Austin Area TW Chapter (all gens welcome, even T4Rs; heck, just make it a Toyota and we're good)

And she knows it as fact too

 

Yesterday...

 

Missed out on the fun again.

 

Radios. I'm so confused just doing research. Help. What type of radio should I be looking into for trail runs and schtuff... Preferably portable....

 

How’s she handle the curves now?

 

A bit less like the chick on My 600 Pound Life....

 

Most of us on trails use a CB. I started with a cobra hand held which has terrible range but is better than nothing. I then installed a more perm cb, another cobra model, and added an antenna. This gives me better range and clarity. Finally, I recently purchased a baofeng vhf/uhf radio. With this I can get on frs, gmrs, and ham although the last 2 require a license. Less folks have these but the range is huge and clarity the best compared to cb.

 

The baofang seems to be the route to go, cb is ubiquitous but i don't really want to spend money on what seems like an inferior and dead technology.

 

I'll probably just look into getting both....

 

@riz_atx just to be clear, I can't talk to CBs with the baofeng right?

 

That’s what I ended up doing as well. The problem with the baofeng is that not enough people have them compared to CB.

 

Correct, you can’t talk to CB with a baofeng

 

If you're rolling with a set crew, you might be ok with the Baofeng.

However, the issue you'll find is when you go with a mixed group. There's basically two vehicle communications 'standards' still. The most popular is CB, since it does not require a license. Most offroaders have adopted this as a cheap 'entry level' standard. Above that is HAM, which requires a license and more expensive/specialized equipment. HAM is WAY better distance-wise than CB, but a lower user base / harder to get started in..

In my experience, while FRS/GRMS is common...not a lot of people use them on the trails. I have a set of the Baofengs myself...and we rarely use them. Most of the group has CB, and rarely do people have (or know how to program) the other radios to get everybody on the same frequencies. Unfortunately, they don't do CB frequencies, to my knowledge.

 

I recommend getting licensed if you're gonna use a baofeng for anything really - If you don't know what you're doing its easy to break the law. The test is super easy and the license lasts for like 5 years before you need to renew, and you can do all sorts of cool shit with it (with my uncles setup we can talk to astronauts on the ISS when it flies over). Also you can get one of these bad boys. That's not a vanity license plate, its my legitimate callsign - and it cost 50 cents to get these new plates.

 

Good advice. Don’t forget you can program the MURS frequencies into a baofeng and you don’t have to be licensed. The drawback is who ever you are communicating with must also have them programmed in but with the Chirp software and programming cable, it’s pretty easy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-Use_Radio_Service

 

Just curious if y'all ever go to the dripping springs cars and coffee? I've never been to one and it's my brothers bday. Just curious if I'll be the only taco there

 

I didn't even know there was one of these?

 

i got invited to go next weekend

 

Thanks for the tips, getting licensed is definitely the endgame.

 

I didn't either!! It'll be my 15 year old brothers first car show as well so having some tricks there that I actually know what I'm looking at would be nice lol