Could FM CB supplant FRS?

[K6GBW]

CB replacing FRS is an interesting concept. Honestly, I think it matters where you live. In Los Angeles there's no way it would work. Out here big antennas suck because of parking garages and overpasses that were made in the 1940's. The noise floor is bad and the idiots...well they call it La La Land for a reason.

That said, I have a friend in Stevensville Montana. On a recent visit I was amazed at what a great RF environment it was! Everyone has a pickup truck and there are no overpasses. The noise floor is super quiet. My friends closest neighbor is about 300 yards away and the whole "neighborhood" is like that. The plots of land are 40 to 60 acres each. They lose power frequently and cell phones go down a lot in the winter. For them, a CB in the car and a base at the house would make perfect sense. FM CB with a PL tone would make it really quite nice. The only thing to contend with would be the skip, but that's only a few years out of every decade and with careful channel choice and PL it wouldn't be so bad.

I think the problem with FM CB is that when in AM mode the CB keys 3.8-4.0 watts and modulated it can go up to 12 watts (or there abouts). The 4 watt FM signal is just 4 watts. I'd like to see the FCC change the specs so that a CB in FM can put out 10-15 watts to compensate. But, I'll be dead long before anything like that can happen.

 

[AB5ID]

And I'm a retired LEO and an amateur radio operator so that makes me a pig and a ham.

Can we call you Porky? J/k

 

[KK4JUG]

Can we call you Porky? J/k

I s'pose. I've been called everything else. My parents' marital status has been called into question, references have been made to my being related to a female dog and, of course, various colloquial terms for the female anatomy have been foisted upon me. Porky is rather tame but I only weigh about 170.

 

[AB5ID]

I s'pose. I've been called everything else. My parents' marital status has been called into question, references have been made to my being related to a female dog and, of course, various colloquial terms for the female anatomy have been foisted upon me. Porky is rather tame but I only weigh about 170.

I'll just call you KK4JUG.

 

[merlin]

With CB being HF and FRS being UHF, they each have theor own space.
Given the limits of FRS, I would go with CB.