CB usage?
Are CB radios still used frequently on the open road? Do you use one in your RV? Thanks in advance.
Forum Discussion
For traffic reports it's still hard to beat CB radio simply because there are more CBs out there. Some have written that a CB won't transmit 20+ miles down the road so you can't tell if there's problems that far ahead. They're not thinking. You don't need a radio that will transmit 20 miles. You only need to contact the guy coming towards you who has already been thru the traffic problem.
CB has a generally agreed common channel for calling. For CB operation anyone can go into Walmart, buy a CB and mag mount antenna for $35, and within minutes has the radio operational. No license, easy to operate. While CB isn't as popular as it was in the 1970s there are still many thousands of CBs sold every year. There's no way to tell just how many CBs are in use since there is no licensing. Because they are cheap, a lot more sold, no licensing, and simple to get operational in a vehicle there's a much better chance of encountering another CB on the road.
With ham radio you do get more range. Depending on terrain and set up maybe 20-40 miles simplex and if you can hit a repeater the distance could be 100 miles or a lot more if the repeaters are linked. But for traffic reports, as previously mentioned, you don't need to transmit to someone 20-200 miles away. You just need to contact the person coming towards you who has just come thru the traffic problem. The disadvantage of ham radio is the small number of people who are hams. There are only 750,000 licensed hams in the US. That's only .2% of the US population. Of that .2% some are silent keys (deceased) and their license hasn't expired yet so they still show up on the listing. Some hams are teens who are not driving age. Not every ham works VHF/UHF and not every ham has a radio in their vehicle. All this makes for a really small number of hams on the road. So while ham radio allows for more distance the number of hams makes 2 meters unreliable for traffic reporting. People don't want to make the minimal effort to study and test for the Technician Class which would allow voice on VHF/UHF.
FRS/GMRS/MURS work good for caravanning in groups. The radios are small and cheap. Pick up a pair in a $20 blister pack and you're in business. With FRS there's no licensing. Range maybe 1 mile in a vehicle. The disadvantage is there's no standardized traveling channel. With FRS 22 channels and up to 99 subchannels (I know, that's not technically correct to call them subchannels) that's 2178 "channel" possibilities. The odds of hearing another FRS traveling on the channel and subchannel you're set to is not likely.
CB has a generally agreed common channel for calling. For CB operation anyone can go into Walmart, buy a CB and mag mount antenna for $35, and within minutes has the radio operational. No license, easy to operate. While CB isn't as popular as it was in the 1970s there are still many thousands of CBs sold every year. There's no way to tell just how many CBs are in use since there is no licensing. Because they are cheap, a lot more sold, no licensing, and simple to get operational in a vehicle there's a much better chance of encountering another CB on the road.
With ham radio you do get more range. Depending on terrain and set up maybe 20-40 miles simplex and if you can hit a repeater the distance could be 100 miles or a lot more if the repeaters are linked. But for traffic reports, as previously mentioned, you don't need to transmit to someone 20-200 miles away. You just need to contact the person coming towards you who has just come thru the traffic problem. The disadvantage of ham radio is the small number of people who are hams. There are only 750,000 licensed hams in the US. That's only .2% of the US population. Of that .2% some are silent keys (deceased) and their license hasn't expired yet so they still show up on the listing. Some hams are teens who are not driving age. Not every ham works VHF/UHF and not every ham has a radio in their vehicle. All this makes for a really small number of hams on the road. So while ham radio allows for more distance the number of hams makes 2 meters unreliable for traffic reporting. People don't want to make the minimal effort to study and test for the Technician Class which would allow voice on VHF/UHF.
FRS/GMRS/MURS work good for caravanning in groups. The radios are small and cheap. Pick up a pair in a $20 blister pack and you're in business. With FRS there's no licensing. Range maybe 1 mile in a vehicle. The disadvantage is there's no standardized traveling channel. With FRS 22 channels and up to 99 subchannels (I know, that's not technically correct to call them subchannels) that's 2178 "channel" possibilities. The odds of hearing another FRS traveling on the channel and subchannel you're set to is not likely.
