Mobile Ham/CB Radios

[oktex88]

All you Skywarn guys out there, what kind of radios do you run when you storm spot? I was wondering if it was even worth my time putting in a CB and have both a Ham and CB or just stick with the Ham.

Thanks

[steveh552]

I do not have a CB, but if I did, I would have it JUST IN CASE. I would rather have to many radios than not enough. For Skywarn it may not do much good, but you may hear the truckers giving others reports of what was behind them, which could lead you to some interesting weather.

[oktex88]

Ya, I figured it could help point me in the right direction if someone reports a funnel or something on the CB... or it could be misleading lol. I might throw in a cheap Midland CB

[Raven95150]

It's not a bad thing to have a CB, but I wouldn't rely on it for spotting. You wouldn't be able to call in reports with it anyway, that is done mainly via Ham radio. CB would be OK for short range communication if you are with a group of other spotters, but don't expect to get out more than a couple miles in a storm. I use a Yaesu FT-2800M for spotting.

[LouisvilleScanMan]

Forget Midland, get a Uniden. Good quality and good price. Trust me, I've used several.

[kb9tfh]

I am part of a team that chases storm in Texas (Dallas and surrounding areas). We do not use CB. We primarily use two items.
A Kenwood radio with two vfo's. One set to 146.55mhz and the other set to the local ARES/Skywarn county repeater.

Next we use the in-car bluetooth to call our meteorologist partner that is usually at either his home in Houston or at the TV station. We run a live up link of video through a webcam that he monitors and runs different models at the station.

The only other item that we have is a Laptop with GRLevel3 and GRLevel2AE with GPS to plot our location in relation to the radar image.

A good camera is also used :-)

Hope this helps, and if you have any other questions, feel free to contact me...

73

Joe kb9tfh

[MaxTracker]

I would think Citizens Band would be good as A: an Emergency back-up, B: Trucker Notification and Information (Truck drivers pass A LOT of good Highway info) and C: Notification and Advisories from/to the Rural farm folk (Most of them run CB in their tractors)

How many Spotters have/use Commercial 2-way radio or even GMRS (Real Licensed GMRS not FRS) or MURS?

[kg4ojj]

Ryan,

I think the decision is best made with a few questions:
1. How does the local NWS communicate with other spotters?
2. What's the local infrastructure support? (GMRS, Ham VHF or UHF, CB - REACT, etc)?
3. How robust is your cell phone budget?
4. How robust is your communications budget? (licensure & the radios aren't that expensive, but can be)

I have chased and assisted others chasing for years.....it all depends on who you can talk to. I lived 100 miles away from the responsible NWS office, and used cell phone to send storm reports. GMRS and Ham (either VHF or UHF) are very reliable (but subject to local variation), but someone has to hear you and report your info along. Many NWS offices use VHF Ham frequencies (I know of four that do), but usually rely on local amateur radio operators to man those stations. HF ham radio works, but again it takes two to communicate (and band conditions can be horrible during storms).

Use your scanner and local contacts (including at the NWS office) to figure out what works best for you. When you figure that out, let us all know.....

[tekshogun]

I know here in Greensboro, NC, for the Triad Skywarn net, there are three potential repeaters designated (primary, secondary, and backup) for "criteria weather" traffic.

The Skywarn operators are tied into the NWS and if need be, ham operators can contact adjacent Skywarn nets, should their local net go down, to pass traffic on to the NWS. There are also phone numbers, fax numbers, etc. The Skywarn net control is a great resource for the public and NWS because everyone can check in and report their information to a single repository and that repository can turn around and pass all of that, at once, to the NWS in an accruate and manageable fashion.

KI4GIC

[blinddog50]

In Charlotte we have a primary(Dallas, NC) repeater and a back up(Spencer Mtn., NC).
Our closest NWS is Greenville, SC, however the footprint of the primary is large enough they can hear spotter info and advise direct without any type of link up being necessary.
As far as radios, drop the idea of cb.
I use a FT-7800 as a mobile and a VX-170 as back up.

[wylie_k]

I spot in West Texas. We use UHF and VHF HAM radios to talk to the NWS in Midland. CB's are a great source of information from truckers. If you get a CB that will monitor NOAA radio it is even better. You can turn it on at a low volume and listen for information on it as well. Just watch your antenna placement. I cooked a CB with a 100w ham radio one time, antennas were 6in apart. bad decision.

[tekshogun]

Cooked it alright.

Best thing to do is only run high power when you need it but obviously two antennas 6in apart will do the job even at 50 watts.

[jleverin]

Depends on where you live and how active CB'ers are in your area. Around here CB is pretty dead, I use my ham radios as a primary and just get on the cell phone as a backup. CB would be useless for me as I could probably get on there and scream my lungs out and no one would hear me. I definitely would choose ham radio over CB as there is usually always someone on the ARES or Skywarn nets from the local ham club here.

[tekshogun]

I don't hear much of anything when scanning the CB frequencies. You have to get out on the highways when you're really close to the source otherwise, the transmissions don't get very far. CB often suffers from too many users that don't know how to set their equipment up properly and 11 meters, where CB resides, suffers from the same problems 10 meters and 12 meters does. Apparently the conditions for propagation on these bands aren't very good.