Car CB radio question

Legally about 10-15 miles. But with a decent cb plus decent aerial plus a substantial amplifier (500W) the best I managed was 200 miles in my car.
 
I think the 'UK Legal' FM ones are a bit limited by terrain, having said that I remember having some fun on a friends Taxi CB with Taxi guys over in Ireland when we were in Holyhead, Anglesey.

The old illegal AM CBs had some crazy range if the skip was right and if you had Sideband you could chat to crazy Italians regularly and even listen in to Yanks talking.

If you get a CB for a car then you really need a PA and a Laughing Bag/Ice Cream Van recordings to go with it :D
 
doofer said:
If you get a CB for a car then you really need a PA and a Laughing Bag/Ice Cream Van recordings to go with it :D
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That reminds me of my mates mini when we were 18. He had a PA fitted as well and used to scream at pedestrians who crossed the road in front of him (and hot girls ;))
 
Clearly a lot of peoples memories of CB are a lot rosier than reality!

10 miles minimum in a car with a base or centre loaded whip is not very likely and more likely to be a very good effort.

If going car -> base it's possible depending on the base, car to car... wont happen.


Anyways... does anyone still use CB? I've not been on in about 15 years and it was dying a death even back then.
 
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tres said:
Anyone have any experience with these? What sort of distances can you expect?
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CB is VHF, so direct line of sight. If you are on higher ground then you'll be able to broadcast further. The choice of antenna is important, but not more so than broadcast location.

You can get 'burners', or amplifiers to give the signal more kick.
 
PistolPete said:
Anyways... does anyone still use CB? I've not been on in about 15 years and it was dying a death even back then.
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I had a few before I joined the Army. My favourite was a Rotel that had a 'Roger Bleep' - it made me feel like I was Neil Armstrong :)

I have thought about attempting to gain my amateur license a few times since, but real life issues have always prevented me from finding the time.
 
Longbow said:
So you can legally use CB radios but not mobile phones?
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IIRC yes, because you can use them without taking your eyes of the road etc, and to ban them would have caused all sorts of issues for the emergency services/armed forces.

You can still be done for other offences such as driving without due care and attention, dangerous driving, and even not being in control of the vehicle (from memory), but the mobiile offence was created to make it easier to deal with the much more common* (and increasingly so) problem of idiots who have to check their mobile the moment it makes a noise, regardless of what is going on.



*Even at it's peak CB usage as a percentage of drivers was small (mainly enthusiasts and professional drivers), unlike mobiles where it seems everyone has one, and unlike CB's the users don't tend to have the sense to keep their eyes on the road.
 
PistolPete said:
Clearly a lot of peoples memories of CB are a lot rosier than reality!

10 miles minimum in a car with a base or centre loaded whip is not very likely and more likely to be a very good effort.

If going car -> base it's possible depending on the base, car to car... wont happen.


Anyways... does anyone still use CB? I've not been on in about 15 years and it was dying a death even back then.
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Nope. I had a Modified Midland 4001(still one of the best cb's ever made IMO) which was converted to 80 channels and sideband which I picked up for £50 in the late nineties.

It was also tweaked to give 8W instead of the legal 4W.

Can't remember the make and model of the aerial but it was a good/large one.

Then I had a 500W burner underneath the passenger seat (made the seat warm ;)

I got one as my daily commute via the M1/A1 was two and a half hours each way and it was great for traffic bulletins (pre satnav days)

And yes with the burner on and ideal considions I could speak to base units 200 miles away. ;)

Always wanted a Cobra though as they were the dogs testicles.
 
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Depends on output power, a good unit and a good antenna, although I didnt drive when I had one, I used my units in my dads car, I had a car base station with magnetic antenna, that used to get me 15 miles on an average day, and about 5-10 miles on a bad day. I also had a handheld CB radio that I took the rubber antenna off, had an extension cable going to the magnetic antenna, this used to get me 3 maybe 4 miles.

Much different to my home base station with 16ft antenna :) I could on a normal day get 100 or so miles with this thing, I once got a very weak but understandable convo going from South Wales > Scotland border :)
 
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