Alabama thread!

yep top of the Ferg deck. and yes, quite

 

Surprised it’s that empty up there

 

Would you want to be up there?

 

Folks gotta park!

 

Now that I have mine ordered, I'll let you guys in on it
Schuyler Arms has their Aero Precision builder sets on sale.
M5E1 for $300
M4E1 for $215

 

ok, I have a super simple CB radio setup in my truck right now that is good only for really short distance convoy communications on the road and trail. But I see all this stuff about Ham, someone explain why I need it and how its different than CB.

 

Ham = CB on steroids. I haven't tested it yet, but I believe we'll be able to talk to each other in convoy just with handhelds (~$30 iirc).
A small antenna on the roof should give you at least a couple miles range in most cases just wired to your handheld, and at least 20 with a unit similar to your CB controller in price/size.

The test is $15 to take, and shouldn't take you more than 8 hours of studying, if that. All the questions and answers are published. Read them along with the explanation (with memory tips sometimes) on hamstudy.org. There's also flash cards for practice, and practice tests to make sure you're ready. 5 year olds pass this test, it's seriously not that big of a deal

 

I’ve heard it explained like this. CB radio is sorta like AM radio as far as clarity and HAM is the clarity of FM radio... because it is. Lol.

 

Somebody say ham?

Technician class licensing will get you access to 2m band (144mhz) FM operation, which is where 99.9% of traffic on a trail probably takes place. It's line of sight, and 5w from a handheld will get you to a repeater within 5-10 miles if it's up high enough (around here with the hills, it's largely terrain dependent).

50w-75w like a good mobile radio has will get you in the neighborhood of 50-60 miles. I can hit the Tuscaloosa repeater from my house near the corner of 280/119 east of B'ham. Stack someone else 180 degrees in heading away on the other side, and now I have 2 way comms 100-120 miles away off of a radio that requires a cheap test and minimal study. Mobile to mobile simplex you can get 50-60 miles if it's peak to peak or otherwise unobstructed air. When I went to Moab with a bunch of folks, we could easily talk to other trail groups on simplex which was nice. The club had a guy up on a peak with an antenna mast check in once an hour on a simplex frequency so that all trail leaders could check in via radio. No way to do that with CB, and forget about cell out where we were. I used the simplex calling frequency to check in with my family while camped in some valleys in New Mexico. Saved me from having to drive all the way back to the highway.

If you get a General class license, some of the HF spectrum opens up, and with 100 watts now you're talking all over the world. If conditions are right, you're doing it on 5w. My longest contact was in Russia from B'ham, and that was with a pretty shit antenna but 200w on my mobile HF rig I had in the Tacoma.

Extra class opens up the full spectrum available, but takes a lot of study and is heavy on AC circuit and electronic theory.

I took my tech and general at the same time, and then studied off and on for about a year to take the extra.

 

that's kinda what I figured. HAM can reach further and is generally what most guys run these days. I love using my CB, but I can't hardly find anyone anymore. It makes sense because I'm not pushing out hardly any wattage. Where's the best place to get started learning the material? and My truck is already rigged with coax and a 4-foot firestick out the back, can that be used for HAM? and should I roll with a handheld or a permanent mount?

 

https://hamstudy.org/

 

hamstudy.org for studying.

I believe most vhf/uhf antennas use coax as well. A permanent mount will probably be the best long term solution, but I'm going to see how far I can get with just the hand held first because one of the main reasons I didn't like CB was having to install an entire system. I'd rather just pop the external antenna onto my handheld and use that.

Definitely won't be reaching the ISS with it, but it should be plenty for trail riding, I hope.

 

Funny you say that... one of my first contacts after I put my 2m mobile radio in years ago was the ISS.

Lots of folks get contacts with pretty basic rigs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93z5x_ulQVY

 

ok, I don't care who you are, that, is cool.

 

Most guys around here use CB on trails exclusively. You see very few HAMs in the rigs around the SE at our events.

That being said, it doesn’t hurt to have both.

 

Any of y’all see this?

 

Sup Pat

Sup Trey

 

Morning Phil

 

Seems false to me. That website didnt take me there.

 

Comments were saying that took down the domain shortly after that post and it’s not the first time they have done something like that.

Why make something like that up.