CBradio , MURS, firstik... Where do I start? Help.

[wingysataday]

I have a handheld midland 75-785 cb radio and need to know why or if I should upgrade. I have been looking into the MURS Hand Held Two-Way Radio, M538-HT, and a firestik 3ft or 4ft. I don't really know anything about radio stuff. I don't want to spend a billion dollars and don't want to start hacking up the inside of my truck, hence the reason I have a hand held. I realize my distance is limited by a handheld and I know the MURS is a different bandwidth but it has a much longer distance. Maybe there is another area this should be posted, I have a tacoma. HELP

 

[Pkmst]

Check into getting your amateur radio license not hard at all and you can use a 2 meter ht and small antenna to to access repeaters that gives you a longer range of communications and the repeaters are about every where, I have a 2 meter mobile and 10 meter mounted in my Tacoma

 

[Procomptaco93]

I also want to put a cb in my truck, my main problem is location of the unit. I was thinking maybe by the drivers left knee, remove that little tray and mount it at an angle in there? or maybe the space in front of the cup holders. Not sure on how to wire everything up, or why you should get rid of the handheld. Good luck

 

[theksmith]

IMHO a cb radio with only a "rubber-ducky" antenna is all but useless from inside a vehicle. any external antenna, even a cheap mag-mount, will be night/day difference in terms of range.

i've had good luck with my all-in-the-hand design Midland 75-822 and an external antenna. i've used both a firstik and a stainless whip, the whip performed slightly better, but it think only because it was also slightly taller.

http://www.amazon.com/Midland-75-822-Channel-CB-Way-Radio/dp/B00000K2YR

now, 2m HAM cannot even be compared to a CB, it's exponentially better in terms of clarity and range. even a cheap hand held 2M will perform worlds better than the best CB.

 

[troyboy162]

I dont know anyone running MURS radios so those may be a bad choice. See what others you intend to talk to are running. If they are 4x4 people its probably just CB or ham. If you want the radio for emergency coms outside cell coverage then go with ham. Your hand held CB is fine for talking among a trail group as CB's are most used. A roof mounted magnetic antenna attached to your hand held CB will boost its range, but dont expect much out of any CB in comparison to what ham offers

 

[wingysataday]

I would like to have something that will not be overloaded in a disaster situation, but since I already have a CB radio, would a 3ft firestik be sufficient and to what distance? I will look into the Ham stuff as well.

 

[troyboy162]

The firestick is a proven winner. I went with Everhardt TSM4 48" because it is flexable like a whip. That may or may not be desirable depending on where you mount it. That also brings up mounting locations...best is in the center of the roof. All other spots will be a degradation of that performance, but again CB is not going to give you great distance with any configuration at the legal 4 watt output.
terrain will limit you of course but last weekend I got a solid 4 miles of clear two way coms across a valley. I think thats the best I have gotten ever.

 

[Martinjmpr]

1. Might ask the Mods to move this to the communications section, as you will likely get more responses that are on point.

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/forums/47-Communications-HAM-CB-2M-SAT

2. I have been running a Midland 75-822 for years and it works great. No installation needed. It can be used as either a handheld or a mobile, the mobile kit comes with the radio - you slide it onto the radio body in place of the battery box and it has a "pigtail" with two connections: a 12v plug for your power outlet and a standard antenna connector to connect to an external antenna. I have been running a mag-mount but eventually I will be going to a fixed mount, but will most likely stay with the midland as it works well and requires ZERO installation. The radio body has a belt clip on it, what I do is run a piece of 550 cord (parachute cord for you civilians out there ) in a loop and hang it from the rear view mirror. When I'm on the trail and using it, the mike/radio body sits in my lap.

3. 2m is great but if you have nobody else on 2m, then it's not that good. Having said that, clarity and range are head and shoulders above CB.

4. I don't know anybody who uses MURS, I would stay away from that unless you are with a group and you're all getting MURS radios.

Seriously, if you head over to the communications forum on this board, a lot of your questions have already been answered.

 

[Martinjmpr]

Ah, glad to see the mods moved the thread....

So, as with most issues regarding equipment, the million $$ question is: Who are you going to be talking to? If you just go 'wheeling with your buddies and you only need to be able to communicate with them, that hand held CB may work just fine (as might one of those handheld FRS/GMRS radios that are sold everywhere in blister packs of 2.)

The biggest limitations of the handheld are the low power (which will limit your Transmitting range) and the small antenna, which will limit your transmit and receive (TX and RX) range.

A mobile will get you more power (up to 4 watts PEP, IIRC) and a large, high-mounted antenna will make it easier to communicate.

Of course, with a HAM you can, in theory, get up to 1500 watts PEP, though I can't imagine anybody putting that much power out of a mobile unit. However 50 watts - which is to say, more than 10x what you can get with CB - is pretty standard in most mobile 2m rigs. 2m and 440 are also FM, which means a clearer signal, and the ability to hit repeaters - which are all over the country - can give you significant range.

If I was to say there's one drawback to HAM, it's the level of commitment it requires. Getting the license is easy, but getting into the hobby is something that will require you to try to absorb a lot of knowledge that you may not care to. Just reading the owners manual for my 2m radio was like reading sanskrit to me and I've had some exposure to it before.

It's not that it can't be done, it can. It's just that, the way I see it, time is a zero-sum game: Every hour I spend trying to figure out how to use my radio is an hour I can't spend doing something that I consider more valuable. It's unfortunate but HAM gear is aimed towards the 'enthusiast' who has the time and desire to learn all this stuff (no surprise, as that's where the money is.)

The downside of this is that people like me who just want a reliable radio they can use on the trail are often put off by the complexity and the steep learning curve required to really get much use out of the equipment. For that reason, we fall back to the plug-and-play CB which requires no special knowledge or even a license to operate.

 

[gary in ohio]

You say you want to get some stuff, but what are you communications needs?

 

[4x4junkie]

Something that should be said of CB radios is Quality of the radio really does matter.
Sure... Most (if not all) radios available will put out close to the legal allowed TX carrier power, however most lower end units usually have cheap microphones and/or low quality audio circuits in them, which often makes them difficult to hear (very muffled or "boxy" sounding), especially if there's a little bit of distance between units.
Provided you don't have any vehicle systems creating interference (unsuppressed fuel pumps, HID lights, ignition, etc.), 10 miles minimum should be easily attainable between units with good quality installations and antennas with a minimum length of 5 feet mounted up high (8½ feet of course being ideal). I've talked on mine quite often as far as 20 miles between vehicles while on a flat open highway (just with the legal 4 watts and a good Astatic brand microphone, no (illegal) linear power amps or anything).

One decent little mobile radio about $50 is the Uniden PRO-510XL (also the 520XL), however these are a very rare exception in this price bracket. Most good radios start at around $80 (purchase price) and go up from there.
Not familiar with the 75-785 handie, however I have seen less than stellar performance from numerous very similar radios, even with external antennas.

 

[wingysataday]

I am thinking for disaster situations mostly. A way to communicate to family and friends. On trail runs and the hwy CB is nice for cops etc.

 

[HillbillyfromAL]

I'd have to suggest the Ham but I'm biased. The great thing with ham is you will have to learn a little bit about what makes the radio work properly, and the like to get your license. You can get a 2m only mobile radio at 75watts, with plethora's of other options starting usually around 5 watts. Being able to use repeaters gets your message out way farther than that. If your family is ten miles up the road the ham should reach them as long there ain't a huge mountain in the way. However with a repeater the mountain wouldn't matter much because that's where the repeaters usually are. For a true emergency situation I don't think you'll find a better solution than ham radio which is why I got into it in the first place as well.
As far as trail comms go a handheld FRS is cheap and sounds better than CB. It seems that more people have these than even CB's nowadays anyways. If everyone in group has one then keep what you got and add a antenna. Get some help to having it properly tuned from a local ham in your area and your friends won't believe it's the same the radio. Most CB's are just slapped in place with absolutely no regard to ground plane, or SWR. I know before I learnt better tuning a CB meant turning the tip up or down till someone said yeah that's good.
I don't even have a CB anymore though. So far I have been able to get someone on the ham every time I've tried, sometimes having to use a different repeater. I've helped two guys out where there was no cell service even with my cell booster. Just got a hold of a fellow ham operator and asked him to call a tow truck for one guy, then the other guy we got his son called to come out there. If I had been a member of the club that owned the repeaters I could have just used Autopatch to make the call myself. For me ham has been worth far more than either the time, or money I've put into it. Now if my iPhone could just broadcast on the 2m band I'd be even happier. Oh wait there's an App for that, (kinda) Echolink uses radio over the Internet via IRLP if I am not mistaken.
Do a google search for Ham or Amateur Radio clubs near you and they will square you away.

 

[troyboy162]

I am thinking for disaster situations mostly.

This is exactly what ham is used for. If cell and land lines are down then its all ham for civilians
http://www.arrl.org/amateur-radio-emergency-communication
http://www.arrl.org/ares

 

[wingysataday]

None of us have anything except I have a little hand held CB that seems all but useless with it's little antenna. I might just go with a firstik 4ft for fun. Do truckers still use CB? Or does anyone use those?