Need info about cb radios?

Question

i am thinking of buying a cb radio but what is the diffrence between cb radio and a ham radio can you listen to more with a ham radio

Answer 1

Hey,

    A CB radio is a much more limited radio, bu the good thing about it is its much simpler, you have 40 channels, and you need not take a test to get a license. you dont need to learn a new language, and its fun.

Ham radio is a much more complicated radio which you can generally talk MUCH further, (world wide) but you need a license for it, you need to take a test and pay some small fees.  you can talk much further, and can almost always find Someone to talk too, from who knows where!

CB radio i enjoy because as you are driving down the road you know your talking to people around you. (sometimes during the day you wish you wouldn't though) it can be crude and rude,

if you wanna get a GREAT mix between the two Try getting a CB Radio with SideBand also known as SSB (single side band) Galaxy makes the "Galaxy DX949 and 959" that are pretty decent side band talkers and a lot of radio technicians know their way around the galaxy.

Side Band allows you to talk much further than the standard CB

A legal CB can put out 4watts. An AM signal is made up of three parts, an upper and a lower band and the AM carrier. to get your 4w out your radio is actually putting 12w out, but on sideband you are only using 1 out of the three so legally you can use all 12watts on sideband allowing you to talk further.   Sideband takes a little playing with to get used too, a lot of the time you will find people talking on channels 35 to 40 on sideband.

if you were to get your radio "illegally tuned and tweaked"  you can get more power out (normally 30w with a galaxy) which allows you to talk even further, generally you can talk in a good 100m radius from a good mobile set up, or even further from a base station.  If the skip is rolling in, i have talked to florida and alaska from New York.  

but... these distances and power do not compare at all to a ham radio... but its a good starter anyway. i enjoy it.

hope thats not too much boring confusing info :-/  Hope it helped.

Answer 2

http://www.howstuffworks.com/ham-radio.h...

http://www.radios-uk.com/cbradio.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CB_radio

These 3 sites tell you, the ham radio is more interesting to listen to, but expensive.

CB is cheaper but not the range for listening.(US or UK)

Answer 3

depends upon what you are talking about....

A normal CB rig is 40 channels only and needs no license but is illegal to talk more than 150 miles.

A ham rig needs a license with lots of studying to pass a few test but allows for more places to talk and allows to talk distances legally (see http://helloradio.org/ for ideas)

the third rig is called a ham rig, but is actually a CB radio dressed up and called a ham radio to pass thru FCC regulations to get them imported into the country. basically a modification and many do 25-30 Mhz (regular only is from 26.965-27.405) but are illegal as they cover places not assigned by the federal government to do CB but people go there anyway (see freeband cb for ideas)

Answer 4

You can in fact get much more from ham as it covers a much broader range of spectrum. I have both (and more), and use them as I need them. I live in the desert in Arizona, and use CB for most local stuff, or when I'm out gold panning in the jeep, but ham goes worldwide.

Answer 5

CB radios usually work on short distances, and depending on what hills and high flats etc are around you, distance also depend on how good you antenna ,aerial or in CB language a twig,and how high you have it installed,a licence is cheap and you don't have to sit any exams.Ham radio on the other hand,( a lot of Ham operators started on CB )the radio equipment is checked by the authority's that the radio doesn't cause any disturbance to other radio and TV s, I'm pretty sure that you will have to learn Morse code and have a test on that I'm not just sure if it's all in the one test, but if you are doing Morse you will have to have a certain speed sending and of course receiving as well, and ham radio can reach round the globe no problem. The CB radios can in certain conditions reach good distances as well in the years I used a CB I talked to people in America (Kentucky) AND Texas to mention but a few, also Holland   and Sweden Italy. I could go on but I won't bore you with it all, but as I said only in certain conditions. The humble CB can be fun you can meet new friends, all over the country, It is also handy when you are mobile in a car, truck even a motor cycle, but now that hand held phones are highly illegal , holding a mike while driving is now a devinatly no no, but like phones you can always get a hand free mike as well. I had    great fun in the years when it was popular but I think it's dying out perhaps except with the truckers, it's is also handy getting road reports espiecally in the winter. The name WINEFLY WAS MY CB HANDLE ( name) because of my other hobby was wine making at the time. Great have a go  I have still got mine from the time Cb was legalised   If you are thinking of one you will want as well as the CB, a powerpack, antenna, and cable, and a meter ( s,w,a,r meter ) to make sure the radio is tuned to the antenna other wise you just might cause a lot of damage to the radio . i could go on but I think you will find someone to help you set it up.all the best        . Alex