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HAM Radio…

FleshEater

FleshEater

Ordinary Average Guy
Joined
May 21, 2020
Member Number
832
Messages
3,633
Loc
Pennsylvania
I know from the other HAM radio thread that a lot of you here are licensed.

I’ve read a little about them, but never got fully into the idea of getting licensed and getting set up. However, now that we’re doing long distance treks each year out west, they’re much more appealing.

General question that’s been on my mind: can these work with CB’s on the highway? It’s all radio frequency so I’m assuming yes…?

On your off road rigs, what’s the distance from your vehicle? Enough to radio for help if needed? Anyone care to post pics of their set ups in their rigs?

Is it possible to get licensed and ready rock in two months or less?
 
CB won't work as far as I know, now someone smarter than me may have an "unlock Hack" to maybe put a pill into one?
Distance wise, with a Repeater , hundreds of miles on a mobile setup, if not cross country (round the world is possible).
You can get a license as quickly as passing the test and waiting on FCC (?2 ish weeks?) I know some of the race and baofung rigs were setup to use ANY freq. (Hence the FCC witch hunt) the normal rig has the ham freqs inside, a little voodoo opens them up like a cell done (not legal but doable for "listening").
Paging Elmer!
 
Dang it…I really like having highway communication with trucks on the road. They can provide excellent info, but wiring up a CB is a pain.
 
I’m not licensed or knowledgeable, but fuck around a little bit with my Baofengs. They won’t work with CB band radios—they don’t reach those low frequencies. I also had hoped I’d be able to listen to my local air traffic, since I’m right next to a small airfield. Nope, that’s all AM, these are FM.

The uses I’ve found for mine are obviously vehicle to vehicle, and the weather radio. I’ve been meaning to program in the Rugged Radio freqs to see if I can listen to race chatter.

I have liked the Utility I’ve gotten out of the baofengs. I have them programmed with the FRS freqs, the GMRS, the weather radios freqs, the stock baofeng channels, and will add the rugged radio channels. So I should be able to talk to quite a few people. But I thought it would be more universal—a CB, something to listen to air traffic, that sort of thing, and it’s not that.

I don’t really know if you were talking about the cheap handhelds or not from your post, but that’s what I interpreted.

Oh, and I’m excited to hear the holier-than-thou chatter from the licensed hams, and how much fun it is, and how I’m literally hitler.
 
OHV Wildcat said:
I’m not licensed or knowledgeable, but fuck around a little bit with my Baofengs. They won’t work with CB band radios—they don’t reach those low frequencies. I also had hoped I’d be able to listen to my local air traffic, since I’m right next to a small airfield. Nope, that’s all AM, these are FM.

The uses I’ve found for mine are obviously vehicle to vehicle, and the weather radio. I’ve been meaning to program in the Rugged Radio freqs to see if I can listen to race chatter.

I have liked the Utility I’ve gotten out of the baofengs. I have them programmed with the FRS freqs, the GMRS, the weather radios freqs, the stock baofeng channels, and will add the rugged radio channels. So I should be able to talk to quite a few people. But I thought it would be more universal—a CB, something to listen to air traffic, that sort of thing, and it’s not that.

I don’t really know if you were talking about the cheap handhelds or not from your post, but that’s what I interpreted.

Oh, and I’m excited to hear the holier-than-thou chatter from the licensed hams, and how much fun it is, and how I’m literally hitler.
Click to expand...

I am sure their on their way. :laughing:

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as mentioned generally no, the only go down to a 146mhz range, iirc. Ham is in the 25mhz range?

Someone did have a radio at one time that had CB and some higher things but I think it was listen only on the upper bands and not sure it's sold anymore.
 
FleshEater said:
I know from the other HAM radio thread that a lot of you here are licensed.

I’ve read a little about them, but never got fully into the idea of getting licensed and getting set up. However, now that we’re doing long distance treks each year out west, they’re much more appealing.

General question that’s been on my mind: can these work with CB’s on the highway? It’s all radio frequency so I’m assuming yes…?

On your off road rigs, what’s the distance from your vehicle? Enough to radio for help if needed? Anyone care to post pics of their set ups in their rigs?

Is it possible to get licensed and ready rock in two months or less?
Click to expand...
So your typical Baofeng is going to run in the 143mhz - 148mhz (2m VHF) or 440-445 mhz (70cm UHF, just like your blister pack walkies) for typical Ham use.
CB radios are consider 11 meter radios because they span 26mhz to 27mhz. Ham band closes to that would be 10m 28mhz - 29mhz. So no, your Ham bands will not chat with cb radios. I have seen some 10m radios modified to work on 11m though.... but not really "legally" since it would exceed the 4w maximum for CB frequencies.
However, there are many different ham bands. (HF)160m, 80m, 40m, 30m, 20m,17m, 15m, 12m, 10m, 6m, (VHF) 2m, (UHF) 70cm are the most popular.
Your typical handheld radio (baofeng 5w) would be very similar to a walkie.... however 2m would give you a bit more range. with 2m range being very much influenced by height.
HF is a completely different ball game. 5w and a wire, with good conditions, can be a cross-country conversation. Many HF radios are 50w or 100w. I regularly talk to Spain, California, Russia, Australia and even Japan sometimes. CONUS is ezpz.


TL;DR
To get to your question... in order to use the baofeng type radios, you need to have your Technician license. Go to hamstudy.org and study there. I studied for about a week and passed my exam. The biggest benefit to 2m/70cm radio is the use of repeaters. a 5w radio, going into a repeater with 150' elevation could give you a communications radius of 50 miles or more. Once you get to the repeater, the repeater itself does all of the heavy lifting to broadcast your signal.
I have been a Ham for over 2.5 years (it was my lockdown activity) and I really enjoy it. It is so much more than old balding fat guys sitting in their basements trying to talk to aliens (though some might try)
I can ramble on all day about it but I will let you digest.
 
D_JEEPER said:
So your typical Baofeng is going to run in the 143mhz - 148mhz (2m VHF) or 440-445 mhz (70cm UHF, just like your blister pack walkies) for typical Ham use.
CB radios are consider 11 meter radios because they span 26mhz to 27mhz. Ham band closes to that would be 10m 28mhz - 29mhz. So no, your Ham bands will not chat with cb radios. I have seen some 10m radios modified to work on 11m though.... but not really "legally" since it would exceed the 4w maximum for CB frequencies.
However, there are many different ham bands. (HF)160m, 80m, 40m, 30m, 20m,17m, 15m, 12m, 10m, 6m, (VHF) 2m, (UHF) 70cm are the most popular.
Your typical handheld radio (baofeng 5w) would be very similar to a walkie.... however 2m would give you a bit more range. with 2m range being very much influenced by height.
HF is a completely different ball game. 5w and a wire, with good conditions, can be a cross-country conversation. Many HF radios are 50w or 100w. I regularly talk to Spain, California, Russia, Australia and even Japan sometimes. CONUS is ezpz.


TL;DR
To get to your question... in order to use the baofeng type radios, you need to have your Technician license. Go to hamstudy.org and study there. I studied for about a week and passed my exam. The biggest benefit to 2m/70cm radio is the use of repeaters. a 5w radio, going into a repeater with 150' elevation could give you a communications radius of 50 miles or more. Once you get to the repeater, the repeater itself does all of the heavy lifting to broadcast your signal.
I have been a Ham for over 2.5 years (it was my lockdown activity) and I really enjoy it. It is so much more than old balding fat guys sitting in their basements trying to talk to aliens (though some might try)
I can ramble on all day about it but I will let you digest.
Click to expand...

I don’t know what you just said…:homer:

Anyways, in a situation of being out in western mountains, could a handheld HAM of decent quality reach 40-50 miles and access emergency help?

Can’t really see any other usefulness for this after seeing it doesn’t work with CB radios.
 
In a sense, it could, yes. I have used my 8w handytalkie to talk from a mountain top, over 50 miles to a repeater. I had many thousands of feet of elevation over the repeater.

Cb radio is all but dead aside from the guys pushing 15kW power and breaking tons of rules. I will never go back to CB after using Ham.

Ham radio is so much more popular and useful
 
FleshEater said:
I don’t know what you just said…:homer:

Anyways, in a situation of being out in western mountains, could a handheld HAM of decent quality reach 40-50 miles and access emergency help?

Can’t really see any other usefulness for this after seeing it doesn’t work with CB radios.
Click to expand...
Probably, but it isn’t as easy as going to 19 and yelling for help.
If all you’re looking for is a back country “911” get an EPIRB, also know as a personal locator beacon. Or even better an Inreach satellite messenger.
 
Don't forget that there are certain frequencies set aside for emergencies. These are available for use by anyone whether you are licensed or not.
fieldradio.org

Emergency Frequencies For Ham Radio - Field Radio

Knowing emergency frequencies for Ham radio is as critical as having the radio. That’s right. Most people think their bug-out bags or emergency preparations are complete the moment they buy a handy dandy Ham radio. However, unless the radio is programmed to receive the right Ham radio...
fieldradio.org fieldradio.org
 
Fawk it, I’ll get licensed.

Yaesu looks like an okay starter for off roading in remote, foreign areas.

I found the link to the practice test questions. Where can I go to actually find a decent study guide for free? I don’t want to watch videos. I found HAMradioprep.com, but it’s pretty useless.
 
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D_JEEPER said:
So your typical Baofeng is going to run in the 143mhz - 148mhz
Click to expand...

Thank you Elmer
Highway comms are the last holdout for CB
Gmrs really is replacing it, BUT repeater wise it's still pretty lame to call for help.
Point to point trail comms it works killer.
But so does a ham radio and gets out for help.

Check aarl, and the other thread has a bunch of freebie test sites.
Honestly don't PAY, Just get familiar with the ? 5 current possible tests? Being used "today" get a 75%+ average and go test out.
 
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Clb said:
Thank you Elmer
Highway comes are the last holdout for CB
Gmrs really is replacing it, BUT repeater wise it's still pretty lame to call for help.
Point to point trail comes it works killer.
But so does a ham radio and gets out for help.

Check aarl, and the other thread has a bunch of freebie test sites.
Honestly don't PAY, Just get familiar with the ? 5 current possible tests? Being used "today" get a 75%+ average and go test out.
Click to expand...
The questions on the test bank on hamstudy.org have the EXACT answer choices in the EXACT location on the actual test. So if it is 'C' on the practice test pool, it is C on the exam.

Yaesu is a good brand, along with Icom and Kenwood. But if you want a good radio that doesnt break the bank, TYT-7800 is a solid Chinesium transceiver. 50W output on Vhf and 45W on uhf. I have one in my car and the 9800 in my shack.
It does really well.
 
Just to set the tone of the test difficulty... the technician exam is a pulse check and ensures you dont just moan jnto the microphone or some shit.
General is a little more in depth with some 5000 foot view of theory and such. Minor maths involved.
Extra is kinda crazy. Memorization helped me out here. Lots of heavy stuff, but not impossible.

Once you get your Extra, you have earned the license to start learning haha.


If you just want uhf/vhf, technician is all you need though.
 
D_JEEPER said:
Just to set the tone of the test difficulty... the technician exam is a pulse check and ensures you dont just moan jnto the microphone or some shit.
General is a little more in depth with some 5000 foot view of theory and such. Minor maths involved.
Extra is kinda crazy. Memorization helped me out here. Lots of heavy stuff, but not impossible.

Once you get your Extra, you have earned the license to start learning haha.


If you just want uhf/vhf, technician is all you need though.
Click to expand...
Yup, I don’t remember all the nuances, but Technician was a lot of protocol and standard/regulation stuff. Extra was math and antenna theory, I had barely started looking at that training, so just licensed General.
 
Just wait until you start getting into the activities when you link up with a local club that you swore you totally were not interested in doing.
Field Day / POTA activation. Bring your shit to the field and make contacts with CW, SSB, Digital, whatever.
It is essentially a fun way to practice off-grid emergency comms.
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Or building antenna systems for portable deployment...

274921041_10113587570766742_2635187574636440749_n.jpg
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275178824_10113596128057862_4245666007092929103_n.jpg

It is a really fun hobby and skill set to have. It is one of the few hobbies I have had that keeps me entertained because there are so many different things to do with ham radio.
 
I’m going to set up both; a CB and a HAM.

I need a CB. I drive almost 1,700miles on the interstate for my trips. Communication with the trucks on the road has been needed many times and I haven’t been able to.

HAM is obviously better for help.

Fawk those satellite phones. $350 and you have to dick around with monthly plans.
 
Agree, used ones are around for $100 or so. The PLB is a one and done deal. It works theres anywhere there is a view of the sky.
With radio you can get into dead valleys where ya just can’t get a signal out. Especially on vhf / uhf
 
Already on here enough to get the point, but CB and VHF/UHF don't play in the same pond. If you want both in a vehicle, just get both. I opted for a dual band 144/440 and a CB in my Jeep, all on with antennas I think I'm maybe $250-300 into both. Neither is "good" but both are "good enough".
IIRC, CB is also AM and VHF is FM, so even on the same frequency they won't work together.
Antennas are also far enough off for what works because of the frequency and antenna tuning, the ol' SWR thing is going to be way off for one when the other works if you try to share an antenna.
 
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Another point, dont have both on at once , you need separation of the mast or one will shade the other and kill comms.
As me how I know:flipoff2:
 
I have a Ham and CB in my trail rig. CB is one of those Cobra models where all the control are in the mic for saving space. Ham has been there for a few years and I'm still planning on getting a license..
I decided to add a Ham when I was out in the high Sierras with a bunch of guys who had them. One of those Jeep things snapped a axle shaft at Swamp Lake. He radioed his Dad in Fresno, who went to Randy's. Counter monkey came out to the parking lot and talked to him so they knew exactly what was needed. Another rig went out to the trailhead and met Dad with the parts. If they hadn't had that radio, it would have taken 2 days out of our trip, where this way was a half day as we had it disassembled when the parts arrived. Spent the extra time trout fishing.
Buddy with a plasma table made a cool double mic holder.
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