Enthusiast I
i wolud like to know if i should get a cb radio fo my truck or if there a differnt one that every body uses now the a cb and if so what brand should i go with im on a really tight budget
what radio
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Pathfinder III
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The easy answer is who do you go out with, but if it were me I would get a handheld GMRS radio that you can keep in your rig or transfer between rigs/cars.
Enthusiast I
im mostly out by my self but there are a couple guided events i would like to go do and maybe meet some new people in my area
Like above, get what the people you go with use.
Truth be told CB is mostly dead. The only reasons that I have one in my truck is for NOAA weather alerts and the PA function. In my area I rarely hear anyone on any channel, and truckers have almost completely transitioned to uhf/vhf radios now.
I guess the real question is how much do you know about radios?
Are you asking what radio you should get or are you specifically asking what CB radio you should get. As in are you using the term CB radio like most non radio people use it, to describe any radio some puts in their truck. Or do you know the difference between a CB, vhf, uhf and GMRS/FRS radios?
Shawn
Truth be told CB is mostly dead. The only reasons that I have one in my truck is for NOAA weather alerts and the PA function. In my area I rarely hear anyone on any channel, and truckers have almost completely transitioned to uhf/vhf radios now.
I guess the real question is how much do you know about radios?
Are you asking what radio you should get or are you specifically asking what CB radio you should get. As in are you using the term CB radio like most non radio people use it, to describe any radio some puts in their truck. Or do you know the difference between a CB, vhf, uhf and GMRS/FRS radios?
Shawn
Enthusiast I
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Most organized/guided tours now use GMRS as a standard. I would recommend Midland GXT67 handheld to start with, it is practically indestructible and will run a long time on a charge.
Enthusiast I
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CB is dead. 5 years ago I took a 4,000 mile trip to Wyoming and back. I heard one conversation in 3 weeks. Gmrs and ham are your better bets.
Member III
Don't know if this will help you at all..
www.overlandbound.com
OB Approved - US Comms - An Introduction to your communication options
What comms are right for you? This depends on who you want to talk to and what they are using. Trail/Convoy comms: CB use has declined among off road groups though still may be useful around logging areas. MURS (no license) is another option, though it is not widely used. GMRS (license...
Even up here in New England I hear conversation over CB regularly. Daily. But that is usually when I am nearing some sort of intermodal center, trucking hub, or whatnot, but I do hear conversation around the I-90 and route 2 E-W corridors daily. I do NOT hear much at all in the greater Boston area, say, inside of the route 128 arc. Maybe there's too much "far and in between" in a place like Montana or Wyoming, I dont know, as the CB is only supposed to be a 4 or 5 watt device.
My CB also has NOAA weather monitoring on 7 channels and alerts, so I use it for that as well.
Having said all of that, I do have a couple of GMRS/FRS Cobra Micro-Talk handhelds with 22 channels, 121 privacy codes and NOAA. I would like to get a Midland MXT115 or something but have not squeezed the trigger on that yet.
Long winded just to say, get a CB if you really want one for the hell of it, but get yourself a GMRS/FRS first for sure. That's the way its going.
Midland is a good bet for plug and play. If you are willing to learn a bit and use your computer to program a radio you can get a decent radio for like $40, and be able to listen on far more frequencies
Midland GMRS
Tidradio H3, computer program one
I suggest getting one of the above and using it for a while to see what works for you and what you like / dont like, before you go spending a bunch on a radio.
Shawn
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