CB radio VS Ham Radio

[k8tmk]

Hams do it with more power and more frequency.

Randy

 

[elk2370bruce]

How many times will we re-visit this question ;posted here ad nauseum and respond with the same information. As Yogi Berra said so well, ;Its de- ja-vu all over again. CB, free banding, et all are unpoliced, many running mondo linears, will never disappear nor will the desire to "rachet jaw" with an instant southern accent right out of a Burt Reynolds movie and far too much foul language for my *&%* taste.

 

[reedeb]

10-4 Good buddy!!! Because it's fun talking about BOTH!! CB & Ham both have good points as well as bad points,Ya gotta take the bad with the good

 

[n5ims]

I think that the answer to which is best for you should be based on what you want. If you simply what short range communication without much of the noise and bad language common on CB than FRS may be a good solution. If you don't mind paying for a license and mostly talk with family members add GMRS to your list of options. If you want reports on where the current speed enforcement units are, you may be stuck with CB. Traffic reports are often available on the ham VHF and UHF repeaters, although mostly only during high traffic times or when traffic is really bad.

 

[W2WDX]

Amateur radio vs. CB

Geez ... that's easy.

CB is plug and play. WYSIWYG. Can't do much else with it. Well ... legally anyway.

Amateur Radio? Hmm .... let's see.

The short list is: You can build anything you like, you can construct any type of antenna, you have dozens of Bands to use from below HF through Microwaves, you can send and receive Phone (in various modes), data (in various modes) & R/C, there is no distance restriction or antenna height restrictions (barring local laws), you can use amplifiers, you can contest or not, you can use or even build repeaters, you can use computers as radios (FlexRadio and such), and you can experiment to your hearts delight. Heck you can even bounce signals off the moon and use satellites on Ham radio!

And that's the short list!

10-4 good buddy?

 

[k8tmk]

Hams do it with more frequency and more power.

Randy

 

[N4JKD]

Cb needing policed?? Yes, but never going to happen! Even if they banned it, people would still use it, simply for the outlaw image. They can't and won't, because they would have to spend millions in frequency jammers and I don't see the FCC forking out money for this.

 

[LtDoc]

If you had the choice, would you rather be limited to one band and two modes? Or would you rather have more than 10 bands and any mode that you can think of? That doesn't touch on the legality of either, just the possibilities. There are enough idiots in both to satisfy anyone, so I don't figure that into it. Those 'idiots' include the behavioral type and knowledge type. How about cost? All things considered, not a huge difference. (I got this 'cheap' attitude, am I gonna pay -WHAT- for a single band radio? Sorry.)
Make your own choices...
- 'Doc

 

[N4JKD]

CB=old clunky car that is limited in power and bogged down so bad by so much clutter you can barely use it, and can't do anything about it.

Ham radio=Cadillac..so many options, more power and works no matter where you go & you got a license to drive it about anywhere you like.

This is it, plain & simple.

 

[N4JKD]

I know some truck drivers who are hams and say they use 2 meter & 440 more than they use CB. One guy said he keeps his cb turned on and squelch nearly closed and uses it to listen for road conditions, that's it. He isn't much worried where police are sitting and all that. He enjoys traveling through states, keeping the radio scanning and talking to hams as he goes and sends out QSL cards when he gets home. CB does have its uses I guess for some, but not for me personally.

 

[ve9jmc]

ya know i started off on CB. i didn't leave CB because of the Ignorance or the silliness. i left because i wanted to further my radio experiences. and on CB you're limited to 40 channels and only AM or Sideband. i saw Amateur Radio as a furthering in radio, being able to work on 144 MHZ or 440MHZ or 6meters.. then i was grandfathered into HF. The Activities you can have and Modes you can use further out weigh the option of staying on CB. CB radio is great if you want to act like a fool. but i do find Amateur radio to be Far more Civil and far more friendly.

 

[N4JKD]

ya know i started off on CB. i didn't leave CB because of the Ignorance or the silliness. i left because i wanted to further my radio experiences. and on CB you're limited to 40 channels and only AM or Sideband. i saw Amateur Radio as a furthering in radio, being able to work on 144 MHZ or 440MHZ or 6meters.. then i was grandfathered into HF. The Activities you can have and Modes you can use further out weigh the option of staying on CB. CB radio is great if you want to act like a fool. but i do find Amateur radio to be Far more Civil and far more friendly.

I fully agree! I am a general class license holder, and love working ham radio! 2 meters very active here, so I spend a lot of time there. Don't have an HF rig yet. I love showing some of these guys here how my little 2 meter HT can sound better and be able to talk to people 20+ miles away on a repeater with the rubber duck antenna, but they can't get across town on their big bad Cobra CB radios with a 102" steel whip. Lol

 

[SmitHans]

I still install CB radios in my cars. They don't get much use, but do come in handy at times.

 

[N4JKD]

Cb is about like HF, being as you have to count on good conditions to get a good contact. HF you have to have good atmospherics for good skip

 

[SCPD]

Cb is about like HF, being as you have to count on good conditions to get a good contact. HF you have to have good atmospherics for good skip

Of course, it is illegal under Part 95 to talk to a station more than 150 miles away, but that doesn't stop folks when the "skip" conditions are favorable. I remember my dad back in the mid-1970s modifying his radio with some "funny" frequencies in the 26 MHz band, which allowed him to talk to Australia with a mere 12 watts P.E.P. on SSB.

Even though I have a Ham license, I haven't had a Ham radio for probably 20 years. I've renewed my license every 10 years in the hopes that I might get the "itch" again.

But I do have a scanner, and occassionally monitor both 27 MHz as well as 144/440 Mhz. And, I must admit, when I do hear some traffic on 27 MHz, I can barely understand what the "gentlemen" on CB are trying to say. I'm sorry, but they're that incoherent. Of course, I understand clearly when these folks pepper their on air conversations with words like @#$%^&*.

If the economy improves further this year, and I feel confident enough to drop some $$$, then I'll probably go for a dual band 144/440 handheld.

Dave
KA6TJF

 

[SCPD]

Hams do it with more frequency and more power.

Randy

Come on. Tell me you didn't see this slogan on some mesh "trucker" cap or T-shirt being sold at a Hamfest.

Dave
KA6TJF

 

[emd001]

I have both in my truck. I leave the cb on ch 19 and the ham rig on the saltgrass system we have down here most of the time. When i get into traffic i turn up the cb because i know they are going to be talking about what the problem is down the road. Thats the only real use i have for the cb, but it does come in handy for that purpose since no one seems to be able to drive around here. The ham radio sees alot of use, conventional and dstar. I have alot of good conversations with that radio and really enjoy the amateur radio hobby more than CB.

 

[Daniel_Boone]

The only thing that I will say is that the outlaws with the linear amplifiers and beam antenna's was one of the things that did it in for me when it came to CB in the 70's.

I just scanned a couple hundred QSL cards this weekend from back in the 60's and all I can say is that the people back then, when they had rules, were a lot more polite and a lot more enjoyable to talk to then this rough house trucker talk we had on the radio before it gave way to the cell phone.

I can turn on a CB radio right now and not have any reception - due to the fact that other then truckers - who uses it at the terminals to talk to the people they need to talk to and maybe a lonely trucker out on the highway that has no one to talk to - is about the only people on the radio anymore.

You can pick up a decent Regency Range Gain II radio right now at a yard sale for about $20.00

The question is - who are you going to talk to?

Just look at Yahoo - Romance - by location and then look up North Carolina
There is nobody in the chat rooms
Why?
Because they all moved to Twitter and Face Book and other forms of chat.

People gets tired of all the sex bots and being bothered while they are trying to talk and has moved on to a different forum where they can have a two way conversation without having to put up with idiots.

Some conversations that I have heard recently on the HAM - where someone wanted to butt into a conversation - where a bunch of people gets together in their own little clic and doesn't allow outsiders to intrude into their chat - is just as bad right now as the CB ever was 30 years ago...

Putting down real HAM operators - just because they are geriatric and telling them to go someplace else where they can talk about their ach'es and pains and take their Geritol and stuff like that.
If that guy was in my neck of the woods - I would have to go over to his house and stick a nail through his Coax.
If he talked to one of my family members like he did to that outsider - I would nail his doors shut and burn his radio shack to the ground.

 

[SCPD]

Putting down real HAM operators - just because they are geriatric and telling them to go someplace else where they can talk about their ach'es and pains and take their Geritol and stuff like that.
If that guy was in my neck of the woods - I would have to go over to his house and stick a nail through his Coax.
If he talked to one of my family members like he did to that outsider - I would nail his doors shut and burn his radio shack to the ground.

Nothing personal, but statements like that, make me laugh my butt off.

 

[kb2crk]

not all hams are geriatric......
i have both cb and ham in the car and the shack.
the cb's were type approved when they were built and have not been modified.
the cb's don't see alot of use but if i need one of the 23 channels they are there.