cb for bov, edc wtf?!

[Murphnuge]

Sorry bout the title, too many acronyms/abbreviations . My daily driver is an '06 wrangler Rubicon. I'm wanting to install a cb of some type. Is there a good thread about which one to start with? If not, can anyone recommend a decent cb?

[American_Infidel]

If CB is the route you wanna take, the Cobra 29 series is pretty hard to beat. Uniden makes some good CB's as well.

[Murphnuge]

I'm not really set on a cb, just want something to supplement my cell phone.

[BigDaddyTX]

Your only real choices are CB or ham to supplement your cell, and ham requires tests and licenses. I've got a handheld CB (Thanks tx_Kingfisher!), and it works okay at best while driving, even on the interstate with lots of truckers. I'd like to get an external antenna to hook it up to next and see if it isn't fairly functional that way. They're dead simple to use, but not a ton of people use them that aren't truckers. OTOH, if something bad were to happen, those guys would know about it I'm sure, so that's a big plus.

[Murphnuge]

Yeah that was my logic. I toyed with the idea of getting a cb awhile back, but it fell by the wayside. Even thoughI hate to admit it a movie got me thinking about it again. I was watching Live Free or Die Hard and, well I pretty much do whatever Kevin Smith tells me.

[nacho]

Amateur radio is the way to go. More flexibility, better performance, wide frequency range, doubles as a scanner, lots of already established emergency communications channels.

CB is good for vehicle caravans, or highway travel that is about it.

[yale]

There's no reason to be selective, do both. Get a inexpensive CB radio now. Get it installed and keep it on when on the highway to keep an ear out for reports of road hazards and detours. It doesn't have to be fancy. A $30 radio is going to put out 4 watts AM and receive well enough to hear over road noise as a $100 radio. Personally I took a old handheld CB I had which came with a adapter to replace the battery pack with a 12volt plug. I added a cheap Radio Shack speaker mike and ran it to a mag mount attenna on the trunk. It does eveything I need.
Then get a study manual for the Tech level ham test, spend a little time learning the hobby and then find out when a local ham club is giving exams. Attend a couple of meetings and ask about equipment. See if you can try out some of the stuff. I owned a Radio Shack 2meter HT for at least 6 months and was a member of my local ham club for that whole time before I ever got around to taking the test. I'd show up at meetings and every month someone would ask me "When are you going to test so you can talk on that thing?" By the time I finally got my call sign I was a regular at the meetings and events and had no trouble making contacts.

[crypto]

I'll make the same recommendation I always make for CB on this forum, because I think its the winner by a country mile:
Midland 75-822

It's a full-legal-power CB transceiver that has no box attached to it, all the electronics are in the mic.
It receives NOAA weather bands.
It performs well, both transmitting and receiving
But the kicker is that the bottom half of the radio with the wire separates, and it comes with a rubber duck antenna, and not one, but two AA battery holders, one for disposable AA's and one for Ni-Cd rechargeables. It een comes with a wall-wart to recharge the batts.

So, for $65-70 you get a great in-vehicle mobile CB rig that you dont have to worry about mounting issues, plus if you ever get stranded or need CB on foot, it takes about 30 seconds to turn it into a battery-operated handheld transceiver.

Its my first choice by a long shot.

[airballrad]

I'll make the same recommendation I always make for CB on this forum, because I think its the winner by a country mile:
Midland 75-822

I have a Cobra 75WXST that is very similar to this minus the turn-it-into-a-handheld feature. I drove 40-odd miles each way to work, most of it highway, and ran that radio with a Wilson Lil' Wil mag mount antenna for about 2 years.

It was helpful for keeping track of police activity, and getting traffic details faster than AM/FM stations. On the occasion that I was driving out of town for the weekend, I could ask the truckers what conditions were like 100 miles up the road when they passed through. The NOAA channels were a nice bonus. I stopped using it once I changed jobs and got a much shorter commute that keeps me off the highways. It still lives in the truck, and the whole system can be assembled in about 30 seconds if I ever feel a need.

I've never gotten into HAM, but this is probably a good test to see if that sort of thing would interest you. Using a CB overall was a helpful experience, but the bored truckers singing, cursing, talking trash, and playing with the distortion toys on their sets were a big detractor too.

[crypto]

Oh definitely. I use CB primarily as a distributed cop detection network, since you'll always hear where they are about 3-4 miles in advance of your position.

Secondarily its good for convoy chatter, but since they're much more common, GMRS radios have largely replaced CB.

Still though, the Midland is the best bet, IMO

[CipherNameRaVeN]

Ok, Now I am curious about CBs.
Can you really pick up police chatter on CBs? I was told that most Police radios have been switched to expensive digital radios, and many of them are encrypted. Can someone shed some light on it.

Please keep this thread going for the noobs like me.

[crypto]

No, you cannot hear any police conversation on CBs.

What you hear is every single truck driver who passes or sees a police car reporting its location over the CB, so no other driver is caught speeding.

[Murphnuge]

Cool, now we added fuel to the fire. I appreciate the responses, but now my heads spinning with options.

[CipherNameRaVeN]

I'll make the same recommendation I always make for CB on this forum, because I think its the winner by a country mile:
Midland 75-822

This Midland sure looks like a good choice. It is not outrageously expensive either. Does it come with an external antenna? Do you even need one with this unit?

[yale]

I'll make the same recommendation I always make for CB on this forum, because I think its the winner by a country mile:
Midland 75-822

The CB I talked about having in my car is basically the same thing except it's made by Radio Shack. Other than the company name it's just about identical.

[aa1pr]

most amateur radios have an extended listening range so you can in essence listen to other services

get your ham license as it is so easy to do & will be a lifetime worthy, enjoyable task

[American_Infidel]

most amateur radios have an extended listening range so you can in essence listen to other services

get your ham license as it is so easy to do & will be a lifetime worthy, enjoyable task

The local police, sheriff, VFD's and EMS in this county use repeaters in the 150-160 MHz range which most any 2m mobile will pick up. I have the frequencies programmed into the memory so I can quickly scan them.
The big city to the north of where I live uses frequencies in the 140-160 MHz and 450-470 MHz ranges which can be received by most any dual band mobile.

[CipherNameRaVeN]

I am sorry to ask dumb questions... but noob is a noob.

How come this Midland hand-held CB only has a range of 1 mile and 4 with external antenna, when my $30/pair Motorola walkie-talkies have a range of 35miles?
This unit seems to be more robust on outside. Why such short range then?

[xLionx]

tagged

[yale]

I am sorry to ask dumb questions... but noob is a noob.

How come this Midland hand-held CB only has a range of 1 mile and 4 with external antenna, when my $30/pair Motorola walkie-talkies have a range of 35miles?
This unit seems to be more robust on outside. Why such short range then?

Because they lied on the range claims. Have you ever gotten 35 miles out of them? Have you gotten more than 5 miles? I seriously doubt it unless you were sitting on mountain tops. Typical range is 1-3 miles tops for your average FRS/GMRS bubble pack.

[crypto]

I'll make the same recommendation I always make for CB on this forum, because I think its the winner by a country mile:
Midland 75-822

This Midland sure looks like a good choice. It is not outrageously expensive either. Does it come with an external antenna? Do you even need one with this unit?

No, the Midland comes with a rubber-duckie for when the radio is used in its handheld mode. You still need to buy a car-mount antenna, which generally costs about $40 for a decent magnetic-mount CB antenna.


Also, the only way you will get 35 miles out of a GMRS/FRS radio is if you're on a mountain top transmitting on a clear day to someone who has an unobstructed view of you on flat land below.

Given that the horizon of the earth is only 20 miles away, the 35 mile claim is a bald-faced lie. The computation used to derive that number is pure horseshit, and not at all based on an actual performance test (kind of like the EPA miles-per-gallon estimates on new car stickers).

Dont count on ANY handheld radio getting more than 5 miles range under good circumstances.

With a car-mounted antenna that has a good ground plane and good elevation, 5-10 miles is not unreasonable. Specifically, this Midland CB unit gives me 10 mile performance on the highway when I have it mounted.

[CipherNameRaVeN]

Follow up questions...
Are all magnetic mount antenna created equal? What am I looking for?

Edit:
I have a Honda Accord. Is it OK to mount it on a trunk, or is it much better on top of the car?

[mattltm]

Rule no 1 when it comes to antennas is height.

Get it as high as you can.

Look for an antenna with a high "gain" figure. The more gain, the better the antenna. (Not true in all cases but good in this case).

[CipherNameRaVeN]

Murphnuge, I am sorry to completely hijack your post here.

Crypto,
I think I settled on your recommendation and I am going to get Midland 75-822 40 Channel 2 Way Radio from Amazon.
They seem to have the best price around with Free shipping. (Unless you know a better place for it.)
Price: $78.21

Amazon also recommends this antenna: Cobra HG A 1500 Base-Load Medium Magnet Mount 300W CB Antenna for $24.99.
May I ask you to look at it and tell me if it is OK to go with it or if I should look at something else?
Thanks for your help!

Edit: I know that I addressed this question to Crypto, but anyone please feel free to chime in. Thanks!