An observation on CB radio "roger beep"

@Rainbird, thank you for confirming what I thought.

I have been taking ham practice tests for years, I am at the point that I give myself about 90~95% chance of passing. The cost of the gear is really what is stopping me. That and being in the .gov database, but I figure I am on enough lists, so it is down to the cost of the gear. I know I can buy some china hand held units really cheep, but they won't do the main thing I want a ham radio to do.

The main thing I would want a ham radio to do is to talk in a roughly 50 mile radius, with typical heavy woods and possibly a medium size city (think Charlotte NC) in between. The major point is I want to do this WITHOUT using a repeater. I would want these radios mounted in trucks, I know that a hand held won't reliably do this with any sort of "hand held" antenna. The whole point is for my wife to be able to walk out of her office to her truck and be able to get me on the radio, reliably, in most any conditions barring an emp or cme. Our AO is about 50~60 miles as the crow flies. All of the other stuff it could do would be fun, but for the money to be put out it HAS to do this reliably should SHTF, WITHOUT depending on a repeater.

From what a good friend has told me, whom is a ham, is I need to be on 40meters to do this most reliably. I do know he is a top of the line gear type of guy, I myself learned about cheeping out in the cb world. He has told me to expect to spent $750 to $1000 per truck for good gear, not the best but good. He told I might be able to knock that down $100 or 2 with used radios, but my experience with used radios in the cb world has been hit or miss. I am ok with hit or miss for a few dollars for a cb at a yardsale, but several hundred is a whole other story.

Yes, I know that "legal" cb, with or without roger beep wont do this, but from what I understand, what I have tied up in cb setups for both trucks, wouldn't buy a good antenna for 1 truck. From my experience, 25+ years ago, in the flat lands of FL, to do what I want on 11meters would take 500 to 1k watts or more, a risk (not to mention the cost would put me in legal ham gear $$$) I am not willing to take. Yes, I know the wife would need a ham license too, not a problem. Ham may be in the cards one day, but not today, and probably not tomorrow for me.

I did think other non hams might find it useful to know the idiosyncrasy of the roger beep over trying to actually talk at extended distances.

 

In a timely manner, I've just noticed that this information was posted yesterday and may be of some use in answering your original inquiries: Antenna Systems | danmorgan76

(If you don't follow Dan Morgan, you should. Spot-on comms info and recommendations.)

Basically, he is reviewing his HF setup for local (+/- 300 mile range) communications. Give it a read.

 

We really do try to make it as simple as possible. We publish ALL the questions and ALL the answers and even tell you which ones are the correct ones.

In turn, once you pass the ultra-simple multiple-guess exams, we give you access to millions and millions of frequencies, all up and down the frequency spectrum for you to utilize.

Here's a couple of questions that you will NOT find on the exams, but considering where we are posting, might be of interest:

1. Why is it that the FCC grants you the use of 1500 watts but you can use only a few watts, and can communicate all over the world?

2. Why is it that voice modes will sometimes have zero percent accuracy, whereas certain modes will guarantee 100 percent accuracy?

Both are of interest to preppers/survivalists since we generally don't wish to crank out neighbor-hating huge gobs of power when itty bitty pipsqueak signals will work fabulously well if the correct modes are utilized.

Accuracy is of paramount interest in the aftermath of SHTF events; would you rather hope that the guy on the other end hears your plea for six units of o+ blood, or would you rather KNOW that you successfully communicated your needs?

Best 73

Luck, WA4STO