CB Radio...?

[AJMD429]

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Thinking about a communication mode for within a few miles for a grid-down scenario, and looked at CB's, since at least theoretically they should work without repeaters (or cell towers) and all that.

It seems like the on-line reviews of pretty much all the old brands I'd remembered from the 1970's are all saying the companies all pretty much now get their stuff made in China and it is junk, or at least spotty and iffy as to whether what you get will work reliably.

Are there RELIABLY good brands out there...?

I guess the other question is if those who have technician license privileges are able to easily use transceivers to communicate without repeaters. I used to know more about that stuff, but it got way more technical real fast and I've not kept up at all.

[bcraig]

I think that is a Good Idea and I am interested in the information that you get from your post.

[GunnyMack]

Going up to Quebec, 65 miles of dirt road our only coms were CBs. We all had them 'tuned up ' , my radio was pushing 15 watts( screw the fcc) . We could easily talk to camp from many miles away. Of course we had a 15 foot mast on the cabin .

I'd say hit a few flea markets and try to find older radios and then find someone who can tune them . You can also check at truck stops, sometimes they have radio shops tucked away. If you can find radios with side band get em- different freqs also.

Another option would be to get hand held marine radios, not quite the range but the freq's are slightly different, allows more private com's.

[horsesoldier03]

I used to run a Cobra 29 LTD back when I was driving a truck. Without having special tuning, I could push between 5-10 miles depending on location. With CBs, the CB is only part of the factor, you need to have the CB tuned into the antennas that you are using. 2 antennas are better than one!

[OldWin]

I have a Uniden in my Jeeps. Around here, all the guys have them in log trucks and woods equipment. They are very tough and hold up to vibration and reasonable amounts of weather. With a good Firestick antenna, and having it well matched in, I get great results with it.

[bcraig]

I have a Uniden in my Jeeps. Around here, all the guys have them in log trucks and woods equipment. They are very tough and hold up to vibration and reasonable amounts of weather. With a good Firestick antenna, and having it well matched in, I get great results with it.

Can these Uniden of this ruggedness be bought new now ?

[Griff]

I run a Galaxy 99 in my semi and a Mirage 88 in the p/u. Both are a 10 meter amatuer radios and have been converted to operate on CB bands. The semi has dual antennas, while the p/u only has one. Antenna tuning is mix of science & art. I have a 400 watt amplifier that I used to run with the Mirage with it set to 2-½ watts on the low setting, using it on the hi-output side it was unintelligible. Both are now set to 5/15 watts. My Galaxy & Mirage (no longer made) were made in Japan with good components. Newer made units have been made in Korea, Taiwan & China, sometimes of questionable components. My newest radio, (yet to install as it'll take much bigger wire to feed it's hungry transistors to develop 50 output watts) is a Galaxy 949, is kinda Galaxy's premier unit and still made with quality components. Atmospheric conditions can play havoc with being able to receive and transmit. The last few years with some significant sunburst activity raises the base noise level pretty high. While I tend to keep my antennas tuned so that channel 19 has the best signal strength, choice of antenna can help broaden that, so that channels outside the CB band are still useable. I also have a Cobra 29s and "General Lee", Galaxy with fewer features to the 99. (Small meter & no frequency meter or side band.
Galaxy 99

[OldWin]

I have a Uniden in my Jeeps. Around here, all the guys have them in log trucks and woods equipment. They are very tough and hold up to vibration and reasonable amounts of weather. With a good Firestick antenna, and having it well matched in, I get great results with it.

Can these Uniden of this ruggedness be bought new now ?

Yeah. The Uniden Pro 520 is very popular with the Jeep and equipment crowd. Mine have been in my Jeeps for probably 10 years. They have always worked great.

[bcraig]

I have a Uniden in my Jeeps. Around here, all the guys have them in log trucks and woods equipment. They are very tough and hold up to vibration and reasonable amounts of weather. With a good Firestick antenna, and having it well matched in, I get great results with it.

Can these Uniden of this ruggedness be bought new now ?

Yeah. The Uniden Pro 520 is very popular with the Jeep and equipment crowd. Mine have been in my Jeeps for probably 10 years. They have always worked great.

I will go to the website and check them out

Thanks

[Grizz]

CB runs on the 11 Meter band, just above the 10M ham band. these two bands are subject to "skip", which means that sometimes it's easier to talk to someone 3000 or more miles away, and not be able to hear your friend on the other side of town.

marine band and other commercial radios work on VHF frequencies and are more stable in general on average, but need repeaters to cover a wide network. family radio freqs have repeaters now, with all the caveats. FWIW I have been reliably able to communicate via marine VHF with boats inside of Lituya Bay from 50 miles away. This took a combination of a giant antenna at my end, and knife-edge refraction at theirs. Something that every expert in the marine radio business said was impossible.. . . it's like guns, we just go out and do stuff and find out stuff that benefits us, Eh?

HF radios are the workhorses for long distance comms, and can operate in cross band and cross mode, which makes them useful for long haul.
HOWEVER, a lot of the commercial HF frequencies are literally dead because comms are highly digitized using satellites and web based applications.

It is illegal to encrypt any transmission in any ham band, and until society totally collapses nothing will get you hunted down faster than that. ONE time code is the only way, and is still unbreakable, unless you give up the code sheet to the gestapo. yeah, stuff happens.

BUT, FYI, the monkey wrench in all of this talk about radio-talk is that all the radios we are talking about have semi conductors, and one of the worst mass casualty events possible is an EMP energy dump, which will fry every semiconductor that isn't in a faraday cage. the only radios that will work are the vacuum tube ones with all discreet components and no transistors.

An EMP pulse can be generated by our star, and if aimed at us almost everything stops working at the same time. This can also possibly happen if a super massive black hole aims itself at earth with a direct hit. But the most likely scenario is that the chicoms and or the norcos or the cia or the fbi will launch a dirty bomb and set it off 200 miles above us. Then we will all instantly be living in the dark ages and early iron age. jiggle "emp pulse" for the full color illustrations.

tube transceivers and tube transmitters will survive that, and electrical interference will be very low, and long range comms should be available for the last two hobbyists with enough juice left in their batteries to say goodbye. I have a 'boat anchor' receiver that is vacuum tube based, and until my generator runs out of gas I can spin the dial to see if anyone else is looking. But my CB radios, my ham radios, my marine vhf radios, my commercial HF radio, will all be toast.

AND, a side bar, QRP operations, which are defined as 5W fed into an antenna, are totally dependent on the atmospheric conditions and perfect antennas, but commonly work stations around the world. Big amps can force things with big antennas, but the little rigs placed right aimed right can be all that's necessary for comms.

For anyone looking, look for "hamfests" in your area. It's like a flea market where the radio guys buy sell and trade the old stuff. Someone will know how to make a faraday cage that can protect your extra cb and vhf radios so that they Will Work after the feathers settle. Oh yeah, a GPS or two, in case it ever gets restored. A stovebolt chevy engine will run on producer gas and might provide transportation, if there are any roads left and if you can get through the check points...

https://www.livescience.com/what-is-a-faraday-cage

Piper rubber band free flight.jpg

Rubber band power will still be useful. Until we run out of them.....

†

grizz sendz

[bcraig]

CB runs on the 11 Meter band, just above the 10M ham band. these two bands are subject to "skip", which means that sometimes it's easier to talk to someone 3000 or more miles away, and not be able to hear your friend on the other side of town.

marine band and other commercial radios work on VHF frequencies and are more stable in general on average, but need repeaters to cover a wide network. family radio freqs have repeaters now, with all the caveats. FWIW I have been reliably able to communicate via marine VHF with boats inside of Lituya Bay from 50 miles away. This took a combination of a giant antenna at my end, and knife-edge refraction at theirs. Something that every expert in the marine radio business said was impossible.. . . it's like guns, we just go out and do stuff and find out stuff that benefits us, Eh?

HF radios are the workhorses for long distance comms, and can operate in cross band and cross mode, which makes them useful for long haul.
HOWEVER, a lot of the commercial HF frequencies are literally dead because comms are highly digitized using satellites and web based applications.

It is illegal to encrypt any transmission in any ham band, and until society totally collapses nothing will get you hunted down faster than that. ONE time code is the only way, and is still unbreakable, unless you give up the code sheet to the gestapo. yeah, stuff happens.

BUT, FYI, the monkey wrench in all of this talk about radio-talk is that all the radios we are talking about have semi conductors, and one of the worst mass casualty events possible is an EMP energy dump, which will fry every semiconductor that isn't in a faraday cage. the only radios that will work are the vacuum tube ones with all discreet components and no transistors.

An EMP pulse can be generated by our star, and if aimed at us almost everything stops working at the same time. This can also possibly happen if a super massive black hole aims itself at earth with a direct hit. But the most likely scenario is that the chicoms and or the norcos or the cia or the fbi will launch a dirty bomb and set it off 200 miles above us. Then we will all instantly be living in the dark ages and early iron age. jiggle "emp pulse" for the full color illustrations.

tube transceivers and tube transmitters will survive that, and electrical interference will be very low, and long range comms should be available for the last two hobbyists with enough juice left in their batteries to say goodbye. I have a 'boat anchor' receiver that is vacuum tube based, and until my generator runs out of gas I can spin the dial to see if anyone else is looking. But my CB radios, my ham radios, my marine vhf radios, my commercial HF radio, will all be toast.

AND, a side bar, QRP operations, which are defined as 5W fed into an antenna, are totally dependent on the atmospheric conditions and perfect antennas, but commonly work stations around the world. Big amps can force things with big antennas, but the little rigs placed right aimed right can be all that's necessary for comms.

For anyone looking, look for "hamfests" in your area. It's like a flea market where the radio guys buy sell and trade the old stuff. Someone will know how to make a faraday cage that can protect your extra cb and vhf radios so that they Will Work after the feathers settle. Oh yeah, a GPS or two, in case it ever gets restored. A stovebolt chevy engine will run on producer gas and might provide transportation, if there are any roads left and if you can get through the check points...

https://www.livescience.com/what-is-a-faraday-cage

Piper rubber band free flight.jpg Rubber band power will still be useful. Until we run out of them.....

†

grizz sendz

Maybe a Ford Model A or Chevy Six would be in order ?

[Grizz]

Maybe a Ford Model A or Chevy Six would be in order ?

exactly

[AJMD429]

.
I remember 25 years ago getting my 'code free technician' license there was something about 'single side band' but I have NO recollection of what that even involved. Somebody 'splain to the dummy (me)...????

[Grizz]

.
I remember 25 years ago getting my 'code free technician' license there was something about 'single side band' but I have NO recollection of what that even involved. Somebody 'splain to the dummy (me)...????

radio signals in AM voice mode have two lobes called side-bands. single side-band modulated one lobe and cancelled the other, making better use of the band space with a signal that could get thru interference with suitable receivers...

nothing dummy about it Doc. but the entire spectrum of communications has exploded since I was active, I only remember the "Old School" stuff.

[jeepnik]

No code Technician rating is still available. Much better than CB or GMRS.

[AJMD429]

No code Technician rating is still available. Much better than CB or GMRS.

I got the license but never actually even used my radios - having to figure out what codes to use to hook on to repeaters was crazy and I didn't have anyone nearby to mentor me. Plus, if you have to depend on repeaters working, that may be fine during ordinary bad times, but during bad-bad times, it would not be likely to work. I think I read that the transceivers could still be used simplex though, but again I never got on-air because there wasn't anyone to talk to. About all I did was listen to the storm-chaser folks who were on one of the frequencies, but the ones near me aren't active any more and I use https://www.lightningmaps.org/ to see the local storm activity best.

[jeepnik]

Depends on the radio. But having a simplex set you know it will transmit further should the repeaters go off line.

Back when I got my license one of the things was to see who you could reach and how far.

Today with digital sets and satellites it’s almost not radio anymore.

Simplex sets are getting harder to find even while the threats to shutdown repeaters grows.

[Grizz]

i got a novice license when that meant quartz crystal frequency selection on low power 80M CW. I might have been in 8th grade. Love morse code. . . I built a tube transmitter designed by my friend, made from t.v. chassis parts, and a heathkit receiver my folks gave me for Christmas. FUN STUFF.

That license timed out when i didn't renew it after 10 years. Later on i got another novice license because the lady next door had a general class license and could test me. After that the government that is here to help me abolished the novice license and the code requirement.

Now i have study materials and intend to get the tech license before the long voyage. I have some kit radios waiting for assembly.... once i "get" time for that detail. Sheesh. I still like morse code and hope there are some geriatric key pounders left when i get my last station on air... sheesh... LOL

† grizz

[AJMD429]

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Licenses getting easier I guess...?

https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-bus ... teur-radio

[Grizz]

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Licenses getting easier I guess...?

https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-bus ... teur-radio

No. The issue in that paper is that the FCC in all its "wisdom" has found a way to cram more hams in less space so that they can get their contacts over faster and thus increase the usage rate of certain radio technologies. They are updating the frequency limit of digital comms to the rates available in vhf and uhf transmissions.

if I understood, those changes won't alter my use of the airwaves, unless it messes up satellite broadcasts of weather charts!!!!!!!!!! Argh..

It sounds to me like there is a bias against AM and SSB morse comms which use more band width and can generate localized pileups. . . and against QRP, low power units and the skill sets that enable long haul comms. . . "their" idea of bolstering amateur radio.

[vancelw]

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Licenses getting easier I guess...?

https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-bus ... teur-radio

Yes, unfortunately they have removed Morse code requirements (I think we will regret it someday) and you can upgrade from your "no-code" tech to a General or Expert

The CB bands are practically useless nowadays. There is a 4 watt limit and so many people violate that, which makes the 11-meter band over saturated. At night, you will hear traffic from thousands of miles away.
HAM 2-meter or 6-meter simplex will reach a respectable distance, depending on equipment, terrain, ground cover.

I haven't powered up any of my amateur band radios on 20 years. I'm sure lots of things have changed.
About that long ago I set up my Montana ranch family with a CB base station and old 5-watt mobiles in their pickups. They had to turn the base off at night due to all the nonsense and if they didn't remember to turn it back on in the morning, it was useless as well.
Nowadays they can get to the top of a hill and call or text if they remember to take their cell phones with them.