Wanting to get a ham radio. Can I listen to CB channels too?

i do NOT have a ham license yet. I am aware that I cannot broadcast but am allowed to listen only.

With that being said I know nothing about hams yet. Wanting to learn. I was also thinking of getting a cb radio to listen for wrecks ahead etc. I know you cannot broadcast on those bands but will they still pick up those bands for listen? If I didn’t have to have two radios that would be a plus

I haven’t decided on a handheald unit or a unit to mount yet. I know a handheld won’t reach as far

 

I'm not very proficient with HAM, but I do have my license and a handheld radio I use. As far as I know you can't listen to CB channels on HAM. I would recommend a handheld HAM (still have great range) and a vehicle mounted CB. The handheld CBs are shit.

 

You can listen. I don't think you even need a license to listen to radio because it's a free air wave. Realistically you get away with broadcasting on CB without anyone knowing you're using a HAM. It's pretty much fine as long as you don't abuse it.

 

There are very few ham radios that can also tune CB frequencies. Most of those will be monitor only and the radio will not transmit outside of the legal ham frequency bands. It is possible to modify the radio to transmit but it is not legal to transmit outside of the authorized frequencies. It’s much easier to have an actual CB radio and a ham radio.

 

TYT has a Ham Radio that can free-band into CB and other frequency groups as well (TH-9800). that being said, you can listen to ham frequencies and CB, but must 1. stay within your assigned bands, 2. don't operate (transmit) until licensed, and 3. not operate the radio in bands in which it's not certified to do so. So for the TH-9800, it's certified for ham use in 2m, 70cm, 6m, and 10m. You can transmit once appropriately license on those bands legally. Any transmitting outside of 2m,70cm, 6m, and 10m is illegal even though it's very capable of it as are many other Chinese radios. It does have a very wide RX where you can listen to the other bands outside of the 4 it's meant for without issue.

To add to it, transmitting on various bands require various antennas to function properly and not damage your radios finals. There's tons of antenna theory and ground plane theory that plays into a proper working rig. Can't really just slam and jam willy-nilly and expect great or even any results. Radio systems take plenty of time and planning. Like the rig I have in my truck is a Yaesu FTM-400dr. I selected that radio due to its features (analog and digital tx/rx) and then selected an appropriate antenna for my band use. I also took great consideration into antenna mounting options which in the end I get near 1:1 SWR for the radio. Clarity and range are amazing on this setup even at 50 watts.

Personal opinion of CB, it's not worth your time. Too many people just run their mouth on it and I find most info that does get collected on it to be next to useless. It's ok on the trail for talking between friends who are directly around you in other vehicles. Just personal opinion.

-PyroTaco

 

CB requires no licensing to talk or listen, IMO it's OK on the trails with other CB users, but at least here in Western Washington it's frequently useless on the highways. It's either unused, or just a bunch of garbage.

Amateur radio uses any of several different frequency ranges, most often when people talk about HAM they are referring to the 2m or 70cm bands, but there are several. Operating on any requires a license for anything other than life threatening emergency.

Neither have to be expensive, however a quality amateur radio is likely going to cost much more than a quality CB especially if you get into multi-band, higher power, etc.

 

@WileECoyote

 

Oops... didn't address the handheld vs mobile install. Honestly, I run both. I have my mobile rig installed in the cab and I carry my HT (Handy Talkie aka "walkie-talkie") on my hip when I get out of the truck. The range on my mobile with my setup is about 40-60 miles on high power without a repeater on a clear day and no obstructions. With a repeater... HUNDREDS of miles or worldwide based on if it's interconnected to a repeater network or EchoLink (internet). My HT has decent range even with low power like 15-30 miles plus. Then again once a repeater is involved HUNDREDS of miles or even worldwide. The HT I have is the companion radio to my mobile rig and has all the same features, but just compact and low power. Also, the band you operate in makes a difference on range along with power output, obstacles, weather, time of year, the ionosphere, plus others. Food for thought...

-PyroTaco

 

HAHAHAHA, what everyone replied so far is what I would have said/done.

There are units out there that I've heard about that can do both HAM/CB on the same unit, but I still have not seen and/or used one.

With that said, I've never messed with the 10m HAM band, but typically your HAM radio 10m band can't TX on the 11m CB band and, most definitely, vice versa. But, most radios have a WIDE RX, which means you can monitor (i.e. listen) outside of say, for example, the 10m HAM band, but it would have to be 10m band capable (i.e. a 2m band radio, for example, canNOT monitor the 10m, and again, vice versa).

Finally, my humble opinion about CB, quite a few truckers, in my experiences, still use and depend on CB. The last company I worked for had a show truck and I was tasked to "fix" the CB in the rig because the truckers were saying it didn't work? Boss just flat out bought a new radio, told me to install it, I go to check it, SWR PINGS HARD into the RED???!!! Turns out, the moron that installed the CB antenna grounded/installed the CB mounting lug backwards!!! WTF???!!! I told the boss what I had found and made those almost exact words and he told me, "my son installed it...". I was like waiting for . HAHAHAHA Thankfully he didn't get mad.

So, moral to the story, be careful of your sitrep to the bosses!!!

Anyways, we typically had 3x truckers on "standby" for that show truck and they ALL used CB for chitchat and/or road information status. Not to mention me personally talking to truckers while on the freeway myself.

CB for trail use? More than adequate and much more easier to deal with. Distance, not so good as have been mentioned by others, BUT better to have a CB than nothing at all, in my humble opinion.

 

Btw, I have CB, HAM, GMRS/FRS, as well as an 800MHz scanner setup in my truck.

 

I want one device to use on the trails to talk to people I’m on the trails with and talk to people back at camp. Also, use it as comm’s on our road trips where we may be a couple miles apart in the mountains. I only want to buy one type of device, not spend a lot and would prefer it to be handheld (not possible with CB and I’m aware of that).
Which one should I buy that meets my needs:
CB
FRS
GMRS
Ham

Thanks!

 

Cb, frs, gmrs, and ham all have pros and cons just like anything in this world. Ham radio requires both parties to be licensed. Gmrs has licensing as well Frs is junk and cb... well... it has its time and place. The range you’re looking for will be in the ham bands. You can theoretically get further range with the others but that generally means operating outside of legal boundaries. Just my .02

 

https://bettersaferadio.com/fcc-adopts-long-awaited-changes-prs-bands-gmrs-frs-cb-murs/

New rules for frs/gmrs. However, still find those bands not worth it.

 

Basically what Pyro said.

Regarding "FRS", it is basically associated with "GMRS" with the only real exceptions of 1) you do NOT need a license for FRS 2) the wattage output is restricted to around 0.5W and 3) it is within the 400MHz freq band, just different freq's. Other than that, yes, with such low wattage you're better off getting your message sent by throwing rocks as far as you can.

Regarding CB, my farthest Fwy contact was roughly 6mi and not really line of sight with plenty of buildings and other structures blocking a, more or less, direct path. Possibly could have gotten a bit farther, but my friend only had a 3ft magmount and I had a 4ft whip. that foot difference probably would not have done too much further with distance, but one can't definitively say yes or no. Anyways, it does have it's place and is better than nothing.

I saw a TV program and it was about a couple that got lost up in the mountains during severe weather. They were going to some family get together or something like that and decided to cut through the mountains and they were familiar with the area, but severe weather was pressing in on them. The guy decided to turn around because the weather/snow was getting too intense. While backing up, his rear gets stuck in a hole with snow. He apparently tried everything and just couldn't get free. He eventually went to go get find help in a bad snow storm. She stayed behind. After about 7x days living off of what food they had in the SUV, she decided to leave because the weather still hadn't improved and the food was pretty much gone and she realized she was going to die if she stayed any longer. During this whole time, search parties were looking for them. I believe it was a cousin and a friend of his that commandeered a snow plow and just on a whim, decided to check a particular area. The lady, in the mean time stumbled across her dead husband that apparently died from the cold. She stays with her dead husband about to pretty much die herself from the severe weather and the snow plow finds them!!!

My point, whether it be CB, HAM, or what have you, any sort of comms is better than nothing, in my humble opinion!!! That story happened around the mid 80's or something like that, so the comm technology was not as it is today. When I got my truck, I was already interested with radios and was basically what I had to deal with as a part of my job (I.e. two-tone sequential, DTMF, tone remote, call alert, etc etc etc). I was not a firefighter, but worked along side the fire Dept's regarding their radio and IP alerting. So, when I got my truck, I remembered watching that TV "documentary" and decided to install a CB because at the time I did not have a HAM license... HAHAHA and I didn't need one for my job, it just kinda fell that direction. Just before I got "my truck", my friend had taken me off-roading in the middle of BFE without any comms other than a cell phone and signal was, most definitely spotty!!! It dawned on me how dangerous, and really kinda stupid, to be out in the middle of a F'N desert and only 1x rig (I.e just us). He doesn't mind taking risks all that much, but I don't particularly care much for risking my life doing stupid shi* either. So anyways, that show got me thinking about having comms setup and CB was better than nothing. I often wonder, if that couple had a CB setup, would it had been better than nothing with them possibly making contact with rescuers??? Again, one canNOT definitively say yes or no!!!

So, I now have available to me with the setup I have, technically, 6m, 1.25m, 10m, 2m, 70cm, 11m (CB), GMRS/FRS, a scanner for scanning freq , and a tech class HAM license.

Finally, to the Fire Capt, you want an all-in-one unit, CB isn't possible, but most of your Chinese made radios have wide TX band capability. If you know how, one can easily get on the GMRS/FRS freq channels using a HAM radio. FRS, for example is a "free" non-licensed radio comm. Set your GMRS/FRS radio to, for example, ch8 and type in 467.5625 in your HAM radio, VOILA, start communicating. I point this out simply as an example of what can be done.

These are your typical GMRS/FRS radio comms for example:

 

Damn fine explanation!!!
There’s 3 of us that travel/off road together often. They won’t research this at all so it’s up to me. I think we’ll start off with 3 cheap handheld ham radios, get our licenses and go from there.
Thanks!

 

I know it was long winded to read, but glad I helped.

 

I’m detail oriented so it was a good read for me!

 

HAHAHAHA, hence "YOU" being the one to take the the time for researching.

Having low watt HAM radios will limit as well, but if you have an external antenna, your "range" gets WAY better. Your wattage output stays the same, of course, but it's TX'ing from within your cab that is going to kill your range!!! So, try to get an external setup whether it be hard-mount or magmount antenna. I personally don't care for magmount because they have a tendency to "slip" off at Fwy speed or during EXTREME fast paced desert running through rutted washes.

Finally, you MIGHT get radios that are "freq locked"? Depending on what you get, you can "unlock" with typically software or opening up and removing resistors or whatever mod that needs to be done to do so.

Boefengs, for example, you can unlock using CHiRP software and is free to download. You just need to get a programming cable and these are NOT expensive to get. I've never personally done the CHiRP software, but know it can be done and have talked to people that have done it. They say that it is NOT hard at all. SOME Baofengs are locked and some are not. Back around 2013 or so, the fed comm commish started cracking down on Chinese radios with wide TX bands, which is probably why some radios are locked and some are not??? I don't really know other than what I found out myself. So, just know you may have to unlock, if you so choose to do, the radio's wide TX band freq range.

Hope this helps and is not confusing? I don't know how better to relay that info in typing/text.

 

BTW, your stock rubber ducky antennas SUCK A$$!!! One would THINK that the stock antenna would be more than adequate, but they just simply SUCK!!! Even the higher end handhelds, Yaesu, ICOM, etc have crappy as hell stock duckies.

For a Baofeng, for example, the Nagoya

$21 NA-771 15.6" Whip VHF/UHF (144/430Mhz) Antenna SMA-Female for BTECH and BaoFeng Radios

NA-771 is a really good one to have!!! The slight downside is that it is a long antenna so it has a tendency to be in the way when trying to transmit from within your cab. But, like I had mentioned earlier, better to have an external when trying to be "mobile". Use the long HT antenna when outside of your truck.

 

I can most certainly vouch for Nagoya antennas. They hold their own on a HT.

I’ve ran baofengs, wouxun, and tyt. They are cheap but effective. As pointed out, chirp software really opens them up. However, if you get into higher end rigs, they tend to last longer, are of better quality, and sound much better. Much like WileECoyote, I too make sure to have as much access to different communication methods. 1.25m, 2m, 6m, 10m, frs, gmrs, cb, etc. the more you have in an emergency, the better in my book. Next radioish purchase will be a cell booster. Not one of the cheap crappy ones, but one that’ll actually be effective.