CB Radios??

I hook mine up every time we go camping. Just stick it on top of the dash with some velcro and it comes in handy sometimes.

Oh Fed-Ex delivered my new Ham Rig today (A Icom ID-51 hand held companion to my 5100. This thing is wild.. Spent time doing some programming. some I was able to copy. some not. But it's all up and cooking now.

I've found the cell phone app Waze very much like CBs past traffic "handiness", at least on interstates. Although you need a cell signal, 99% of the times you will have road issues, you will be in an area where there is traffic and that usually means cell service, too.

And Waze will quickly report "Smokey's" location.

Most newer standalone GPS units have built in traffic updates. Ours worked well last trip out, over 7,000 miles round trip, with many traffic warnings near the bigger cities, and it automatically checks alternate routes for faster bypass. No cell signal required. Just traffic status on the satellites.

MDKMDK wrote:
Most newer standalone GPS units have built in traffic updates. Ours worked well last trip out, over 7,000 miles round trip, with many traffic warnings near the bigger cities, and it automatically checks alternate routes for faster bypass. No cell signal required. Just traffic status on the satellites.

The traffic information is actually broadcast in side bands of terrestrial FM radio broadcasts, at least in the GPS units I'm familiar with.

The GPS satellites certainly do not broadcast anything resembling traffic data; their signals basically amount to very tightly synchronized clocks, with some satellite orbit positioning information encoded as well, and the GPS receiver determines the relative distance (based on the relative differences in time due to longer or shorter signal propagation paths) to each of the satellites it can pick up a signal from and uses that to triangulate its position. They can also compare the relative speed rate of the clocks due to doppler shifts and so determine relative velocity to the satellites, and since the satellites are not in geostationary orbit the whole three dimensional "where am I and how fast am I going" computation gets rather complicated....

Not really, but if you have one that also receiives the NOAA Weather Channels then they’re great to have.

KZN1988 Tumbleweed 10-7 Goodnight Gracie
Waze is the Craze

I hardly ever see CB antennas on cars or pickup trucks anymore. Used to be every other vehicle it seemed. Used to be very common to see the magnetic base antennas also.

Last time I used CB was a "convoy" of about 10 cars going up to Maine for whitewater rafting 25ish years ago. It was very convenient and entertaining (and kept us awake) for all of us to be in contact.

I don't even think about a CB now when I get ready for a trip.

SidecarFlip wrote:
I have one as well but mine s a Single Side Band 10 meter radio and CB combined. We use ours in conjunction with handheld units when camping in the forest to communicate. Not so much on the road. Hard to distill the gibberish from factual information.

It is not legal to transmit on the CB bands with a radio that is capable of transmitting outside of band. In other words, there is no legal radio that can transmit on the CB frequencies and the 10 meter amateur bands. All CB radios must be type accepted by the FCC; the radio you describe is obviously not.

I took the CB out of my truck because I don't have any interest in talking on it. I do have a CB in my offroad truck because other offroaders use it.