Hand held CBs?

[sonic23]

We'd like to get a little hand held CB for use when offroading , something we can remove from the van when not in use. Can someone point me in the direction of what I should be looking for. cheers Rich

[ghop99]

I just got a couple of those Motorola handhelds. 5k range, great fun for the price. Don't think they will pic up cb though as based on a different frequencies. I might be wrong though.

[syncroandy]

Not used one but I suspect handheld radios using CB frequencies may be a waste of time, antenna length (and therefore transmitted power and sensitivity) is too low. Get a cheap regular unit and use a removable antenna.

[jebiga41]

I think the midland cbs come already with cigarette lighter plug the it's just a matter of unscrewing the antennae and taking it out of the van would only take 30secs to remove

[PC52]

Well we shall find out soon, just bought a cobra. I don't want to talk to people 3 miles away, just local - on site driving etc.

Should be delivered in the next few days - shall let you know how it performs when we get back.

Going to France, catch a dub show at Fley (15€) with Rob and then who knows where...

[Simon Baxter]

I used to have one years, it was evil on batteries.
If you can get one that will run from 12v while in the van and also attach to an external antenna you should be okay I would say.

[..lee..]

rich " peninsular kid " on here uses one seems to work fine when in convoy. send him a pm.

[sonic23]

Thanks for all the info everyone.....much appreciated.
rich

[Mickyfin]

What would be ideal for what you are looking for, is a set of pmr's. You can sometimes find a batch of them which will work well, and they use their own wave band. PMR= Private Mobile Radio. Different from CB's, and ideal for what you are looking for.

When I was an event ice cream van driver, we used these. We had around 20+ Wall's vans at events, and they proved invaluable, not just for restocking vans, but also for security too.

[ghost123uk]

Do you know what model of Cobra you bought ?

Was it a new one, or used ?

There are good reasons for me asking

[Mickyfin]

Ah, if its a Cobra 148, it will be a HAM band iirc.

[ghost123uk]

Yep, and 90% of the other used Cobra's out there are also not on the UK CB band. (and therefore not legal to use in the UK plus you won't find anyone to talk to, (except the Italians when the "skip is up" ))

[Mickyfin]

Brings back many fond memories of my cb days, getting long distance QSL cards from people overseas, and miles and miles away from where I was based. Good times.

[ghost123uk]

Yep, my best was a 20 minute chat with a goat shepherd working up a mountain in The Dominican Republic (an Island somewhere just north of S. America) - I used to get all the usual "what equipment are you using" stuff out of the way asap and get on to find out about the person & their life (like what they eat for breakfast = varies a lot, some folks actually don't eat Cornflakes ) This guy was using a small generator up the mountain, he opened his window and I heard the creak, the ambience change and the purr of the generator. I thought how fantastic it was to hear all that and be talking to this very foreign person, 2,000+ miles away !

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Back on topic, those Motorola hand sets are not on any CB radio frequencies.

[Mickyfin]

Brilliant. The furthest I got was when I was working in Switzerland, and we were 8km up a mountain where we were staying, and I thought, lets try the cb from up here, and low and behold, I managed to chat to someone on the south coast of the UK