[Sid Coleman]

Here's a basic rig currently at $200, 100W (peak). http://cgi.ebay.com/Kenwood-TS-130s...Radio-TS-130s_W0QQitemZ150132117123QQihZ005QQcategoryZ40067QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Also, a 10 meter only rig that works nicely is the Radio Shack HTX-100, which can be found for under $100.

 

[kinzli]

I'm with Sid, having been a ham for 28 years now, it's one of my most favorite hobbies.

It doesn't have to be expensive. You can build your own radio for almost nothing, or you can spend $10-15K on top-end commercial radios. For antennas, you can use a free piece of wire, or spend upwards of $100k on towers, big antennas, etc. It's all relative, and some of the best signals on the bands are not necessarily the most expensive stations.

The licensing procedure is easy, and you don't even have to learn morse code anymore (even though I'm sad to see that go, morse is where I spend 99.9% of my time on the radio).

If anyone's interested in ham radio, find a local club and go check it out. Hams are some of the nicest, most welcoming folks around and most will happily show you as much radio as you're interested in seeing, myself included.

I just finished building a new radio for myself and love it. It works great, and if anything ever goes wrong with it, I'll know what to do to fix it. Don't have to worry about warranties, sending it off to a manufacturer, etc.

What a great hobby.

 

[DougA]

why do you need a license to broadcast on the public airwaves?
to me, that makes about as much sense as needing a license to cut hair.

Many years ago you needed a license for CB.So many people applied,it overwhelmed the govt. and they gave up on it.Still remember mine.KWF1746

 

[driver]

Bs,take It To A C.b. Shop And Have It Tuned And Peaked,if You Have The Funds Have Them To Put In Galaxy Finals. It's a cobra 29 which has the weather channel and it puts out 40 watts.A C.B. that's not tuned for power is weak and almost useless because 90% of C.B.'s today out there are tuned for power and your little stock C.B. will get walked all over and nobody will hear you.If you just want to hear on it and not talk then stock is fine but if you plan to do some talking, get it too the C.B. shop and get done what I said in my 1st post..

 

[NiteOwlNY]

I still have my CB in my truck and it's rare that I ever hear anyone on it... It did come in handy when a butthole in a semi tried to run me off the road...

 

[PaPa Johns 77]

Used mine a lot back in the day but towards the end of my driving career it was just noise to help keep me alert in the wee hours of the morning! :thumbsup:

 

[manganos]

The 7 watts posted was probably audio output. Driver is full of it. I wouldn't listen to him.

 

[Sid Coleman]

Bs,take It To A C.b. Shop And Have It Tuned And Peaked,if You Have The Funds Have Them To Put In Galaxy Finals. It's a cobra 29 which has the weather channel and it puts out 40 watts.A C.B. that's not tuned for power is weak and almost useless because 90% of C.B.'s today out there are tuned for power and your little stock C.B. will get walked all over and nobody will hear you.If you just want to hear on it and not talk then stock is fine but if you plan to do some talking, get it too the C.B. shop and get done what I said in my 1st post..

Driver, don't want to make things personal or start a flame war but......

#1: CB's are only LEGAL for 4 watts RMS, 12 watts Peak.

#2: Changing finals, using linears, 'tuning & peaking', all just contributes to the 'hash' heard all over the band. Those CB's are NOT spectrally pure, they throw interference many khz away from the base channel, which while illegal is also just plain rude.

#3: "if you plan on talking": Do you talk louder when the person next to you is talking to talk over him, or do you politely wait for him to finish and then talk?? I remember years ago (I was a CB'er before I became a ham) if you waited for someone to quit talking and just said 'Break', people would let you in.

I've been in MANY CB shops (usually due to morbid fascination, like a train wreck) and it continues to fascinate me how many idiots have to install talkbacks, echo boxes, noise generators (stupid sound effects), 'roger beeps' (trying to sound like you're using a ham radio repeater), and other stuff that makes the radio sound like crap, and the user sound like an idiot!

The current mentality on the CB bands are why Hams tend to call it 'Children's Band'. At least it's usually civil on the ham bands. Not always, but usually.

BTW, Increasing your power from 1 watt to 10 watts only gives a negligible difference in signal strength. I can hear a guy running 100 watts at MAYBE 1 s unit less than I hear the same guy running 1000 Watts (1Kw).

 

[Dean]

Oh man back in the late 60's- early 70's we used to have a ball on the CB radio (right Rocky?)
Our CB radios were beefed up way beyond "legal" and ran way over modulated and over powered but we didn't care if we bled over a few channels or 10 or if we bled our neighbors TV's and Sterios or if we were legal or not for that matter.

I had a set of V-Quad beams and a 250 watt leiner<sp and talked to people all over the world.

Driver does know what he's talking about IF you don't care about being illegal which most C.B.er's don't.

I did get busted one time though, cost me a $50.00 fine.

I think they finally gave up on trying to control us because EVERYBODY was doing it and there was no way they could stop us all.

Then one Christmas everybody and their brother got CB rados and had no idea how to use them so that was the end of that.

73's - Channelcat

 

[novaderrik]

you don't need a lot of power to talk worldwide- one of my friends- who now has a HAM license and talks out of Litchfield, MN, for anyone interested- used to talk easily to people in Texas on a stock Ranger set up in his basement with a small antenna on the roof, and once in a while he'd get people from Europe and even Australia from time to time- and that was on the cb frequencies..

 

[Bad Rat 414]

That's news to me about the FCC dropping the morse code part of the test. That's the main reason I didn't go for it. I might check in to it now. I will allways be a 11 meter bum though. I miss my beams. They had a 28 X multipication on them, so if I was putting 1200 watts in guess what was comeing out? No wonder my neighbor across the the street said I was on his tv. With my vertical side of my beams on I could leave messages on my telephone answering machine!!!!

 

[y72ss]

Get yourself a good cobra cb and take it to a cb shop...Tell them you want it tuned & peaked,& if you have can add a little more $$ have them put in galaxy finals.You'll have yourself a kick A$$ C.B. Take my word on this,I have own many C.B's OVER the yrs.

I have the same setup in my truck and it works great.People have no problem hearing or understanding me.

 

[manganos]

Driver and y72ss. Please post your addresses so we can come checkout your setup. I'm not afraid to post mine. QRZ.com and look up KE4MBN

 

[Dean]

Driver and y72ss. Please post your addresses so we can come checkout your setup. I'm not afraid to post mine. QRZ.com and look up KE4MBN

Why, are you the FCC ?

Like I said, I don't think the FCC could care less after they stopped the CB license requirement.

KET4917

 

[kinzli]

One of the things that makes ham radio appealing is that you have a bunch of "bands" to choose from in which to use. 11M (CB) only has that one band, and in a low point in the sunspot cycle (like we're in now, the dead bottom) 11M pretty much sucks for anything other than local communications.

A ham however can use a lot lower frequencies and pretty much at any time, regardless of solar conditions, make contact across the planet (not totally, but more or less).

Then again, I realize that not everyone wants to talk to people a long ways away. I happen to dig it, but I also realize not everyone has that interest. That's cool.

 

[driver]

Driver and y72ss. Please post your addresses so we can come checkout your setup. I'm not afraid to post mine. QRZ.com and look up KE4MBN

Why are you so angry? My little radio is weak compared to some out there!!Did you know you can buy a C.B.(name of it is MAGNUM) right out of the box that comes from the factory putting out 75 watts?It will run you around $450.00 but it's one bad C.B.I do know what I'm talking about my friend.I have been driving truck starting in the mid 70's and have had many C.B's.There are truckers out there putting out 250 watt's plus..They have the C.B. tuned to put out it's max and then add a kicker to it and that's how they do it.By the way nobody goes around checking how much watt's you're C.B is putting out.I have never been checked and don't know anybody that has been checked.DRIVER

 

[y72ss]

The radio I had before the Cobra was a Ranger 2970, 100 watts out the the box. It must not be illegal to have a high power radio if you can buy them right off the shelf.

 

[manganos]

Wow what a stir up The Ranger RCI 2950 and the 2970 are legal for licensed operators only AKA HAMS for the 10 and 12 meter band. Driver ...250W is NOTHING. I've been in vehicles with over 50,000W before my HAM days. I was 15 when I got my ham radio callsign, maybe 16. Driver, I don't doubt you don't know what you are talking about. I never said you couldn't drive a truck. I myself am an electrical engineer. I may have a little more knowlege in RF and electronics then you. Maybe not Magnum radios are just another "export" radio. Still junk in my opinion but hey it is only my opinion.

AM I THE FCC? No, Goverment jobs don't pay that well so I'll pass. They still will however repsond to all complaints made about interference with ham radio transmissons. So you with the junk finals that take up more then your share of bandwith and interfere with other transmissions are possibly looking at hefty fines. Go to www.arrl.org and read up. I believe they post about people with "export radios' and 11 meter amps getting some nice fines .... I'm not here to fight with you all but my answer still stands as this. To get the best performance out of a CB radio. First get the best antenna you can. Get the best coax. Run the best wire you can from the battery to the radio. Be sure to have a good ground. Tune your SWR and last but not least. USE single side band because you will have 12w PEP. And with that I won't respond to this thread anymore so I don't upset anyone else.

 

[Sid Coleman]

Why are you so angry? My little radio is weak compared to some out there!!Did you know you can buy a C.B.(name of it is MAGNUM) right out of the box that comes from the factory putting out 75 watts?It will run you around $450.00 but it's one bad C.B.I do know what I'm talking about my friend.I have been driving truck starting in the mid 70's and have had many C.B's.There are truckers out there putting out 250 watt's plus..They have the C.B. tuned to put out it's max and then add a kicker to it and that's how they do it.By the way nobody goes around checking how much watt's you're C.B is putting out.I have never been checked and don't know anybody that has been checked.DRIVER

Talking to my trucking company bud, works for TSMT, says if you cross the border and you possess an EXPORT radio, they will check it. IF you don't have a license for 10M, they will fine you. I'll see if I can see the FCC enforcements link, but they are starting to go after the illegal radios.

 

[Sid Coleman]

You DON'T want to receive one of these:

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
Enforcement Bureau
Spectrum Enforcement Division
1270 Fairfield Road
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania 17325-7245

December 6, 2006

South Lake Transport, Inc.
1828 Two Notch Road #A
Lexington, SC 29071-6982

Subject: Warning Notice - Unlicensed Radio Operation

Case #EB-2007-2954

Dear Sir:

Information before the Commission indicates that two of your drivers have been operating radio equipment without a license on 28.085 MHz and causing interference to licensed stations in the 10 meter amateur band.

The drivers were observed operating unlicensed on September 21, 2006 at 4:45 PM in tractors displaying the numbers 2069 (hauling trailer #30877) and 2079 (hauling trailer # 30937)

Please advise your drivers that operation of radio transmitting equipment without a license is a violation of Section 301 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. Section 301, and will subject them to fine or imprisonment, as well as an in rem seizure of any non-certified radio transmitting equipment, in cooperation with the United States Attorney for your jurisdiction. Monetary forfeitures normally range from $7,500 to $10,000.


You are requested to contact me at 717-338-2502 to discuss this matter.

cc: FCC South Central Regional Director