Communications Equipment / Radios

jshupe wrote:
Ham has been on my radar/to-do list for years. This truck build is just the excuse I needed to stop procrastinating and start working on it...not looking at ham for traffic, but more for emergency communications when out of cell range

Good reason for ham radio Ham radio gives you some real flexibility, especially when cell is not available.

jshupe wrote:
...my scanner installed I have heard about two nearby wrecks...on CH19. Proof enough to me that these will be more useful than cell alone...

I find VB just has too much junk and the lack of professionalism to be worthwhile. It is also annoying to passengars in the cab.

If CB were professional enough to where other CBers would give a concise reports I might change my view. My HF rig certainly has the capability of receiving 11 meter broadcasts (CB), but why bother when you can operate in the 10 meter band?

jshupe wrote:
beats a phone app. Especially if you aren't using the phone app for GPS, which I'm not going to do unless Waze comes out with a RV specific mode...

Yep, Waze and other apps have their faults, lease of which is sending you down an unfit road. It is better when I have someone playing navigator and then we use "street view" to see what kind of road or gas station is ahead.

Some of the new apps let you avoid gravel roads and such, but nothing like the RV apps that resolve road clearances for your RV.

Yes I like what we can do with ham radio. I certainly have thought about putting in APRS, which would thrill my brother to follow my rig on the road.

Those Baofeng radios are good little radios for what they cost. We have good coverage for the few miles around the RV on simplex. That generally means anywhere on the campgrounds we can find each other, plus with DCS we can filter out the majority of noise or other interference.