UHF freqs. Looking up the current MUF's.

 

[triggerhappy2006]

and yup, there it is.... I yield. MUF's are as a high as 36Mhz around the halfway point between North America and Australia right now. :headbang: Mind=Blown...so interference will be higher during high solar activity, this much I knew, sun up freqs up and such, I didn't know it would ever extend much above 20Mhz, learning has occurred. Ionospheric propagation of 11 meter is beyond plausible. Touche gentlemen.

 

[hotrod]

you can get decent results using a handheld cb. but you need 2 things
1 base radio or recieving radio MUST have a really good antenna
2/handheld radio NEEDS a external antenna. ive used a wilson 5000
and monkey made with decent results.a smaller antenna will work but
range will be affected. your 5-10 mile range is a bit of a stretch for a handheld on AM
ive done 3-5 miles with a wilson 5000 and sirio mag mount antenna.
but i was on a hill. it CAN be done dont expect 10 miles though

 

[towerdog]

I could get decent range with radios like this before the sunspot cycle took off.
These monsters would actually do about 5 miles average, IN THE WOODS.

In town, too much noise to hear.

Once I talked 15 miles back to camp with this radio. Terrain was definitely in my favor.

No real advantage of these over VHF/UHF gear, maybe that noone wants to monitor all that noise and overmodulated idiots gives somewhat secure comms, maybe it refracts more than UHF around mountains and crap.

Other than that, no advantages.

 

[towerdog]

The other radio had 400 channels and fit in the palm of your hand. Average range was about 1/8 of a mile.

 

[Grinder74]

My brother has a cobra hh38? We bought an adapter to use a regular cb antenna, why not use a good whip antenna and carry a wire dipole if you need more range.

 

[hotrod]

My brother has a cobra hh38? We bought an adapter to use a regular cb antenna, why not use a good whip antenna and carry a wire dipole if you need more range.

in my post above this one . no. 34 ive done that and works good. still not a 10 mile range
i dont remember the actual miles now it was back in the mid-late 90s. 3-5 miles [guessing]
seems pretty close. in the late 80s i had a pair of realistic 3 channel walkie talkies
im not sure what channels it had now i only remember ch. 14 as thats were talked on my
handheld and found local activity . later became my standby channel for many years
i might have to digout that old handheld..lol