Posted: 4/26/2007 4:24:19 PM EDT
| I got a handheld CB from a guy at work. He knows less than I do about it. It is a cherokee AH-27 if it makes a difference. I have not been able to pick up anything but static on it, even though I live less than 2 miles from a major highway. Is this something that can be "tuned" by radio shack, or is it just junk? As my girl and I both work less than 5 miles from home I would like to keep something in our cars in case of emergency, and this sounded like a good idea. We could get those 18 mile walkie talkies, but finding out what truckers know would give us a leg up on the rest of the people. I know HAM would be better, but I dont want to drop the cash/time on them yet. |
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There's no easter bunny and there's no non-ham walkie talkie that's going to transmit 18 miles. It has to do with the quality of the antennas, the wattage, and most importanly the curvature of the earth. For $200 and a ham license you can talk hunreds of miles, get your general license and for $400 give-or-take you can talk across the planet. I picked up a nice used 10 meter radio for free. |
| I understand that ham is the best, but I dont have the loot for them. What I want to know is do handheld CBs suck, or do I need to get them "tuned"? They only need to reach 8 miles MAX, and from my limited experience the CBs truckers use have no problem with that. I could get the CBs that you can mount in a car, but I ride my bike to work a lot, and the idea of portability seems better to me than extra range I dont forsee needing. |
in my limited experience with handheld cb's they pretty much suck.... not much more effective than frs  I also wanted some kick ass handheld mobile units.... and to the best of my research their just aren't any available that don't rely on repeaters (ham) and line of sight terrain..... I'd pay the money for ham if it would do what i wanted in a hand held unit without repeaters......... |
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del; A lot depends on your terrain and the antenna. Most handheld CB's only have an output from 1 watt to 500miliwatts. That will only get you about 1 or 2 miles max. if you are lucky. Radio Shack used to sell 40 channel handheld CB's, and you could probably pick up truckers on channel 19 with the traffic info. To transmit you will need to be close to the interstate. What you probably want/need is a 5watt MURS radio. But, with those you are supposed to have a licsnse to operate those too. The guys are right, study for the Ham test and the test will only cost around $10 to $14 to take and get you a couple of used ham handheld radios and that will fit the bill. |
Yes.  Getting adequate performance on the CB band requires a good-sized antenna - and a rubber ducky doesn't cut it! Adequate performance also requires that the antenna be mounted outside the vehicle (since the interior of a vehicle absorbs signals and introduces all kinds of electrical interference). It also requires a healthy source of 12 volt power to maintain full transmitter output (unlike the set of small batteries in a handheld CB that start to fade almost immediately after they are installed). Finally, it requires a decent-sized speaker. The small speaker inside a hand-held CB set is just too small to produce understandable audio, particularly while you're rolling down the road. BOTTOM LINE: Get a conventional mobile CB radio - a $35 special from Midland or Cobra will suffice - along with an external antenna and an external speaker. If you don't want to bother with permanently installing it, use a magnetic-mount antenna and a cigar lighter plug to supply the 12 volt power. You'll be rewarded with a reliable communications range measured in miles, rather than yards. |