What is the best CB/GMRS/HAM config?

Semantics. You can sit in a drivers seat without a drivers license too but it won’t get you anywhere.

I’m not quite naive enough to believe everyone does the right thing.

btw, test is 35 multiple choice questions- five year olds can do it. You will learn why radio choice is not the most important thing.

 

Well if you want to sit and read all that crap beforehand go ahead. Most study the practice tests with the answers to pass the test at www.hamstudy.org


You can go back and read everything later if you wish.

 

It’s not semantics. It’s what’s allowable by law/FCC. You can own one and listen all you want, utilize it for NOAA if you so please, and if you are in an emergency life threatening situation transmit. I do agree, if you want to understand HAM and how to operate then reading and taking the test is the way to go.

 

https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Fast...fcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=M3NTCPKHGX0XP0Z07079
I listened to this over a weekend while dithering around in my shop and then went and passed the test.

 

The level 1 tech test is for amateur radio, the $70 license is for GMRS. Different licenses for different radio services. No one radio will do both legally FWIW.

 

My current setup...

$90 Midland 75-822 40 Channel CB-Way Radio

Midland 75-822 CB
Midland DBR2500 "ham" radio
Uniden FRS radio for chatting with my buds with GMRS mobile radios, FRS shares channels with GMRS but no license required. They work better than they should in convoy situations.

My CB hasn't been turned on for like a year now FWIW. There's always someone to chat with on the ham though.

 

I never installed my cb in my 2nd gen. I’d had enough of the bs around here on it from my 1st gen days. Out on the highways it was ok when it was mostly truckers on it.

 

There's one big event each year here that I usually lead some trail rides for or I wouldn't have bothered with the CB in this truck.

 

I've already paid for a GMRS license. WQZD702 And I've got the Level 1 Technician exam manual sitting right next to me but its really nice to ask around before going balls deep. This hobby can get pretty expensive so maybe I dont need to take the exam and get over excited about buying a 1200 radio that is going to just sit on my shelf forever and collect dust when I'd be just fine getting a GMRS for my truck and a couple of blister pack hand helds and call it a day. No harm in asking.

 

Beauty of ham is you can make it however expensive you want. You don’t need $1000 radios. You can easily make antennas etc. only time it gets expensive is if you get into HF.

 

@koditten Thoughts?

 

Please let us know how it works out! Looks can be deceiving!

 

Ham doesn't have to be hard or expensive. I just used a practice test app on my phone to learn what I needed to pass the test and got a cheap 25w radio to put in my truck. It's done everything I wanted it to do so far.

Go to hamstudy.org

 

FTM-400XDR is a great radio. If you decide to go the HAM route, go with the Yaesu if your buddies already have them too. There are digital modes that allow you to talk in a private group and its super easy to share files from one radio to the next. And the install doesn't have to look cobbled together...

 

I don’t have anything in the Tacoma yet, waiting on Toyota to make it 100%.
In my GX470 I had a Midland 75 CB that I had tuned and what a difference.
For my ham radio I used the Yaesu FTM 3200 DR mounted along the console on the passenger side. I really like the radio because it has the speaker in front, so I didn’t need an external speaker.
I haven’t looked at a GMRS radio, don’t want three radios in my truck

 

I have a ham license. I used it to talk to people on my way to work and for hiking. I have mostly Yaesu and Kenwood radios. Both are good. Lots of the guys talk about radios, and most are very smart...it can't hurt to have a ham and a gmrs radios, if funding is available.

 

1. Get best antenna possible and install NMO mount dead center of roof with a Laird Hole Saw and RG58 cable. Nothing else you do can even come close to as important as this step for any band or brand radio.

2. Run power wire directly to battery with fuse as close to battery as possible, and affix ground wire to chassis as close as possible to radio.

3. Maxon, Kenwood, Icom, Motorola for GMRS and 70cm ham, all of which can be had for under $150 used.

 

What antenna do you have installed and where on your truck? Also, what is that rail you have it installed on?

 

Did you have to go in person or do they have them online now? I'm going to check out that book, I listen to a lot of audible books.

 

I dropped $70 dollars for the GMRS license and keep a handheld in my truck.

Think folks in my area are probably still on CB though