Hand Held CB's - looking at recommendations??

[pmd]

I went wheeling this weekend and my Cobra 75 WX ST was giving me issues - I could here but not always transmit. I plan to look at the wiring and maybe upgrade antenna and antenna wire,

So with that said I would like to buy a hand held CB as both a back up and a way to communicate when I am out of my truck.

Any of you folks here using a hand held CB?
Any recommendations?

Thanks.
Paul

[130Tdi]

how was the romp ?

[pmd]

It was great this year - I'll post some pictures later.

[Red90]

Midland 75-822
http://www.midlandradio.com/comersus/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=3108

[dmarchand]

I have a cobra handheld as a backup and hate it. I've heard great things about the midland.

[pmd]

I have a cobra handheld as a backup and hate it. I've heard great things about the midland.Good to know - I almost went the Cobra route...

[JFD]

I don't know if Yaesu has some products for the 11 m frequency,
but i use their products for VHF/UHF coms and i'm real happy with them.

www.yaesu.com

P.D. just checked their site and they do have. Well, it's not handheld
but they have a model that will cover MF/HF/VHF/UHF :wow .

[ini88]

I think the Cobra 75 WX ST sucks. had mine for 2 years and I can't hear anything on it. let us know what you get and if you like it.

[JRW]

I don't remember all the specifics, but does someone make a device which will cover both the CB bands as well as the GMRS (??) or hand-held radios which are popular now?

[AmityD90]

I have the Midland and it is pretty good. Nice thing, you can hook it up to an external antenna for better reception when needed or use it as a handheld as well.

[chris snell]

Ditch the CB and get your amateur radio license. It will only take a few nights of serious studying to get a Technician class license and you'll have much better range and audio quality and no truckers with echo cans and illegal linear amps.

The people I take trips with all have their licenses and I've removed all CB equipment from my truck.

[pmd]

Ditch the CB and get your amateur radio license. It will only take a few nights of serious studying to get a Technician class license and you'll have much better range and audio quality and no truckers with echo cans and illegal linear amps.

The people I take trips with all have their licenses and I've removed all CB equipment from my truck.
I've been thinking about this as well - I know Chris (cellulararrest) just got his.
With the higher quality radio can you still communicate with CB?

[Red90]

Bah... Ham is OK, but everyone has to have it, which makes it too limiting. A properly setup CB is clear as day and has more than enough range for the trail.

[cellulararrest]

With the higher quality radio can you still communicate with CB?
Nope

All handheld CB's are equal with the rubber duck and all suck equally as much. You won't hear crap. Rubber duck's just plain suck on HF. (Not that they're good anywhere else either). Just get the cheapest thing you can find. Don't waste your time or money.

[JFD]

Ditch the CB and get your amateur radio license. It will only take a few nights of serious studying to get a Technician class license and you'll have much better range and audio quality and no truckers with echo cans and illegal linear amps.

x2.

I'm doing this myself.

[chris snell]

Agree with Chris. If you must buy a CB, buy a crap model. No CB will go above 4 watts and there's no point in buying a fancy one.



This is the reason to get your ham ticket. (http://discoweb.org/forums/showthread.php?t=37305)

Seriously.

[dmarchand]

At the very least, I'd say get the midland so you can interchange it to hook up with an external antenna if your 75 craps out on you again.

I'm all for the ham, but not everyone has moved in that direction yet.

[cdb]

I just bought a cheap CB (Uniden 510XL on Amazon for $36) and when I went to get an antenna locally, the seller said I should have bought one with RF gain (the 520 XL has it for $55) because I'll use it mainly in trail convoy situations. He said that when you are quite close to other CBs you need the RF gain to make the sound clearer. I think he knows what he is talking about, but I cannot return the CB (trimmed the power wire) so I wonder if it really makes a difference. Might be worth checking out before you buy.
Ham radio: When I raised the Ham radio issue with the Pacific Coast Rover Club members, I thought I'd uncovered a new religion. I asked the members what they thought of the Spot transmitter (www.followmespot.com). The Hams went nuts about the range, clarity, and phone calls off repeaters. One guy even leads a trip each Summer and you have to have a Ham license and radio to go. Others babbled on about how you can see the location of the other HAMs on a GPS using some additional technology. Too techy for me and of minimal value on the trail as far as I can see.
I've been using a Cobra handheld for years but they seem to require an outside antenna to work halfway decently.

Clark

[KevinNY]

I've been using a Cobra 75 WXST for years and have no issues with it at all. I transmit and receive clearly. It's all about isolating the power wiring and setting up a properly grounded antenna of sufficient height and tuning it. I'm convinced that poorly grounded antennas are most peoples problem. I use a no ground plane antenna mount and cable.

[dmarchand]

The spot is good for your wife. Like a cyber leash. She knows where you are and can't complain if you didn't call.

[JFD]

This is the reason to get your ham ticket. (http://discoweb.org/forums/showthread.php?t=37305)

Seriously.

Can't see this, i'm banned from Dweb :pissed ...

[cellulararrest]

What happens to the radio when it wouldn't transmit? Were you just not heard of was the radio actually not keying?

It may just be a simple issue. Might as well try and diagnose it.

Follow-up Post:

I just bought a cheap CB (Uniden 510XL on Amazon for $36) and when I went to get an antenna locally, the seller said I should have bought one with RF gain (the 520 XL has it for $55) because I'll use it mainly in trail convoy situations. He said that when you are quite close to other CBs you need the RF gain to make the sound clearer. I think he knows what he is talking about, but I cannot return the CB (trimmed the power wire) so I wonder if it really makes a difference. Might be worth checking out before you buy.
Ham radio: When I raised the Ham radio issue with the Pacific Coast Rover Club members, I thought I'd uncovered a new religion. I asked the members what they thought of the Spot transmitter (www.followmespot.com). The Hams went nuts about the range, clarity, and phone calls off repeaters. One guy even leads a trip each Summer and you have to have a Ham license and radio to go. Others babbled on about how you can see the location of the other HAMs on a GPS using some additional technology. Too techy for me and of minimal value on the trail as far as I can see.
I've been using a Cobra handheld for years but they seem to require an outside antenna to work halfway decently.

Clark
All RF gain does is control the sensitivity of the receiver. If you have strong signals (close range CB communication) you can turn the sensitivity of the receiver down and the volume up and thus improve your signal to noise ratio. The person you're listening to will improve a bit.

If you want another explanation Ten-Tec did a nice video on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdcru1EKVVU

But it's just a CB. There's no reason to have these fancy features on them. Sure it's kind've a nice feature (I use it quite often on my old Kenwood TS-520se oh the HF ham bands), but there's no reason to spend more money on a CB to have that feature.

APRS is also a neat thing, but how complex do you need to make on the trail communications?

[chris snell]

I find APRS to be very useful. Imagine you are a late arrival, driving down in the middle of the night to meet the rest of your group at a remote camping site, far from the paved road or any obvious features. Without APRS, you'd have to pre-arrange a grid coordinate for the rendezvous or measure milage from turn-offs, etc, and hope that you've found the right turn-off. With APRS, you friends can simply send a beacon from the campsite and you will easily know when you're near it.

The setups can be pretty clean. With the Kenwood TM-D710A, you plug the GPS into the radio head unit and turn both on and you're in business.

My setup has changed a little bit since the pictures were taken. I've changed the backlight on the Kenwood to green and I've added a proper map set to the Garmin.

[pmd]

What happens to the radio when it wouldn't transmit? Were you just not heard of was the radio actually not keying?

It may just be a simple issue. Might as well try and diagnose it.
Chris,
Problem was me communicating - I could hear all the other users - but sometimes when I tried to talk - nothing - other times it seemed to work fine.
On Saturday night I was at the very back of the pack and 90% of the time it seemed to work fine.
On the highway as the front driver or rear driver it would only receive.

The antenna I have is an "On Glass CB Antenna" http://www.walcottcb.com/vcbgm-glass-mount-cb-antenna-kit-p-843.html?cPath=28_352_412_426

With two exceptions (this and a prior trip) this setup has worked well for the past two years.
I think KevinNY might be on to something - I am going to ensure the grounding and wiring is proper.
I think I am also going to ditch the glass antenna and get a Firestick.

Thanks for everyones input.

[flippedrover]

Slight side track Are there any waterproof Ham radios? I'd rather not have to buy or make a housing.

[cellulararrest]

Chris,
Problem was me communicating - I could hear all the other users - but sometimes when I tried to talk - nothing - other times it seemed to work fine.
On Saturday night I was at the very back of the pack and 90% of the time it seemed to work fine.
On the highway as the front driver or rear driver it would only receive.
When you say nothing, do you mean nothing on the display of the radio or everything looking like you're transmitting, but no one being able to hear you. If it's no one being able to hear you, the chances are it's something with your antenna. But if your radio is not actually keying then the problem is obviously not transmitting properly.

The antenna I have is an "On Glass CB Antenna" http://www.walcottcb.com/vcbgm-glass-mount-cb-antenna-kit-p-843.html?cPath=28_352_412_426

With two exceptions (this and a prior trip) this setup has worked well for the past two years.
I think KevinNY might be on to something - I am going to ensure the grounding and wiring is proper.
I think I am also going to ditch the glass antenna and get a Firestick.

Thanks for everyones input.
I think the glass mount antennas work better at higher frequencies like the cell phone range. But if it has worked for you in the past and you have been satisfied, I wouldn't bother changing it. You would notice a difference in signal strength for sure with a firestik of some sort, but not enough to drastically improve trail performance.

Unless you want to of course. Who doesn't want better performance from anything?

But checking your wiring would be number one. Maybe you have a connection loose or something easy.

Follow-up Post:

Slight side track Are there any waterproof Ham radios? I'd rather not have to buy or make a housing.
http://yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&ProdCatID=106&encProdID=AF7E08DC3F2467B1B4B2CB4DA49BCF88&DivisionID=65&isArchived=0

[Red90]

With all due respect, the point of the handheld is not to use as your main radio....

It is so that when you are out guiding people through obstacles, you can talk to them.... You still need a proper antenna for range.

CBs work fine. The problem is people have antenna problems and blame the type of radio.

[chris snell]

http://yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&ProdCatID=106&encProdID=AF7E08DC3F2467B1B4B2CB4DA49BCF88&DivisionID=65&isArchived=0

There are also a couple of decent waterproof handheld options:

http://yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&ProdCatID=111&encProdID=64C913CDBC183621AAA39980149EA8C6&DivisionID=65&isArchived=0

http://yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&ProdCatID=111&encProdID=8D3254BFC69FB172D78647DC56EFB0E9&DivisionID=65&isArchived=0

[sherpamike]

I've got an older version of the Yaesu: the VX-5r. Those really are great radios. They are rated as Mil. Spec. because of their hardiness and waterproofing.

I am not aware of any waterproof non-handhelds though.

[pmd]

When you say nothing, do you mean nothing on the display of the radio or everything looking like you're transmitting, but no one being able to hear you. If it's no one being able to hear you, the chances are it's something with your antenna. But if your radio is not actually keying then the problem is obviously not transmitting properly.



Radio displays fine and everything looks like it's working.

I am going to work on the antenna connections and see.

I did order the Midland Handheld 2in1 - I'll let you know what I think after I try it out.

[flippedrover]

When you say nothing, do you mean nothing on the display of the radio or everything looking like you're transmitting, but no one being able to hear you. If it's no one being able to hear you, the chances are it's something with your antenna. But if your radio is not actually keying then the problem is obviously not transmitting properly.


I think the glass mount antennas work better at higher frequencies like the cell phone range. But if it has worked for you in the past and you have been satisfied, I wouldn't bother changing it. You would notice a difference in signal strength for sure with a firestik of some sort, but not enough to drastically improve trail performance.

Unless you want to of course. Who doesn't want better performance from anything?

But checking your wiring would be number one. Maybe you have a connection loose or something easy.

Follow-up Post:


http://yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&ProdCatID=106&encProdID=AF7E08DC3F2467B1B4B2CB4DA49BCF88&DivisionID=65&isArchived=0
That's what I'm looking for.

[JFD]

I've got an older version of the Yaesu: the VX-5r. Those really are great radios.

I've got this one myself, it's a great piece of equipment.

[chrisvonc]

test test

Follow-up Post:

well screw me.. I had typed out this whole big reply and it fucking didn't post