Ham or CB radio?

[Ken Ford]

Cheap CB with good antenna with a dang good ground plane, on top of a hill/mountain and you can talk 100 miles in any direction. Add a better radio, Add power. You get more range
Relying on repeaters in SHTF? Not me

This is true.

 

[OleTractor]

Can talk all day and night and never have to repeat letters and numbers..Just good clean fun. I been talking all evening. Have had a blast.

 

[Inatree]

In the video at the beginning of this thread you can see that CB performed very well compared to the other radios and those were horrible antenna installations on the jeeps. No ground plane under the antennas and mounted so low that the SWRs have to be extremely high. Those antennas were basically unidirectional and reflecting back into the radio. No bueno
A cheap magnetic antenna on the roof of a car or truck would be FAR better than what they were testing.
Jeeps don't have a good location for an antenna, fiberglass tops.

 

[cskiles]

In the video at the beginning of this thread you can see that CB performed very well compared to the other radios and those were horrible antenna installations on the jeeps. No ground plane under the antennas and mounted so low that the SWRs have to be extremely high. Those antennas were basically unidirectional and reflecting back into the radio. No bueno
A cheap magnetic antenna on the roof of a car or truck would be FAR better than what they were testing.
Jeeps don't have a good location for an antenna, fiberglass tops.

Agreed, I ran a Wilson 5,000 for several years, simple magnetic base and got great SWR readings (I believe around 1.4 or 1.5.I eventually went to a PREDATOR bottom load coil antenna..looked awesome, but didn't get me anymore performance than the WILSON 5,000.

 

[OleTractor]

There are some that talk on 38 LSB.. Diehard SSB ers. There is a plate made to go on the spare of the jeep for the antenna. I see most of them now putting Whips on jeeps. That way they will bend over when riding threw the woods. Whip is high enough over the cab so the SWR should be fine.. A 3ft antenna that barely clears the top, wont work good. High Swr. Get a CB, tell me what channel ya talk on..I will come hollar for ya.

 

[BLIP]

There are some CB tricks if SHTF that are CHEAP and easy to set up.

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

My Dads wife used to drive the truckers crazy with her antics on the CB.
Her handle was “moon baby”...lol.

Moon Baby?
Your stepmom was Moon Baby ?? (!)



,

Dude, I had microphone sex with her
many lonely all-night hauls down the superslab...



(Just kidding)

 

[georgiahawkeye]

Here is the difference......

 

[Wheeler]

Comparing CB to HAM is disingenuous. CB has a very narrow range of frequencies in the 11m band versus much broader capabilities of amateur radio. It’s sort of like trying to compare the utility of a small multitool to a well stocked tool box.

If you’re comfortable with the capabilities of a CB radio for your needs, by all means rock on. Don’t delude yourself and mislead others by claiming it’s equal to or better than amateur radio. It’s just a set of frequencies that sit between the 10m and 12m bands that has been divided up into channels by the FCC and set aside for citizen use without the registration and licensing process.

 

[Jopples]

My brother's a truck driver, he said cell phones are the new cb's. He's also into ham radios, owns several. He's been talking to people in Europe and someone in China who informed him yesterday morning that ham radios over there are allot less expensive in other countries