CB or FRS

[fishEH]

I tried posting this on ExPo and of course it turned into a Ham fest.

For trail riding, is a CB or FRS preferred? I'm leaning CB but mainly because I already have one. I'm tired of trail rides and nobody being able to communicate with eachother, so I'm going to require one or the other. Does one have advantages over the other?

 

[stu454]

I have to say that after seeing 2 meter in action on Snell's Utah trip I am sold.

FRS is handy if you're in a line with only a few hundred yards between the point and tail trucks. CB is alright, but it should be tuned to get the most out of it.

 

[DiscoPhoto]

Most trail rides I go on, most everyone has CB. It's cheap, easy to hardwire into the vehicle and relatively clear.

 

[KngTgr]

They are so inexpensive, no reason not to have both

 

[Mongo]

CB's are ok, frs is slightly better...you can get a couple of these under 40 bucks each from a lot of different places. We use them and are better than a CB and FRS, and you can use them with FRS if you program them right...

 

[K-rover]

All the guys I go with have FRS.. The only downside is the battery life.

 

[fishEH]

Licenses are required for Ham and 2 Meter, correct?
The issue is these guys haven't bothered to install a CB, there's no way they're going to test for a license for Ham.

 

[DiscoPhoto]

I did a CB install in 45 minutes in my D2, if I didn't care about looks it would have taken 25. It's super simple and painless.

 

[Mongo]

Licenses are required for Ham and 2 Meter, correct?
The issue is these guys haven't bothered to install a CB, there's no way they're going to test for a license for Ham.

Yeah, you need a license....can you hear the sarcasm? ...pm sent to avoid the stupid fucking debate...

 

[Mike_Rupp]

Licenses are required for Ham and 2 Meter, correct?
The issue is these guys haven't bothered to install a CB, there's no way they're going to test for a license for Ham.

If your Jeeper friends won't take an exam, would they pay for a GMRS license? If I recall GMRS is about 5 watts and FRS is .5 watts.

 

[fishEH]

If your Jeeper friends won't take an exam, would they pay for a GMRS license? If I recall GMRS is about 5 watts and FRS is .5 watts.

We're not talking about Jeepers, these are Rover owners. And I doubt it.

 

[p m]

As a physicist and EE by education, I cannot possibly understand what's so wrong with the CB that people shun it for ham radio. At this band, people routinely make across-the-world communications with the fraction of FCC-allowed 4W/AM 12WPEP/SSB.
Also, I have never come across a situation when all CB channels are busy - yet near any popular resort, FRS/GMRS channels will be flooded with Spanish. And yes, GMRS license (unlike HAM) is not free, but I have yet to hear of anyone who paid for it.

 

[Mongo]

Peter it's because the radio isn't installed properly and sounds like shit...

That's just a general statement...not directed at anyone

 

[Mike_Rupp]

As a physicist and EE by education, I cannot possibly understand what's so wrong with the CB that people shun it for ham radio. At this band, people routinely make across-the-world communications with the fraction of FCC-allowed 4W/AM 12WPEP/SSB.
Also, I have never come across a situation when all CB channels are busy - yet near any popular resort, FRS/GMRS channels will be flooded with Spanish. And yes, GMRS license (unlike HAM) is not free, but I have yet to hear of anyone who paid for it.

Peter, first off 2 meter HAM is FM & CB is AM, so 2 meter naturally sounds much better. Any simple 2 meter radio with any off the shelf antenna is going to outperform The average CB setup at short distance communications. Sure CB can has the potential to make across the world communications, but that's not the goal of the off-roader who just wishes to talk to a friend who is a few miles away.

 

[1920SF]

CB's are ok, frs is slightly better...you can get a couple of these under 40 bucks each from a lot of different places. We use them and are better than a CB and FRS, and you can use them with FRS if you program them right...

I have a couple of these too and love them-worked for several days on the extended battery without a hitch and quite a bargain. Good complement to the Yaseu 7900R onboard. While I have CB, it isn't in the same league as far as clarity goes.

FRS I just give to my kids to wander around the campsite with.

r-
Ray

 

[KyleT]

I have tried cb and frs, cb has better range, but clarity sucks 99% of the time

frs is nice when your spouse hops out of the truck, say to hike to the end of the trail to see how much suck is really left.... while the rest of the group are winching a discovery up an obstacle when its winch breaks, daisy chained to a land cruiser who has a busted front birf, while its getting dark and threatening to rain.

Ham is more reliable IMO. but i am lazy and dont have my license...

edit, and with FRS i can order some taco bell as we go down the highway...

 

[az_max]

From my understanding CB frequencies are better at following terrain, so may be more useful if the group is split apart. I have two of the beofeng units and plan on the ham test soon. Already have the gmrs license. They can get GMRS/FRS, but technically are not type rated for it. My motorola 400mhz mobile also gets GMRS and puts out the max allowable 50w, but still not type rated for gmrs/frs.

The beofeng units are very low wattage, so don't expect much more distance than a GMRS radio. My friend can hit the repeater on the mountain a 1/4mile from my house with it, but at a half mile or so it's iffy.

My money is still on the trusty old CB radio.

 

[Some Dude]

I've been spoiled by the 2m. I did a big group ride last weekend and had to use FRS. It was completely worthless. Half the people either had a shit radio that didn't work more than 100 yards out with direct line of sight, or the other half were bitching about how they could hear but not be heard. Nobody understands how to use the "sub-channel" "privacy" function on the motorolas (it's a CTCSS tone). It was a complete disaster. I got sick of everything having to be repeated over and over again because the people in the front couldn't reliably talk to the people in the back, causing someone in the middle to have to relay.

AND OH MY GOD THE ROGER BEEPS.

I wound up turning the radio off all together. You're better off communicating via flashing headlights, honking, and yelling out the window than using FRS. It might work in a group of 4 or 5, but we had 23 trucks along.

 

[p m]

Peter, first off 2 meter HAM is FM & CB is AM, so 2 meter naturally sounds much better. Any simple 2 meter radio with any off the shelf antenna is going to outperform The average CB setup at short distance communications. Sure CB can has the potential to make across the world communications, but that's not the goal of the off-roader who just wishes to talk to a friend who is a few miles away.

Mike, I didn't expect an answer _this_ simplistic from you. Here's my take, Kennith-style; Mike W will likely respond in about a week with something "for Chrissake, a radio is a radio" (all in capital letters), and he will be right.

First, quality: both CB (AM) and 2-m ham (FM) use 10kHz bandwidth. It translates into roughly 4kHz of usable audio band, and therefore the quality should be the same. In absence of static, it _is_ the same - I'd even say I like my $40 CB unit better. Here goes "2 meter naturally sounds much better."

Next, range. A typical 2-meter mobile unit has 50W transmitter output, and the antennae are shorter (in terms of fraction of a wavelength) than CB - giving a ham mobile transmitter a huge advantage in power density (Watts per steradian). However, there are three disadvantages I can think of:
- 2m is much more of a line-of-sight communication band than 12m CB, although you can get pretty far on the fringes of diffraction/refraction pattern; you can get very long-range reception with a CB box and tuned 4" Firestik;
- narrower directional diagram of an antenna means more frequent loss of communication when your antenna is slanted (which happens off pavement) or your other party is at a significantly different elevation than you (which also happens);
- the noise figure of a receiver at 2-m band is typically worse than that at 12-meter.

I am not going to talk about the additional benefits of having a ham radio - like using the repeaters or APRS or [insert your particular joy of ham license].

But, to sum it up, for trail use I have not yet found any considerable advantage of using ham radio - except for handhelds. FRS? meh. Kevin is right on the money here.

 

[Buddy]

You forgot to to list hanging your head out the window and yelling. Honestly, I prefer CB but 90% of the people I wheel with don't have them. I used to carry FRS because more people had those but nobody would ever have theirs on or answer so I stopped carrying it.

I'll probably hook up a CB at somepoint.