for a long time now the good old days of CB’S have long gone, and now more and more fellow truckers are turning to amateur radio due to the waisters and prat’s on cb the range of a chicken box (cb) is only a few miles if your lucky compared to say a 2 mtr amateur radio that will cover 99.9 % of the whole world with very little power via irlp and echolink or you could use HF to make it more fun, most of the lads and lasses i have spoke to about comming in to our hobby think its still rock hard to pass the amateur test… well that was true a few years ago but not anymore, now if u can SPELL YOUR NAME YOU CAN HAVE A TICKET to play real radio from your cab and hook up with others from all over the world, all it takes is a few hours over a weekend or so to study etc followed by a dead easy test and your off to get your first real radio
tests are about £15 (ish)
and a years ticket is £15
to buy a radio for say 2mtrs (145mhz) will set you back about £100 to get you started
anyone wanting more info post me a reply and i will do my best to help you
But dont the Anttena cause a lot of wind resistance all that metal frame work , My my Tony Hancock would’nt have known what hit him, if he’d got a trucker on the other end
New years res, get that CB wired in, before there’s no one left on it
no problems in putting them in the cab all you need is a 25amp dropper, and to answer your question eddie "But dont the Anttena cause a lot of wind resistance " i run 2mtrs from the cab and have no problems with the anttena for 10mtrs i use a normal cb anttena as for all the other HF bands u will find special moblie anttenas that will work very well in cars and trucks, all you have to make sure of is a good grounding and a good swr and they will work very well.once that is done you will be able (with ease )work ths states/europe to name but a few
to you martin, let me know where you live and i will try and find out details of your local club so you can get more info on the dead easy test etc,
i have been driving up in dundee and have still been able to chat to my mates in south yorkshire with 50watts a small ant and a 2mtr radio that set me back £110… cant do that on cb … but you will be able too after a weekend or so at a radio club
sonic:
now if u can SPELL YOUR NAME YOU CAN HAVE A TICKET to play real radio from your cab and hook up with others from all over the world,
The thing that worries me about this post Steve, is that if it is that easy won’t all the prats and wasters be there too before long, and you’ll be back to square one?
What you said interests me though, only problem is I would need the French version of the test and licence, and that may not be so easy .
hi David
not too sure how you would go no being in france about joinig a club and taking the test, i would have thought it would be almost the same as in the uk with clubs all over, if u take your tests over here in the uk you will still be able to use 2 mtrs over in france, let me know what dept in france you live in and i will take a look and see if i can help you out
sonic:
hi David
not too sure how you would go no being in france about joinig a club and taking the test, i would have thought it would be almost the same as in the uk with clubs all over, if u take your tests over here in the uk you will still be able to use 2 mtrs over in france, let me know what dept in france you live in and i will take a look and see if i can help you out
all you have to make sure of is a good grounding and a good swr and they will work very well.once that is done you will be able (with ease )work ths states/europe to name but a few
i only want to know why im in this long que on the m25 ,some bloke in the states ain’t going to tell me that
plastic duck this is rubber chicken,10/4 good buddy
sounds interesting steve so out of the cab you can get all over europe and the us? i’d be up for a bit of that.
i was never an avid cb’er for very long because of the bollox on there a lot of the time. but when we had the illegal ones, i could get miles out, on a cobra cb rig which was a known good un!
and it was great compared to these fm cb’s which i smash with hammers in a temper if i have the ■■■■■■ on for more than 20 mins!
Was an illegal CB’r back in the late seventies when I was stationed in Warminster. Had a Cobra 40 channel set which cost me seventy quid at the time.
Got hauled up in front of the CO for it, I though I was deep in the dodo, but all he did was give me a lecture on security, don’t talk about Military matters, as if
Talking about military matters and CBs, I was jumped from behind a hedge on a country road in NI once by a bunch of squaddies all blacked up and pointing guns at me .
Turned out they’d been watching from a hilltop and become suspicious of my twin firestick antennae
I’ve checked that site Sonic and had a quick look. Will get back to you when I’ve had chance to take it all in .
hi mal
europe and the states are easy to work some have been known to work into australia from a mobile set up …
here is a link that will give you and others phone no’s and areas for clubs if you are interested in taking it up
as for playing on 27mhz ssb in the old days lol think all hams started out there, i know i did and i loved it too, but now i can use my set up without looking over my shoulder for the old bill and others
we do have some prats on the ham bands but they dont last long and we can tell with ease who has and who was’nt got a ticket and they do get a knock on the door from the powers above
find the phone no you need mal and give it a call and ask about a novice course in connock, it will open your eyes and you will see what im on about
I use my CB in my truck and am getting fed up with the plebs that populate 19.
If it is as easy and as cheap as you say to get into HAM radio then it sounds good to me.
Do I need to join a club ‘in person’ or are there other avenues such as the 'net ?
hi mike
check out that link i just put on and that will give you a phone no and email addy for someone in your area that will help you, the hobby can cost you mega £££££ or can be cheap it just depends on how far you want to take it , normal 2mtr radio and ant will set you back about errr £120 ish for the lot and you can work the world on it …
, My my Tony Hancock would’nt have known what hit him, if he’d got a trucker on the other end 
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