CB OR HAM FOR A SOCAL WHEELER

I've run both for a long time., what I've found:
-Large scale offroad social meet-ups, most people have/use CB.
-Smaller groups and trips far from civilization Ham is the way to go.
-Conversations are typically more civilized on Ham.
-Ham will serve you much more outside of offroading/overlanding.
- if I had to rely on just one, it would be ham.
-I only use 2m, 70cm and 10 meter as a standard comm now when going off pavement.
-if I do require a CB for a social run, I'll bring along a CB hand held.
--The cheap handheld ham radios (Baofang, etc) found on Amazon and other places are just that. Cheap. Great if you want to play and learn or whatever. But to have as a standard emergency comm, no way.

 

Whats a decent handheld CB/Walkie Talkie? Dont want to go the Ham radio route. Just for talking in groups out wheeling.

 

Is there still a monthly fee associated with the Spot or Garmin equipment? I used the spot beacon for the longest time but got tired of paying a monthly subscription fee.

 

Yes. Those devices either need human intervention (call SAR for you), or use innovative satellite communication (garmins) and uses the equivalent of a cell data plan (you get a certain # of msgs, etc...), so it's not going to be free.

So it's all about doing a cost-benefit analysis. Is the extra security and universal communication of those devises worth the monthly fee? For me? Not as of yet, but if I got anything that would be used as an emergency comm device, it would probably be the Garmin type units.