CB Radio antenna

Very informative stuff, Thank you

tmartin000 wrote:

chuckbear wrote:
It may be dead for those of you that don't use it anymore. But for those of us that still use it, it's alive and well. Chuck

Maybe, but it must be a generation thing. :) (And I'm 50)

Waze.... is way better and free to any whippersnapper young'n with a smartphone.

https://www.waze.com

True, but it uses a lot of my data running for 8 or 10 hours while driving. CB, no data use. To each his own. And we never put all our eggs in one basket. Chuck

chuckbear wrote:
It may be dead for those of you that don't use it anymore. But for those of us that still use it, it's alive and well. Chuck

Maybe, but it must be a generation thing. :) (And I'm 50)

Waze.... is way better and free to any whippersnapper young'n with a smartphone.

https://www.waze.com

2 meter is a Ham radio (amateur radio) frequency band around 144.000-148.000 Mhz. 2 meter is the length of the waveform of this AC signal. this is also called VHF (very High Frequency)

CB is 27.195 Mhz (channel 19) which is an 11 meter waveform, this is called HF (high frequency).

2M is a service you need to be licensed for, but its only requires a simple test that is mostly about the rules.

Actually 2m is a "line of sight" signal that does not bend very much as it goes out through the air. 2M will pass through the atmosphere into space.

11m can bend around the curve of the earth some. in mountain areas you used to see the local police would still use HF radios because in some places they it just worked better. 11m mostly reflects off the atmosphere and "skips" back to the ground (depending on atmosphere conditions) that is why CB is so noisy, where sometimes its even unusable.

But where 2 meters shines is there is amateur radio clubs that put "repeaters" on top of mountains.
Your radio receives freqency A, and transmitters on frequency B.
The repeater receives this signal B and re transmits the signal (at same time it receives it) on frequency A.
Everybody's radio has both frequencies programed, and everybody is listening to frequency A.

the advantages of this is your mobile can transmit maybe 50 miles or more to the repeater, which re transmits the frequency the same distance or more, thus you can reach over 100 miles using repeaters. Sometimes these repeaters also have the ability to connect to a phone, or even the internet to attach to another repeater anywhere in the world.

The problem is there may not be many amateur radio operators listening to the repeaters.

What is the two meter?

I wonder if folks who do not live/travel in the western states understand that 2 meter will carry out to get you emergency help, where a CB will be blocked by all the mountains, and valleys we have. In the middle of the country, the terrain is much flatter, and the same goes for the far east, where a 4000 ft hill is what they call a mountain, and we look at 5-7,000, or even 10,000ft and more at times. I have, and use both while on my many Jeep excursions, and the calling between Jeeps is easier and more common with CB. That is when the CB's are about 2-3 miles at most. But, when we had an emergency rollover, and needed to get to the Kern County Sheriffs, we used the 2 meter, and were able to have clear communication to Randsburg, and Mojave, to airlift to Ridgecrest.

I totally agree, It's a life saver.

The CB radio is the greatest invention ever for short-range warnings of road hazards. Nothing else will give instant alerts to the dangers that matter most, the ones in your immediate vicinity. Unfortunately, there isn't always a trucker who is nearby to give you warnings that there's danger or a traffic-delaying wreck up ahead, but there's enough to make the $100 CB setup worth it.

I am glad the CB traffic is just a small fraction of what it was during the Breaker/Breaker days. Most of that traffic was pure chit-chat anyway. That's not what I want the CB for.

In my area of the South, Channel 19 going in any direction is where the truckers stay.